Hi, please help me explain or give me ideas to answer the following questions. thanks

GM RECALL

Product recalls are common. From consumer products to food and health items, it is common for a company to ask customers to return a product after it has been purchased due to significant, and sometimes deadly, problems that were not identified until after the product was sold.

Product recalls are very costly. Costs include advertising and coordinating the recall, collecting and managing the returned product, replacing or repairing the product for the consumer, decreased sales due to damaged brand image, and possibly lawsuits and other fines arising as a direct result of the original reason for the recall. Due to the incredible expense of conducting a recall, recalls are used as a final resort.

In February 2014, General Motors (GM) issued a recall for 800,000 cars. Over the next several months, GM continued to recall vehicles until, by June 2014, nearly 30 million cars had been recalled worldwide. The issue was a faulty ignition switch that could shut off the engine while driving and disable the airbags, preventing them from inflating. The replacement cost of the faulty switch was $0.57 per unit. The recall cost GM more than $3 billion in shareholders' value.

The GM ignition recall sparked serious concerns with regulators and consumers about GM's commitment to product safety and corporate social responsibility, because the issue with the faulty switches had been identified by GM more than a decade prior to the recall. Evidence collected during the investigation that followed showed that GM had held meetings regarding the switch problem as early as 2005, but chose not to disclose the issue to the public. The ignition defect was not disclosed by GM, nor was it discovered by government regulators or transportation safety agencies. The issue came to light only when an attorney sued GM on behalf of the family of a woman who had died in a crash as a result of the faulty switch. When the problem was finally disclosed to the public, GM was very slow to accept responsibility, and originally conceded only that the defect was responsible for 13 deaths and 31 accidents. In September 2014, Reuters published a report concluding that GM was responsible for 153 deaths, and after originally denying that report, GM acknowledged in August 2015 that it would compensate the families of 124 crash victims. Many critics argue, however, that the true number of deaths resulting from the ignition switch is likely much higher as the company counted only fatalities from head-on collisions where the airbags did not deploy. GM discounted accidents where fatalities occurred after vehicles spun out and ran off the road, and in one instance where two passengers were killed, only the driver's death was counted as the passenger was riding in the back seat of the vehicle, and GM claimed that the passenger was not killed as a result of the airbag's failure to deploy.

Many lawsuits, including two class action suits, have been filed against GM by individuals claiming to have been injured, or by family members of those who have been killed in accidents caused by the faulty ignition switch. In September 2015, GM admitted that "from the spring of 2012 through February 2014, GM failed to disclose a deadly safety defect to its U.S. regulator ... It also falsely represented to consumers that vehicles containing the defect posed no safety concern." GM has entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the United States Department of Justice, where the company has agreed to forfeit $900 million to the United States.

Sources: P. Valdes-Dapena, "GM: Steps to a recall nightmare," CNN Money, retrieved June 17, 2014; S. Glinton, (March 31, 2014), "The Long Road to GM's Ignition Switch Recall," NPR, retrieved April 6, 2014; T. Lachapelle, (April 6, 2014). "GM Investors Unshaken as Recall Cuts $3 Billion in Value," Businessweek, retrieved April 6, 2014; G. Wallace, P. Harlow, & A. Hobor, (June 4, 2014), "How Brooke Melton's death led to the GM recall," CNN Money, retrieved June 4, 2014; J. Liberto, (May 28, 2014), "Two died in 2006 Cobalt crash. But GM counts only one," CNN Money, retrieved May 28, 2014. The GM Ignition Switch Recall: Why Did It Take So Long?: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, Second Session, April 1, 2014.

1. What can GM do to help improve its ethical decision making?

2.If GM had a more ethical climate that included a reporting system that encouraged managers and employees to report potential ethics violations to managers or other legal authorities, many deaths could have been prevented. What is this type of reporting system called?-

answer: Whistle blowing-help me explain why whistleblowing is the answer