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FORD PLANT CASE STUDY
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Senior Ford Employee
You have "taken stock" in Ford in two ways--both as an employee and as a shareholder (in your investments for retirement). You have worked for Ford for over four deacdes--since you were hired after serving in the Army in the Korean conflict. You were active in the local union's negotiations for new contracts, so you know that the local Ford management cares about the workers--and has been especially responsive to concerns about worker saftey. But you are also proud of your own record in helping to expand employee health benefits and to develop more equitable wage structures between senior and junior employees.
Some particular questions that you need to resolve:
- Does the community have any responsibilities to Ford?
- As a stockholder, how do you feel Ford should balance concerns for profit with concerns for the environment (knowing, of course, that without profitable investment, inflation can easily decrease the value of your retirement savings)?
- Does Ford have a responsibility to workers if the market changes--or if Japanese products become more competitive? (Would responsibilities to all workers be the same?)
- Having a rich appreciation of the past, can you say how much Ford's responsibilities should be shaped by its history--say, by the unexpected emergence of the environmental movement in the 1960s and 70s? How will the Task Force's response to Ford's permit application reflect these concerns?
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.