3/07/2005

Boeing and The Affair

This week Boeing ousted Chief Executive Officer Harry Stonecipher for having an affair with a female employee. Was this a smart move for Harry Stonecipher? Let's pretend to be in the shoes of Harry Stonecipher as he is making the decision to have an affair with this woman. Lets look at the opportunity cost; On one side you can say if I don't have an affair I can save my name and still be the head of Boeing. On the other side you can say if I have the affair I will get a quick fix and maybe carry on the relationship with the employee, but I will be fired because I violated the code of conduct. This is a tough decision. What would you do if you were in this situation? I cannot decide.

1 comment:

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on June's and Chuck's comment for spelling errors.

I think Stonecipher knew exactly what he was doing. If he didn't, he wouldn't have tried to hide it Keston. I think he made a rational calculation that his odds of getting caught were low.

The dumb party here is Boeing. I have heard nothing that there was a clause in Stonecipher's contract stipulating that he would lose anything worthwhile for conduct detrimental to the company. Now, they may have thought that losing your job was enough of a deterrent, but apparently not.