Ethics breach at Canadian National Railway

Essay by sandys6969University, Bachelor'sA+, May 2007

download word file, 7 pages 5.0

The topic of this paper will be the code of ethics which Canadian National railway holds. The paper will include the strengths and weaknesses of the code as per the writers' perspective. I will then converse about an ethical breach which has occurred, in the writers' perception of the code. The last section will include a plan for revising the ethical standards and the communication of these standards.

The ethical theory which CN follows seems to be the utilitarianism approach; they want to maximize the benefits they can provide to society. This is accomplished by keeping the shipping pricing at a reasonable cost; running an efficient company. They also want to minimize the harms. The company accomplishes this by putting up public awareness of train crossings, having a disaster plan in place when there are derailments; they also have a mock train which travels the country to promote trains safety to youngsters.

This surrounds CN's core values which are safety; they promote this in all aspects of their business, from employees to equipment to safe work procedures.

The business code of conduct promotes trust and loyalty. This is accomplished by being straightforward with their communication within the company and when they are dealing with the public. This follows the deontological theory. The code puts each employee's character and virtue in to play. Since only nominal gifts can be accepted, each employee has to ask themselves once in the situation, whether their actions could affect their position at CN, and how would he or she feel if their actions were reported to their supervisor.

CN is known to be a strong corporate citizen, who is caring for the communities of which they pass through. Taken from "Doing the right thing: A socially responsible CN" "During 2003's devastating forest fires in British...