Blog 5: What United Airlines Can Do

A situation such as the one United Airlines has face, it has to be understood in many different aspects due to its complexity. One thing I would suggest in the future to companies with similar scenarios, is hire a writer and a professional in Public Relations damage control. A common issue with many companies that end up in a backlash, is their response is awful A large number of scandals could be fixed with patience, and a sincere apology, and sometimes change within the organization.

In United Airlines situation, it was a complete disaster that the passenger had been forcibly removed from his flight. But it wasn't just the video of the incident that made the situation a complete wreck, but it was the companies attitude towards the situation. No one cares about legality or fine lines, but they want to see action and be heard. going forward, there isn't much that United Airlines can do to better the situation but here is a lot of work to be done for them to prevent this happening again in the future.

What To Do

United Airlines now must align their promise with their CEO's promise, who stated in an ABC Interview that something like this would never happen again. While that promise is a tough one, it can really hurt the company if they fail to keep it. I think that the company will need to propose a new protocol, training, and communication of their new commitments to their customers. The company's attitude going forward would have to be more proactive than reactive, because another incident like the one that happened in earlier in April, will likely be the end of their company. The company will have to balance out many of their decisions to help build their image. They don't want to be perceived as pandering or "paying out a problem", yet they also don't want to seem ignorant of the situation either. It is important that they ensure equal treatment of customers going forward, especially when their current mission statement focuses on diversity and inclusion as priority values. 

A framework that can be applied is Contractartiansim. The principles of the method focus on equal treatment, and equal opportunity. This means that going forward, United needs to ensure that all of their customers will expect to be treated the same as one another, and United needs to ensure their decisions uphold that value. Another ethical framework that would apply would be Virtue Ethics. This will allow the company to not act too rash in situations, but take the time to find a balance in their actions, statements and perceptions of situations. This ties into what I was saying earlier, on how the company needs to find a balance in what they do because their every step in the short future will be observed by the public. 

Resources

Hursthouse, Rosalind, and Glen Pettigrove. "Virtue Ethics." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 18 July 2003. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

Reputation Rainmakers Podcast. "#17 - United Airlines - What It Really Needs to Do to Fix Its Reputation." Andy Beal. N.p., 13 Apr. 2017. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.