Utilitarianism Ethical Theory
Discuss about the Delta Airlines Disability Case Studies.
Delta Airlines is one of the leading American airline companies that along with the other three giants constitute around 65% of the business of American airlines sector (Brueckner, Lee & Singer, 2013). Recently, the disabled passengers have filed a number of cases and lawsuits against this airline giant as they were being mistreated by the organization for their physical disabilities. This controversy of Delta Airlines has been dealt in accordance to the concept of Utilitarianism Ethical Theory. According to the concept of Utilitarianism Ethical Theory, a deed is accepted as good and morally acceptable when it produces the maximum amount of benefit for the maximum number of people involved in the case. This theory deals with the concepts of Normative Ethics and classifies deeds as good, bad, moral, immoral for the larger involvement (Mill, 2016). The analysis is done based on economy of the work and states those incidents to be moral and fine that possess a beneficial result for the mass. In accordance to the theory, business houses should focus on long-term gains that would benefit all the sections of the people who are associated with the brand either in a direct and indirect way. A utilitarian business should consider the wider perspective and be concerned with the happiness and satisfaction level of most of the stakeholders in comparison to the other modes of actions that could have been implemented (Gustafson, 2013). Considering the Delta Airlines Case of Disability Case, utilitarian theories state that most of the stakeholders associated are not happy with the result and so the case is not ethical in the eyes of the Utilitarian Theory. The unhappiness of the passengers lies in the unprofessional behavior of the airline in respect to their disabilities that ultimately lead them to file lawsuits. The employees of the airline are unhappy as they might lose their jobs due to insufficient knowledge and loss suffered by the organization. The owners and the stockholders are equally dissatisfied as they have lost over $2 million in compensation (Anitsal, Anitsal & Anitsal, 2017). The surroundings though are not largely affected as they are only facing the threat of losing their reputation by their association with the brand that they can discontinue if situation persists. Overall, it can be said that the Delta Airlines case fails to adhere to the theory as it does not provide satisfaction and utility to the stakeholders associated with the organization.
Leadership
Delta Airlines, being one of the most pivotal airlines in The United States of America, should specialize in providing adequate facilities to all the sections of their customer base, which also includes customers from the physically disabled strata. According to their Advisory Board, the company aims to provide a good accessibility to all their customers especially the ones with physical deformity to make the airline the choice of the masses for their transportation needs. However, the failure of the airline giant to provide the adequate facility to the customers and even the issues of mistreatment by the staff arises a number of questions in regards to the efficiency of leadership and the training provided by the company. The leaders of the organization have failed miserably in taking care of their clients and providing them with the necessities for their safe travelling (Yukl, 2013). A number of reports and articles have suggested for the improvement in the training and development skills of the workers involved in the brand. The management should provide a good customer support and relations training to the workers for their benefit in the end (Ford, 2014). The failure of the managers and leaders in taking care of the clients have resulted in number of lawsuits and penalties for the company by the authorities that resulted in a huge financial loss. With proper training and guidance, the workers will be able to perform better with the clients that will result in better satisfaction from the client’s end. It is not at all acceptable from the leadership of an airline giant like Delta Airline that their disabled passengers need to crawl down the flight and even some passengers being rejected because of their medical needs. All these points to a failure in the role of the leaders in making their associates perform better in an industry that is mostly inclined towards customer satisfaction (Williams, 2013). Therefore, by an intrigue study of the Delta Airlines Disability case study it can be seen that the role of leadership in the case has not been performed at all which has resulted in immense customer dissatisfaction and lawsuits which has questioned the brand image of the organization and the credibility of the leaders in the longer period of time.
Delta Airlines has a large stake in the airline industry of America and has always aimed to prove their mettle in making their brand as one of the most reliable in air transportation sector by their passengers. Nevertheless, the recent case against the brand from disabled passengers and their continuous mistreatment to their passengers have affected the brand image of the company in a greater perspective. The brand has been in both national and international news arena for all the wrong reasons related to customer dissatisfaction and misbehavior. The continuous portrayal of the brand in the negative light has proved against the brand reputation from both its present and future customers (Hagmann, Semeijn & Vellenga, 2015). Due to the mistreatment of the authorities to the disabled customers, the reputation of this highly rated brand has decreased considerably. The present customers have filed a lawsuit against the brand causing them to incur monetary loss as penalty and compensation given to them. In addition, the future customer base has been highly affected due to these immoral incidents, as the customers will prefer taking other flights instead of Delta Airlines as their modes of transportation. This has immensely affected the share prices of the brand and has caused a negative impact on the share market (Luo, 2014). If the brand had treated the customers in a correct manner and had provided required training to their workers in the ways of dealing with clients and disabled clients, then the brand would not have faced such heat in the international arena. The whole incident of a customer crawling the flight stairs and another customer being rejected in spite of possessing a pre-approval for carrying her medical necessitates from the higher authorities is not acceptable on any moral or ethical grounds. So it can said that the brand image of The Delta Airlines has been severely tarnished by the own deeds of the workers of the brand which need serious mending to gain the trust and reliability of the customers for the second time.
Brand Damage
Stakeholders are an organization or party that is concerned with the positive and negative interests of a business organization. They always want to be associated with a profitable enterprise, as the relation between them and the organization is directly proportional; as the profit and reputation of the brand increases, their monetary gains also sums up in the same ratio (Lawrence & Weber, 2014). Therefore, when Delta Airlines faced a huge setback in their business and brand reputation due to the ill-treatment of disabled customers on board, the stakeholders faced a loss in their monetary benefits and interest. The brand in the analysis, Delta Airlines has numerous stakeholders in their business, as they are one of the leading airline organizations in air transportation sector. The passengers are one of the major stakeholders in the airline brand as they use the airline for their transportation needs. The passengers are mostly dependent on the action of the airlines, as they need the service for reaching their desired location within their stipulated time and in a safe manner (Menassa & Baer, 2014). Another group of stakeholders that the brand has are their stockholders and owners whose income and mode of livelihood depend on the profit of the airline and how well the airline performs in terms of customer satisfaction and service. The employees of the institute are also the stakeholders as their income and job depend on the profit of the airline and the increase of their customer base. Their hike or cut in income, incentives, layoffs all depend on the brand in some way or the other (Wolf, 2013). Even the people and communities that are situated around the airports from which Delta Airlines operates their flight also have a interest in the brand as the airport benefits from the huge number of passengers of the brand which in turn provides vacancy for the jobs of the surrounding community members and also business from the passengers. Even airports all around the world are big stakeholders of Delta Airlines as they are hugely dependent on big airline brands like Delta for their revenues and financial gains. So it can be claimed that the amount at stake is huge for a massive brand like Delta Airlines and if the brand image is defamed due to customer satisfaction reasons, it can impact many people connected to the brand.
References
Anitsal, M., Anitsal, I., & Anitsal, S. (2017). A Sentiment Analysis of Air Passengers of Top Ten US Based Airlines.
Brueckner, J. K., Lee, D., & Singer, E. S. (2013). Airline competition and domestic US airfares: A comprehensive reappraisal. Economics of Transportation, 2(1), 1-17.
Ford, J. K. (2014). Improving training effectiveness in work organizations. Psychology Press.
Gustafson, A. (2013). In defense of a utilitarian business ethic. Business and Society Review, 118(3), 325-360.
Hagmann, C., Semeijn, J., & Vellenga, D. B. (2015). Exploring the green image of airlines: Passenger perceptions and airline choice. Journal of Air Transport Management, 43, 37-45.
Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2014). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Luo, D. (2014). The price effects of the Delta/Northwest airline merger. Review of Industrial Organization, 44(1), 27-48.
Menassa, C. C., & Baer, B. (2014). A framework to assess the role of stakeholders in sustainable building retrofit decisions. Sustainable Cities and Society, 10, 207-221.
Mill, J. S. (2016). Utilitarianism. In Seven Masterpieces of Philosophy (pp. 337-383). Routledge.
Williams, A. (2013). Hochschild (2003)—The managed heart: The recognition of emotional labour in public service work. Nurse Education Today, 33(1), 5-7.
Wolf, J. (2013). Improving the sustainable development of firms: the role of employees. Business Strategy and the Environment, 22(2), 92-108.
Yukl, G. A. (2013). Leadership in organizations. Pearson Education India.
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