Ethical Reasoning

1. Ethical Reasoning The 59 Story Crisis Casey, Talena, Sunny

2. The Situation • The architect of the CitiCorp Tower in New York City, William LeMessurier discovered a design flaw that could cause the building to collapse under the strain of high winds. • He came forward and told the necessary people that this was possible so they could fix the building before anything happened.

3. Stakeholders and their Interests • City of New York: safety, economy, money • Architecture Firm: reputation, money, liability • Media: Jobs, reputation, money • CitiCorp: Reputation, safety, money, jobs • Church/Surrounding buildings: Safety, their building • Insurance Company: Money • LeMessurier: Reputation • Employees in the tower: Safety, jobs, lives, health

4. Stakeholder Coalitions • Money: CitiCorp, Architecture firm, Media, City of New York & the Insurance Company. • Reputation: Architecture firm, Media, LaMessurier • Safety: CitiCorp, City of New York, Employees in the tower • Jobs: Media, CitiCorp, Architecture firm

5. Ethical Frameworks • For the Money coalition, the most likely framework is Ethical Relativism aka “a self interest approach.” Businesses want to make money but also don’t want to be sued when a building collapses. • For the Safety coalition the most likely framework is Utilitarianism aka the “Greater Good.” No one wants people to get hurt because of a design flaw.

6. Final Application • In this situation, the players did the right thing and resolved the problems discreetly and efficiently. No one was hurt and, though the architecture firm was sued, the insurance company just paid instead of fighting their lawsuit. • This is a rare example where everyone did the right thing. The overall ethical framework was the “Greater Good.”