Volkswagen’s Diesel Emissions Scandal †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Volkswagens Diesel Emissions Scandal. Answer: Volkswagen Diesel Scandal The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that several Volkswagen Cars had installed software that was designed to cheat emission tests. The software known as defeat device was capable of detecting that a vehicle was being tested and when they were being tested, the software would reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide emission. Such a conduct amounts to an unethical as well as an extraordinarily deceitful conduct (Strittmatter and Lechner 2017). A scandal of this magnitude indicates a systemic disrespect for the conduct at different levels of organization (Jung and Park 2017). The scandal may have resulted from either one or more of the following factors. Firstly, the organization have implemented behavioral norms which would seem to be inappropriate for those outside the organization but the same would appear to be acceptable for those working in the organization. Secondly, the CEO of VW, Martin Winterkorn announced that a small group of software engineers had embedded this device in the care and that he was completely unaware of this conduct as it was not a corporate decision (Hoekman 2016). It is not sufficient for the main actors or the leaders of the company to claim that they were not involved or did not have any knowledge about such conduct, instead they should have questioned themselves that should they have known about this conduct, the answer for which is definitely yes. Thirdly, the centre of focus was on the fulfillment of the goals and targets of the company at the cost of other priorities. Their commitment to attain their goals and meet the company targets created an environment where the ends must justify the means, even if such means involves immoral conduct. Fourthly, the incentives would have acted as an encouragement for the employees to be engaged in such immoral conduct. Those who were directly involved in the case were rewarded significantly (Tse et al. 2017). There is a saying that the main objective of a company is to maximize the value of the shareholder and the investors are only concerned about the stock price. The Board of Directors are required to demonstrate an ethical conduct that establishes that their main obligation are not restricted to themselves and the organization, but to the society and the consumers they serve. It is mandatory for every organization to demonstrate a commitment to ethical practice. The board of an organization is obligated to act in the best interest of the company and ensure that their conduct is not detrimental to the company (Tse et al. 2017). VW had publicly admitted that the approaches and culture of the company is neither appropriate nor ethical, hence it must adapt to some value-based changes that would enable employees to give their dissent opinion with their supervisors. Although the some may argue that, the VW scandal has resulted because of the profit maximization motive of the company but the root cause of this scandal is the unethical culture and approaches of Volkswagen. Hence, the company must establish through its actions, decisions and choices that the values of the organization is committed to ethical practice making the company a socially responsible organization. References Strittmatter, A. and Lechner, M., 2017. Sorting on the Used-Car Market After the Volkswagen Emission Scandal. Tse, Y.K., Zhang, M., Doherty, B., Chappell, P., Moore, S.R. and Keefe, T., 2017. Exploring the hidden pattern from tweets: Investigation into Volkswagen emissions scandal. InSupply Chain Management in the Big Data Era(pp. 172-198). IGI Global. Hoekman, S.K., 2016. Comment on Damages and Expected Deaths Due to Excess NO x Emissions from 2009 to 2015 Volkswagen Diesel Vehicles.Environmental science technology,50(7), pp.4135-4136. Jung, J.C. and Park, S.B., 2017. Volkswagens diesel emissions scandal.Thunderbird International Business Review,59(1).https://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772