Description:

Boeing, a global aerospace giant, has been embroiled in ethical controversies over recent years, particularly surrounding the development of the 737 MAX aircraft. The company faced allegations of prioritizing profits over safety, leading to catastrophic crashes. This course will explore Boeing’s lack of critical ethical decision-making and the broader implications for corporate governance and compliance, especially relevant for CPAs.

This course critically examines the ethical challenges faced by Boeing in recent years, particularly its lack of ethical decision-making and critical thinking, and explores how these failures can serve as vital lessons for CPAs. Through the lens of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) five pillars of ethics, participants will gain insights into how Boeing’s decisions have impacted corporate governance, accountability, and financial transparency. CPAs play a crucial role in upholding ethical standards within organizations, and this course will equip them with the tools to navigate complex ethical dilemmas, avoid conflicts of interest, and promote integrity in the workplace.

Learning objectives:

1. Identify the attributes of Boeing that made them the gold standard for aerospace and airline production, and explain how these attributes contributed to Boeing’s reputation for prioritizing quality over profit.
2. Discuss the corporate culture of McDonnell Douglas and how this merger resulted in a change in philosophy and goals, prioritizing profit over quality.
3. List the significant Boeing incidents and tragedies since the merger, and explain their impact on the company’s ethical standing.
4. Explain the reasons why the quality of Boeing’s safety standards has deteriorated.
5. Describe the shift in company culture and management (profit over quality) before and after the merger and how it relates to Boeing’s current issues.
6. Identify how poor Corporate governance and regulatory oversight contributed to the safety accidents at Boeing.
7. Define psychological safety and analyze its importance in corporate settings, using the Boeing case to illustrate the consequences of a lack of psychological safety.
8. Analyze the role of whistleblowing in the Boeing case, including its definition, the key attributes of an effective whistleblowing culture, and its relationship to psychological safety.
9. Compare Boeing with Airbus, a company that demonstrates a commitment to culture, values, and psychological safety
10. Identify how Boeing serves as a lesson in maintaining the five pillars of ethics.