Question

“We know that how we present data often can affect the audience’s conclusions about the data. In a recent article from Travel Weekly on the Department of Transportation’s on-time stats for airline arrivals, the argument is made that the airline industry pads its own statistics in order reap cost benefits, which may or may not be passed on to consumers. Is the reporting difference an ethical breach of confidence between the consumer and the industry?”

Answer 1

In this regard, it is important to understand that putting information in a manner and way that partners, customers, stakeholders cannot understand would be a very big challenge for the company to make easy and smooth communications to these parties. Failure in communication is the first step of losing customers and partners, since there is no flow of information from one party another as it should always. This therefore would enhance lack of trust, commitment and transparency between the two parties, leading to collapse.Therefore, this is according to the general understand of communication, this will have breached the confidence between the consumers and this company as well, also other partners.

Secondly, when there is hiding of information, it means something is not to be revealed, therefore consumers would tend to want to know, to insist and know the information hidden or put in a language that they do not understand. They have a right to question this for their own welfare, may the product has issues and so on, hence the need for clarification by the industry management as well, to avoid the consumers from getting disturbed. This as well, confirms the breaching of the confidence, trust and transparency between the customers and the industry.

Lastly, sometimes the company may hide information from their competitors, and other unintended parties, this method could be used on the company's products. However, before the customer come to understand this as well it may have lead to a number of issues which the management of the industry may get a hard time solving all these issues at once. This is to mean that the management would be needed to use any other manner of approach apart from hiding information from the consumers which is a sign of breaching the confidence existing between these two parties, hence this may lead to a number of issues and problems for the company.

In this regard, the company may suffer rejections in one way or another and loss these consumer because they would not want to purchase products with information and figures they do not understand. As well, the consumers may raise alarm which may go public thus destroying the company's reputation and profile, a chance of advantage to the competitors of the company. Following this case, the competitors would even just use part of the case information to create another excuse and fight the company with it leading it into more problems and issues.