Social Science Paper : Ethical Issues in Malaysia Airline (MAS)

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Ethical issues often deal with what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is

bad, and what rights and responsibilities people should have. The general goal of ethics is to

enable people to live good lives. Within the business context, it involves making decisions that

align with that sense of right and wrong, as well as with the law. Various examples of ethical

dilemmas exist in today’s business environment. Here, we can take the example from one of

established organization Malaysia that is Malaysia Airline (MAS). Malaysian Airline System

Berhad provides air transportation and related services. The company operates through two

segments, Airline Operations and Cargo Services. It offers passenger, cargo, and mail transport

services. In addition, it provides catering and cabin handling services, trucking, clearance, and

warehousing services, as well as tour and travel related services. It operates a fleet of 88 aircraft

and carries passengers to 80 destinations worldwide. The company is headquartered in Subang,

Malaysia. Malaysian Airline System Berhad is a subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Berhad. The

ethical issue that facing by MAS now is the rate of turnover and downsizing of their employees.

The 19,500 staff of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) now faces a new ordeal whereby a quarter of them

may lose their jobs at the unprofitable airline, hit by two jet disasters this year. After the eight

months disappearance of MH370, it is no wonder that the number of travelers opting for

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has dropped. The national airline is currently in deep red for their

financial performance. As there is no other way but to downsize the number of their employees

to cut some cost. It can be said that the decision to simply downsizing is unethical manner

whereby it should be the last option they should made. Aside from that, Malaysia Airlines were

also facing the internal problems such as high turnover rate on employees whereby in search of

greener pastures Jabbarullah claim that over a hundred engineers and 36 junior engineers have

deserted MAS in the past two years with an estimate of 20 crew members taking their exit each

month. Downsizing can have significant negative outcomes especially on employee’s element.

According to Vries and Balazs (1996), downsizing gives impact through the reaction pattern.

The employees are classified as the victims that pass through several kind of emotions such as

despair, protest and as well as detachment. The researchers were also mentioned that the victim,

which is the employees, have two levels of reaction patterns. One of the patterns is on individual

level which they will experience job security, low trustworthy and short term decision making.

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The other patterns are on organizational level, which they will facing cultural change, value

system breakdown, negative effectiveness and loss of instructional memory.

The ethical problem that occurs in MAS might be because of the problem in its

management or personnel itself. From the evaluation on MAS, the previous management team

has set their objectives clearly and has the best strategies to obtain their objectives but at the

same time, a portion of their employees did not know exactly how to implement the strategies

effectively. That is why MAS has met many difficulties and losses in their business and need to

turnaround the business to recover the problems and require high turnover rate among their

employees. This can be explaining the characteristic of the ethical problem in terms of

leadership. For a business to be ethical, its leaders must demonstrate ethical practices in any

situation. The true test of this leadership is in the decision-making process when there is a choice

between what is ethically responsible and what will result in profit or gain. Leaders, who can

consciously choose the path that is ethically correct, as opposed to one that is purely financially

driven, have successfully created an ethical culture in the business. When the culture is solid at

the top of the organization, it trickles down to all areas and employees.

Recently MAS has announced that their will downsize their employees by reducing up to

6000 thousand of their employees. The ethical issue here is the employers did not concern much

on the welfare of the employees. They did not aware that this decision might jeopardize the

career and income of their employees if they jump into conclusion to downside the number of

workers. This can be categorizing on characteristics of ethical problem in terms of concern. An

ethical business has concern for anyone and anything impacted by the business. This includes

customers, employees, vendors and the public. Every decision made by the business is based on

the effect it may have on any one of these groups of people, or the environment surrounding it.

Meaning to say, leader is the one that who will be responsible towards what is going wrong

throughout organization rather than making the unethical decision that will affect subordinates.

In the case of MAS, they should be considered all aspect when it comes to downsize the number

of employees.

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Ethical issues often deal with what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, and what rights and responsibilities people should have. The general goal of ethics is to enable people to live good lives. Within the business context, it involves making decisions that align with that sense of right and wrong, as well as with the law. Various examples of ethical dilemmas exist in today’s business environment. Here, we can take the example from one of established organization Malaysia that is Malaysia Airline (MAS). Malaysian Airline System Berhad provides air transportation and related services. The company operates through two segments, Airline Operations and Cargo Services. It offers passenger, cargo, and mail transport services. In addition, it provides catering and cabin handling services, trucking, clearance, and warehousing services, as well as tour and travel related services. It operates a fleet of 88 aircraft and carries passengers to 80 destinations worldwide. The company is headquartered in Subang, Malaysia. Malaysian Airline System Berhad is a subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Berhad. The ethical issue that facing by MAS now is the rate of turnover and downsizing of their employees. The 19,500 staff of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) now faces a new ordeal whereby a quarter of them may lose their jobs at the unprofitable airline, hit by two jet disasters this year. After the eight months disappearance of MH370, it is no wonder that the number of travelers o ...
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