Business ethics principles and applications

Philosophy

Gas Prices and Ethics

Managing change is one of the most vital aspects of organizational leadership, and the crisis over gas prices indicates that organizations most affected by the rise in gasoline and transportation prices have not planned ahead and adjusted their profit-taking accordingly. They have not anticipated change and created new ways to deal with the problems associated with increased transportation costs, and so, the consumers are paying the price with higher gas, transportation, and food prices.

Consumer spending is declining because of the rise in costs of other necessities, and organizational leadership has not planned for this, as well. It seems as if the rise in gas prices has caught just about everyone off guard. Everyone, except the oil companies, it seems. They are posting record profits, and their organizational leadership seems to be able to plan effectively to make the most of rising oil prices. Instead of lowering their profit margin to help the overall economy, their leadership plan is to make as much money as possible. So far, there are few signs of them reinvesting these profits in infrastructure that would help alleviate the problem, such as more refineries in the U.S. that could create more fuels and help bring prices down. The organizational leadership at this level seems more concerned with continued profits rather than working together with the government and others to help maintain the economy and avoid a recession.