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Abstract
In 1973, Dennis A. Gioia became Ford Motor Co.'s Field Recall Coordinator. He was in charge of the operational coordination of all the recall campaigns currently underway and also in charge of tracking incoming information to identify developing problems. Gioia's responsibility included viewing files containing field reports of alleged component failure that had led to accidents. One file concerned reports of Pintos catching on fire in rear-end accidents. Later, the existence of crash test data became known within Ford, which suggested that the Pinto might actually have a recallable problem. Gioia questions his actions as Recall Coordinator. He recognizes that, in the context of the times his actions were legal and probably also were ethical. Gioia's major concern is whether they were moral. Most models of ethical decision making in organizations implicity assume that people recognize and think about a moral and ethical dilemma when they are confronted with one - Gioia calls this seemingly fundamental assumption into questions.