Harry Stonecipher

Should Harry Stonecipher Been Forced to Resign?

Harry Stonecipher, past CEO of Boeing, is credited with writing Boeing’s policy and publicly highlighting it as a basis of his leadership. Yet, on March 6 2006, Boeing rightfully asked Stonecipher to resign as president and CEO of Boeing because of an inappropriate association with a female executive.

Stonecipher’s conduct was not helpful in Boeing’s attempt to reestablish its reputation and ethics standards. Stonecipher’s extra-marital affair has, if not already, the potential to degrade working relationships and the moral of the corporation’s staff. Stonecipher may have profited personally from this relationship. However, it may have created distractions in the workplace and offended co-workers resulting in a loss of respect for their employer. He had a responsibility as a CEO to make decisions based on Boeing’s ethics policy, a policy that he was credited with writing.

Although Boeing’s code of conduct did not disallow relationships among its workforce, it did not tolerate behavior that would embarrass the company nor have its honesty and reputation questioned.Although the relationship was consensual, the female employees could have raised the issue that the relationship created a hostile working environment and the impression that one has to sleep with the boss to get ahead. When an office affair becomes a problem, statistically the woman is disciplined. Your co-workers’ may perceive your work performance as substandard. Co-workers may become spiteful, try to impair ones work and make them the subject of office gossip. They have a perception that one receives rewards for sexual favors, rather than one being awarded for hard work. If the condition broadens, and it did, an established employee could relinquish their position due to an uncomfortable environment.

It is my impression that Stonecipher did not completely evaluate the consequences before he committed himself to the affair. You've got to be smart about this; you have to really think about what you've got to lose and what you've got to gain (Baack, 2002). After the discovery of an affair with Debra Peabody, Stonecipher was forced to resign. Peabody was a vice president in Boeing’s Washington, DC office. Expertclick released the following statement in an article on its website: “Stonecipher was exposed by x-rated company e-mails to Peabody, whom he’d met only weeks earlier at an annual company retreat. Joan Stonecipher, his wife of 50 years, immediately filed for divorce.” Boeing said Stonecipher's role in the affair violated the company's ethics rules. Based on these circumstances, it is my opinion that he failed to evaluate the moral affects his decision would have on Boeing and his family. I believe the consequence of his actions justifies my opinion.

Stonecipher has a right to personal fulfillment in the work environment. Boeing has a duty to provide an environment that allows that right. That does not mean he has the right to fulfillment that results in infidelity with an element of that environment, nor is it Boeings duty to provide an environment that fosters infidelity. Boeing was recovering from scandals that questioned its ethics. Part of that recovery was providing policies and conduct codes that promote a healthy and gratifying environment for all its employees. Surely, another scandal would influence that process negatively. As the CEO, Stonecipher had a duty to provide Boeing’s employees with standards that would reduce or eliminate heartrending possibilities. The entire Boeing Corporation was to adhere