Firestone: Crises Across the Decades

by: Andrew Hoffman

Publication Date: February 27, 2015
Length: 12 pages
Product ID#: 1-429-412

Core Disciplines: Ethics, Social Impact, Strategy & Management, Sustainability

Partner Collection:

Available Documents

Click on any button below to view the available document.

Don't see the document you need? Don't See the Document You Need?
Make sure you are registered and/or logged in to our site to view product documents. Once registered & approved, faculty, staff, & course aggregators will have access to full inspection copies and teaching notes for any of our materials.

$3.95

Need to make copies?

If you need to make copies, you MUST purchase the corresponding number of permissions, and you must own a single copy of the product.

Electronic Downloads are available immediately after purchase. "Quantity" reflects the number of copies you intend to use. Unauthorized distribution of these files is prohibited pursuant to term of use of this website.

Teaching Note

This product has a teaching note available. Available only to Registered Educators. Please login to view it.

Description

A PBS documentary has uncovered a trove of recently discovered documents revealing a 1991 deal in which Firestone agreed to pay Liberian warlord Charles Taylor $2.3 million in exchange for keeping its profitable rubber farm in operation during a bloody civil war. This case explores the social and economic implications of a foreign company operating in a politically unstable and economically undeveloped country. Students are asked to address the public relations crisis and explore Firestone’s responsibility for confronting past wrongs, striking a balance between social equity and economic prosperity.

Teaching Objectives

After reading and discussing the material, students should:

  • Explore the implications of a multinational company entering a developing country/emerging market to do business when the company has more money/power than the country it is entering.
  • Examine the responsibilities of the company to upheaval in the country and identify where the line between government and company responsibility should exist.
  • Determine the balance or allowable imbalance between social equity and economic prosperity.
  • Explore future actions and responsibilities for recently uncovered wrongful actions and how these actions can or cannot make up for the past.
  • Discuss levels of transparency in measuring the social equity and economic prosperity of a country.