Transparency
General Motors has been faulted for lack of transparency and openness about its challenges. The directors and executives of the company have spent time and energy convincing investors and customers that the company is doing fine and that the business model is sustainable. The company also promised the public that it will be transparent, only months before a tiny ignition device was discovered in Chevrolet, Saturn and Pontiac models. The discovery led to investigations by the National Highways Traffic Safety Administration. It was revealed that the ignition was one of the main causes of accidents, and it was directly linked to thirteen deaths in the United States (McGee, 2014). A tussle ensued between GM and the agency over the failure to turn over information that would help investigations. Gm argued that the questions were very technical in nature, and it needed time to consult with the engineers, despite the fact that the ignition had been installed in the cars since 2001.
Quality
GM’s quality issues found the company in a predicament in 2014. The company had withheld information about the quality of the ignition switch. More than 2.6 million cars were using the switch, and it was said to be defective. Former director, Bill McAleer, told CNN money that the company had a culture that discouraged feedback and internal quality check. Employees who reported defects in the production chain and the vehicles risked being fired by a management that had developed a culture that discouraged feedback. The company had revised the quality check procedure in 1995, years after Bill had retired as the CEO (CNN Money, 2014). The lack of quality control mechanisms exposed the company to ignorance and overlooking of basic quality concepts.
References
CNN Money. (2014, June 28). GM's 'culture' blamed for current crisis - Jun. 28, 2014. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/28/news/companies/gm-smerconish/
McGee, S. (2014, April 17). GM's 'transparency': what to do when a company isn't being straight with you | Money | The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/apr/17/gm-transparency-company-being-straight
