Ford Motor Company and the Firestone tyre recall

This paper was prepared as the basis for a class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. It may be appropriate for public affairs, business and public policy, and/or crisis management courses at the undergraduate or graduate level. In conjunction with this case, it may be useful to use the framework for crisis management developed by Dr Ian I. Mitroff, the Harold Quinton Distinguished Professor of Business Policy at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. This best practice model is discussed in ‘Managing Crises Before They Happen’, which Mitroff published in 2001 with Gus Anagnos, Vice President of Comprehensive Crisis Management. This case leads the audience through the Ford–Firestone tyre crisis from 1997—when Ford began to learn of a problem with Firestone tyres on its popular Explorer sport‐utility vehicle—up until the summer of 2001, just after Ford recalled 13 million Firestone tyres and the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration cleared Ford of further investigation into potential defects in the Explorer. The case addresses potential causes of the tyre problem, how Ford handled the crisis from a corporate public affairs perspective and, tangentially, how Firestone handled the issue. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

Goals and tactics of President Gerald Ford's ethnic politics

This article analyzes initiatives of Gerald Ford's presidential administration toward nationalities or the so-called white ethnics against the backdrop of the legacy of Richard Nixon and the Republican Party's ethnic politics of the 1960s. Using archival and interview materials, it demonstrates that Gerald Ford intended to improve the relationship between the President's office and the ethnics who were involved in the Republican Party's structures. He consciously tried to respond to ethnics’ political concerns and even created a special position on his staff for working with the nationalities. While in office and during the election campaign of 1976, Ford succeeded in engaging the ethnics and in demonstrating his will to address their needs on the domestic “front.” He failed, however, to fully appreciate the importance of foreign policy to the nationalities. The article proposes that today, as in the 1970s, the American political establishment would benefit from recognizing international issues as crucial elements of white ethnics’ or nationalities’ political behavior.     

Bargaining When the Future of an Industry Is at Stake: Lessons from UAW–Ford Collective Bargaining Negotiations

The 2007 American automobile industry labor negotiations involved fundamental challenges for labor and management, including a historic shift of responsibility in the management of retiree health care, a need for new approaches to core employment security issues, identification of ways to create new unionized jobs in the industry, and a joint commitment to the competitive viability of U.S. operations. Less visible, but no less important in the United Auto Workers–Ford case, has been unprecedented levels of information sharing and unique innovations in the bargaining process designed to enable problem solving even when tough issues were on the table. More than 300 people were directly involved in the negotiations, serving at the main table and on twenty‐four subcommittees. This case study covers the context for the negotiations, key events leading up to the bargaining, a unique process of “bargaining over how to bargain,” the actual negotiation process, and the results achieved. Implications are generalizable to the broader concept of pattern bargaining and many other types of negotiations when transformation is on the table.     

发达国家企业竞争的新趋势及其对我国企业的挑战

20世纪80年代以来,企业外部经营环境发生了深刻变化,促使整个制造业生产方式从福特制向后福特制的转变,并引发了新一轮企业管理创新。通过管理创新,发达国家企业的竞争在经营战略、资源整合方式和竞争方式上表现出若干新趋势。如何在洞察这些新趋势的基础上,通过实施创新性竞争战略提升企业的竞争办,是我国企业参与国际竞争的根本途径。     

蒋介石去世前后的美台关系

本文以美、台等地解密档案为基础,辅以美国斯坦福大学胡佛档案馆所藏《蒋介石日记》以及其他已出版的中英文回忆录与新公开之史料汇编等材料,对1974—1975年蒋介石去世前后,美国与台湾当局之间诸多“外交”折冲秘辛,进行新的检视。文中分析台湾当局撤换派驻美国办事机构负责人风波、台湾军方采购盗窃鱼雷案、蒋介石丧礼、中南半岛形势与福特总统访问中国等诸多个案,尝试还原并重新建构1970年代美台关系的复杂面貌,以期能为冷战时期美台关系史之研究,奠定扎实基础。     

生产组织方式的演变与企业和产业的竞争优势

面对20世纪70年代以来企业外部经营条件的若干重大变化,西方发达国家的生产组织方式的演进出现了一个重要趋势,即从福特制向后福特制的转变。当存在一种生产方式替代另一种生产方式的情况下, 产品竞争本质往往是生产组织方式的竞争,即产品过剩背后隐藏的是落后的生产方式的过剩。与生产组织方式的转变相伴随的是国家之间综合国力或国际竞争力的消长变化。因而,生产组织方式变革中所蕴藏的后发优势是一国提升其企业和产业的国际竞争力的重要契机。