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FORD PLANT CASE STUDY
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Member of the Chamber of Commerce
You are 55 years old and operate a popular liquor store on Ford Parkway. The Ford Plant offers a mixed blessing. As a business owner and member of the local Chamber of Commerce, you are well aware that at one level, it provides customers for you and other local shops. On another level, it provides an occasionally unpleasant atmosphere for both you and the customers. Yes, odors matter(!)--to business (economically) and to the senses (aesthetically). If emission reductions mean lower Ford sales, however, there may be significant layoffs from the plant; the local economy would likely suffer and many stores, such as your own, might be forced to close.
In addition, you are in a high-risk group for cardiovascular diseae. Your doctor has recently assessed your condition and recommended that you begin taking medication for hypertension. High emisssions for the Ford Plant could well aggravate your condition, increasing your risk of a heart attack.
If there really are adverse health effects, of course you would rather avoid them. But on the other hand, if they do not really exist, you would not want to "accommodate" them at the cost of your welfare, that of your customers or of other businesses in Highland Park.
Some particular questions that you need to resolve:
- To what extent should we accommodate uncertainty or unknowns--which will likely exist at some level in any event?
- Also, to what extent must we balance the potential benefits of many against the claims of a few exceptional individuals, who might accommodate themselves in other ways?
- What are the possible alternatives in this case? How can Highland Park be both "friendly" to the environment (and to its own residents) and to business as well?
Be sure to read the Background carefully for information that is relevant to these questions and your position.
Remember that the aim in adopting a stakeholder's perspective is not to "act out" someone else's role or to make decisions according to some stereotyped view of how another person "should" act. Rather, you should focus on the stakeholder's concerns and consider how YOU would act in a similar situtation.