How Gm Has Changed Their Cultural Views

General Motors Corporation (NYE: GM) is the leading American automaker in the world with its operations spanning in 157 countries. The car manufacturer was established in 1908 in Michigan and today it is headquartered in Detroit, the United States of America. Besides the domestic industry of the United States of America, General Motors manufactures cars and trucks in other 30 countries around the world. Among its brand products are Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Hummer, Holden, Opel, Saab, Pontiac, Vauxhall, and Saturn. Besides these brands that are owned by the automaker, GMC also operates joint ventures in China and Japan. That is, Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling

This company was created to challenge the Ford Motor company in the twentieth century. General Motors created automatic transmissions, practical air conditioning, and the very first version self start. These creations gave General Motors the edge over Ford and other car companies at the time. “In the early years, GM's marketers added style and color to cars, putting Henry Ford and his industry-leading Model T's on the defensive” (Woodyard 03).With knowledge and advancement General Motors performed well and gained from it. But in recent years General Motors started to cut corners and build things of a cheaper quality making mistakes. These mistakes and corner cutting created problems for General Motors. It eventually lead to General Motors filing for bankruptcy on June 1st in 2009. General Motors was eventually saved from their bankruptcy but the damage was done. The General Motors plant in Moraine Ohio was shut down causing a lot of people to lose their jobs. The mistakes General Motor made did not just hurt themselves but the people who relied on those jobs. There are people who are now homeless and are struggling. The knowledge General Motors had helped them reach their success but the creators lost sight of their morals. They took the easy route and failed hurting plenty of people destroying hundreds of families and people's

A number of car incidents have been associated with the errors in the ignition switch, which could possibly disable the airbag, the power steering and breaks. Due to this issue at least 13 deaths and numerous injuries have been found (Isidore, 2014) with the General Motors Company. This investigation was given to an engineer in Florida, Mark Hood, to file for a lawsuit against General Motors and to try to figure out what was the cause of these accidents. It was revealed that the tiny metal plunger in the switch was smaller than the original size and needed less force to turn the ignition off (Isidore, 2014).

Before the Great Recession of 2009, GM owned a bevy of brands including Chevrolet, GMC, Oldsmobile, Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac, Hummer, and Saturn, including other international brands in Alpheon, Daewoo, Saab, Vauxhall, Opel, Wuling, and Holden. After the recession, bankruptcy, and federal restructuring, the GM United States offerings were left with Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, and Cadillac. GM still has the international automobile companies of Alpheon, Vauxhall, Opel, and Holden, with Daewoo now being a parts subsidiary. But the writing was on the wall as the automotive giant was losing touch with what the American public wanted. Instead of building vehicles the public wanted, GM built vehicles that they wanted to build and thought the public would buy their brand regardless (Boe, Ketler, O 'Keefe, Rubenstein, & Siverio, 2009). But as time marched on, GM became more in debt and grew to be

General Motors (?GM? or ?the company?) has a rich history longer than a century starting with its corporate organization in 1908. Following its organization, GM acquired its first brand, Old Motor Works, which was followed in 1909 by the purchase of Cadillac for $5.5 million. Two years later, GM organized both General Motors Truck to handle sales of GM?s Rapid and Reliance products and General Motors Export Company to handle export sales out of the US. In 1918, GM purchased Chevrolet Motors. In 1926, GM entered Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Egypt, Uruguay and Argentina through the General Motors Export Company. General Motors Truck became the modern GMC in 1943 when GM acquired the assets of Yellow Truck & Coach. In 1945, GM finally established all of its historical core brands (Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac) when the Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac Assembly Division, which would be renamed the General Motors Assembly Division in 1965, was formed.

Strengths: Strong vehicles (195 horsepower, strong metal), most serious 4x4. You can ride them off-road as well drive up steep hills, rough terrain obstacles, and even drive it through shallow water. They have central tire inflation systems. Strong marketing (Excelling in print, outdoor, TV, online media and public relations in addition to being innovative in our creative thinking are what made GM campaign successful, and consequently taking home such prestigious awards. Also segmentation, targeting, positioning are strength you can rely on.

The devised code of ethics plays a vital role in the deciding factor for the engineers. Thus, in the case of the Gee-Whiz Mark 2 (GWM2) having evidence that 25,000 units are not compliant with safety standards in North America or Europe shows that the public's security is in jeopardy. Complying to the first fundamental canon of the NSPE code of ethics for engineers states that, "engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public”. Sadly to say, the current products only put users at a much higher risk of electrocution and death. Thus, by the virtue of the fundamental canon, engineers at Gee-Whiz Mark 2 morally cannot distribute detrimental products to the public in any geographic location, even if the law permits. Taking Toyota Motors in 2009 as an example, where more than 680,000 vehicles were recalled in the United States alone, due to safety concerns of the airbags and the brake lights being defective (Valdes-Dapena, 2012 ). Even though this company could have disregarded the issue and continue to sell defective machines, they instead did what was morally right for the citizens and recalled the products. A product recall of thousands of units is not easy for any company, resulting in a multi-billion financial loss and the expenditure of sales time. Nonetheless, when someone’s life is at stake there is no choice but to resolve the emerged problem, no matter the loss that will be incurred by the

A GM engineer is assigned to look at Cobalt front crashes in which the airbags did not deploy, in order to identify common characteristics. In four of nine crashes, the ignition was not in "Run" at the time of impact.

General Motors acted in an unethical and negligent way by choosing not to take action when becoming aware of a fault in their ignition switch of the Chevrolet Cobalt vehicle. This caused the engine and electrical system to shut off if the keys were knocked, and ultimately resulting in multiple deaths due to the airbags not deploying during car accidents.

According to GM.com (2009) General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), is one of the world's largest automakers which was founded in 1908, in Detroit USA. It manufactures cars and trucks in 34 countries. GM employs 252,000 people in every major region of the world, and sells and services vehicles in some 140 countries. It sells cars and trucks globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling. Its largest national market is the United States, followed by China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and Germany. GM's OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services.

General Motors has always had a reputation of diluted products. They had many vehicle lines with many differend brands. This idea was to offer a product that appealed to many different target markets. They have since simplified their product lines by selling off certain brands. Oldsmobile, Saturn, Saab, Hummer, and Pontiac have been disbanded and the new General Motors is a tighter more organized business as a result. Cadillac and Buick have seen steady growth within their sector and have been marketed very well to date. Cadillac is seen as prestigue symbol and has a larger pricetag than any of the other models. Buick is showing phenominal growth with an introduction of new products that is taking the focus of

“For seven years the Ford Motor Company sold cars in which it knew hundreds of people would needlessly burn to death.”

General Motors enjoys a major market share in global automotive industry. One of its major strengths is its strong branding and market position. General Motors can be considered as one of the pioneers of modern vehicles. As per data monitor, GM had a leading share in North America and South America and in Europe it held fifth position. Similarly, it holds second position in other major segments. GM bears a strong branding. A lot of prestigious brands are provided by General Motors such as Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, Cadillac and Opal. Like Toyota, GM also has various production facilities in 31 different countries. This strong global presence allows GM to have access global markets way easily as compared to manufacturers with centralized structures. Thus, GM relies less on exports, manufactures its brands locally and is also involved in

General Motors Company, one of the world’s largest automakers, estimated in 1908. With its global headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, USA.GM employs 209,000 people in every major region of the world and does business in more than 120 countries. GM and its strategic partners produce cars and trucks in 31 countries, and sell and service these vehicles through the following brands:  Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Daewoo, Holden, Isuzu, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling. (Elizabeth, GM, 2009). GM was the largest automaker for 77 consecutive years from 1931 through 2007. It is longer than any other company in the world. In 2008, it was surpassed by Toyota (Elizabeth, GM, 2009).

As a ramification, it is difficult for human operators to anticipate faults within the system and prevent and manage the risks incurred by an operational accident accordingly, making them “incomprehensible”. Therefore, organisational accidents in complex systems are inevitable as despite defensive measures implemented to mitigate their risk, such as the training of operators and regular maintenance, the fragile design of the systems is the core reason why accidents occur.