Business Government and Society/PrincessMary Tutor

112 Part Two Business and Ethics

reported to the company's CEO and board of directors, a global code of conduct, ous ethics and compliance training for all employees, and a globul helpline reporting tern, to name just a few. Overall, the company emphasized that the program's tools must understandable by all employees, must support the company's strong value system, must be continually reinforced by management.

For example, in addition to continuous safety training and education programs, it was the norm at Altoa to start all business meetings with an identification of exits, the evacua- tion plans in the event of an emergency, and other safety procedures. Although specific safety procedures differed among Alcoa's various businesses, ~orporate headquarters re- quired all of its units to meet the same overall goal: zero wotk-related injuries and ill- nesses. O'Neill took this message outside of Alcoa, as well. In meetings with analysts and other outside parties, he always highlighted Alcoa's progress i!) health and safety. O'Neill explained that Alcoa's emphasis on safety and the reduction o{ workplace injuries was not based on, grandstanding or self-promotion, but rather on a genuine concern for employees.

The emphasis on safety had deep meaning to Alcoa's management team. The compa- ny's management firmly believed that no employees should be forced to work in an envi- ronment where their safety and the safety of other employees might be jeopardized. Alcoa's management supported the ethical principle that no employees should leave work in a worse condition than when they arrived. Once the change toward safety at work became "the way we do things around here" and was embedded in the Alcoa culture, the process used to achieve this culture could be duplicated throughout Alcoa's value chain. O'Neill's point was simply that the processes used to achieve success in safety were not grand initia- tives or episodic programs but rathet were the result of persistent attention to changing behaviors and could be duplicated throughout the organization. Alcoa's vision was "Alcoa Aspires to Be the Best Company in the World." Being the best at everything, for O'Neill and Alcoa employees, required continuous improvement as everyone strove toward an ideal goal of perfection.

In 1996, activist shareholders raised allegations at the annual meeting that health and safety conditions at one of Alcoa's Mexican facilities had deteriorated. The Catholic Sister who spoke at the meeting concluded by saying that "the company's behavior in Mexico was inconsistent with its widely publicized values." The company promptly launched an investigation, and O'Neill himself personally visited the plant. Although the company learned that many of the issues raised at the annual meeting were unfounded, it also d\s- covered that a few injury incidents and the subsequent actions taken by local managers were not reported to corporate headquarters, as required by company policy. Meetings held with local government officials over safety incidents at the facility were also not reported, even though the results of these meetings indicated Alcoa was in compliance with all ap- propriate laws and regulations.

Given these facts, O'Neill concluded that although the business unit management's re- sponse to the safety incidents uncovered in the investigation was adequate, there was "a breach of the letter and spirit of our communication practices with respect to major inci- dents." O'Neill further noted "there was a serious lack of understanding when it came to incident classification, reporting, and recordkeeping of occupational illnesses." The lack of reporting these safety incidents to others in the company was critical to O'Neill, since oth- ers in the company were denied the opportunity to learn and possibly prevent similar oc- currences at other Alcoa facilities.

O'Neill decided that a change of leadership at the facility was necessary, and he fired the facility's manager. He did so in spite of the manager's stellar record of increased sales and profitability and high marks for quality and customer satisfaction. In an open letter to the entire company, O'Neill concluded by saying, "It is imperative that there be no

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