Boeing Chief Is Ousted After Admitting Affair

The New York Times > Business > Boeing Chief Is Ousted After Admitting Affair

More of the same. Having been caught using no ethics and poor business judgment, the corporation brings in someone to refurbish their image, and it turns out he's just another scalliwag.

Mr. Stonecipher, married and with grown children, was forced out for having violated an internal code of conduct that he had imposed on all Boeing employees as he tried to improve the company's actions and image. His predecessor, Philip M. Condit, was forced to resign in 2003 because of ethical lapses, including affairs with employees, and poor business prospects that Mr. Stonecipher was hired to remedy.

First, let's say that everyone is a scalliwag, and then we'll ask what it is that's really wrong here, and what is the cause?

I suppose that the idea they have is that if they get assurances from people at all levels, especially on paper, that those people will do what the company needs, then that should be enough. But it's obviously not enough, verbally or on paper, or in church or on the golf course. What might work to encourage community bolstering behavior and personal standards are respect for people, and truly including people in the good fortunes of a company and community. The verbal honor system doesn't work for the small fry because it has been repeatedly demonstrated that they will get a very small percentage of the good times, and take the brunt of the damage in the bad times, and the honor system doesn't work for the big fish because they've been given far too large a slice of the pie and too safe and easy a way out when the flak flies. They just take their plush pensions and savings from obscene salaries and stock options and bonuses and go get another job very like this one. Has anyone followed the career of a disgraced bigwig and found them to wallow in the poverty of the less than $100,000 range, having to mow their own lawns, eat at home, and worry about health insurance? Have you ever read such a follow-up? No. Because their is no such situation. Once a man has been paid a few thousand years worth of a normal salary, he is a made man, unless drink or drugs overcome him. So as unpleasant as a slap on the wrist might be, the basic problems still remain, and no amount of loyalty oath signings, song-singing, or TQM meetings and memos will overcome the basic us vs. them. As long as the masses sink (in good times and bad) they will feel no loyalty, and as long as the Royals are coddled and pampered they will feel no loyalty. Those in so-called leadership roles must be tied to the fortunes of the ship, or they will not watch out for anything but their own interests.

I call again for the end of the power hierarchy.

Under Mr. Stonecipher's tenure, the company's stock had risen by more than 50 percent. His pension will not be affected by his firing. In 2004, he received a base pay of $1.5 million and incentives of around $1.8 million. It is unclear what his compensation will be for 2005. He is also one of Boeing's largest individual shareholders, after having negotiated a merger between Boeing and the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, where he was once the chief executive.

ethics shmethics