“What’s a higher priority than product safety?” asks Yale University management and law professor Jonathan Macey, author of a book on corporate governance. “The organization chart does obviously reflect a company’s priorities.”
That structure — as well as what new CEO Mary Barra has called a culture that valued cost savings over safety — is likely to be a prime target in a report expected this week from former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas. He was hired by GM to investigate why the company took more than a decade to recall millions of cars with a defective ignition switch that has now been linked to at least 13 deaths.
Ford and Chrysler, GM’s main Detroit competitors, have safety directors higher on their charts than GM does.
Management experts interviewed by the AP say safety ranks higher at other companies as well, especially food, drug and chemical makers. At some, the safety chief has direct access to the CEO.
GM could have given higher priority to safety when it reorganized under bankruptcy protection in 2009, the experts say. Instead, the automaker focused solely on fixing its finances.
It’s unclear if the report will discuss the role of top managers in the crisis. Up to now, no evidence has emerged to suggest that top GM executives knew about the switch problem before late last year.
Internal investigations typically blame the bureaucracy, not the bureaucrats, says Erik Gordon, a business and law professor at the University of Michigan.
“Generally they come up with something that looks good enough to the outside world without damaging top management,” Gordon says.
Valukas is expected to recommend streamlining the bureaucracy so employees can more easily report problems to top officials. Barra has already taken steps in that direction.
About the Author