Chapter 1
Beyond Compliance: Ethics and Aviation Safety
1. In your own words, define the following: ethics, business ethics, moral standards.
Ethics is concerned with the values and morals an individual person or society embraces
as desirable and acceptable, and is also concerned with the virtuousness of individuals
2. Define and describe the following in detail: organizational culture, ethical culture, safety
culture.
Organizational culture is how a company or other organization actually is, functionally
and environmentally. Culture consists of the values, decisions, actions, beliefs, goals,
3. What influence does the culture of an organization have on its ethical climate? On its
safety culture?
Open-ended individual answer that should go toward the values, leadership, policies, etc.
What general and/or specific ideas do you have that could improve the safety culture of
many aviation companies?
4. In your view, what similarities exist between ethics and safety? How do ethics and safety
fit together in an organization?
5. In your own words, summarize the OSHA General Duty Clause.
List and discuss in detail at least three of the primary rights of employees under OSHA
and the OSH Act of 1970.
Employees have the right to receive specific training about job-related hazards, ways to
prevent injury or illness, and the OSHA standards that are applicable to their workplace.
Workers also have the right to review records of job-related illnesses and injuries and
6. Describe in detail some of the tensions that exist between safety and economics in
virtually any aviation organization.
7. Define and describe each of the following: utilitarianism, egoism, duty, respect, rights.
Utilitarianism is the concept of doing what is perceived to be best for the greatest number
of people. Utilitarian ethics states that a decision is ethical if it provides a greater amount
8. What is opportunity cost?
The real cost of something is what you give up in order obtain it. This includes not just
What is meant diminishing returns?
As equal quantities of a variable factor are increased and other factors remain constant, a
What does it mean to say that resources are scarce in an organization?
9. Name and describe at least three things that leaders can do to promote the development of
an ethical safety culture within their organizational culture.
Model Safety through Actions: Leaders need to back up their commitment to safety by
living it out themselves through leading by their example. In other words, leaders should