Bryson Corporation Act Ethically in This Situation

Bryson Corp is a large conglomerate headed by an aggressive CEO who has a track record of buying and turning around low-performing manufacturing companies. John Jackson had been sent to the cable plant shortly after it had been acquired and was making headway in rescuing what had been a marginal operation. The word was that headquarters was pleased with his progress.

Jackson ran the plant like a dictator, with nearly absolute control, and made sure everyone inside and outside the organization knew it. Jackson would intimidate his direct reports, yelling and insulting them at the least provocation. He harassed many of the young women in the office and was rumored to be having an affair with one of the managers.

Stan's two-year anniversary on the job had just passed. He was happy with his progress. He felt respected by the factory workers, by management colleagues, and often even by Jackson. His salary was good enough that he and his wife had felt confident in buying a house and starting a family. Stan wanted to keep his reputation as a loyal employee. He had decided early on that he was not about challenge Jackson. At least that was his thought until the warhead cable issue came along.

The warhead cable was part of a fuse system used in missiles. In the production process the round cable was formed into a flat, ribbon-like shape that was fed into a lamination machine. The flattened cable was then cut into specific shapes and lengths and shipped to the customer.

As part of his quality control duties, Stan used a standard procedure to ensure the integrity of the product. The cable was bent and if the laminate seal held, the product passed inspection. This test occurs during production so that if a batch failed the test, the machine operator could correct the problem right then.

When a batch was ready for shipment, Stan was responsible for preparing a detailed report of the results. The customer, in this case the military contractor, sent their own inspector, Joan Moore, to the plant to performed additional sample testing. On inspection days, Moore tended to arrive around 9:00a.m. and spend the morning reviewing Stan's test results. She rarely conducted her own test procedure to verify Stan's test procedure, although she had that option. She relied instead on Stan's test results. Stan and Joan often had lunch together and then finished the paperwork in the afternoon.

The week before during a very busy time, a large order for warhead cable came in with a short turnaround time. Stan tested 10 samples and 2 failed. Stan went to Jackson's office and showed him the failed samples. Before Stan could say anything further, Jackson called in the production manager and berated him for the failed samples. Then Jackson said to Stan "Let's see if the customer inspector catches the problem." Stan reminded Jackson that the customer inspector rarely conducted tests on the product. Jackson