Social Responsibility Of Volkswagen: Case: Volkswagen's Ethical Issues

724 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Volkswagen scandal case study

Handling the Ethical Issues Corporate social responsibility and being ethically correct has been becoming a major place and focus for many corporations. They highlight their push to engage responsibly and participate in sustainable business practices to not only put value into their product, but to include the customers in it as well. Companies, unfortunately, do not always hold up to the corporate social responsibility. When a company is at fault of this, it is followed by swift attention by the media and damages the public 's trust and view of the company. Once this happens, the negative impact includes the loss of trust, reputation, satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Once lost, these attributes are extremely difficult to regain. Volkswagen is currently dealing with these ethical dilemmas, and as consumers, we are left guessing if they do hold our best interests at mind or if they are just trying to deceive us to increase their profits. The U.S justice department sued Volkswagen in federal court believing that they do not hold our best interests in mind. The justice department is questioning VW’s efforts on trying to restore their credibility as well as …show more content…

The company should accept full responsibility for their emissions scandal and their actions following, as well as not playing this scandal off as a result of certain individuals. Going forward, Volkswagen should introduce a plant to show the public their initiative and goals to reduce their emissions and become within compliance of regulatory standards. Volkswagen should not only become compliment with emissions standards, but also invest in becoming a leader in the field. Lastly, the company should look towards restructuring their practices and accountability while encouraging positive corporate culture changes. VW needs to exemplify that they are not looking to make short term profits, rather take care of the

Show More
Related

  • Kantian Ethics: James Robert Liang's Consequences Of Utilitarianism

    827 Words  | 2 Pages

    One Volkswagen’s senior engineers, James Robert Liang, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud regulatory agencies and costumers by cheating in emissions tests. According to documentation provided by the court system, when Liang and other engineers realized that their diesel engine design would not adhere the U.S. emission standards, they created software to manipulate the results on the tests. The company admitted to installing software that was used to deceive the emissions tests on more than 11 million of its vehicles. Liang could face up to 5 years in federal imprisonment and additionally he might have to pay a $250,000 dollar fine. Volkswagen’s behavior will be analyzed through rule utilitarianism and Kantian ethics.

    Read More

  • Ethical Dilemmas In The Automotive Industry

    336 Words  | 1 Pages

    Since the industrial revolution, the field of engineering has allowed society to flourish through the development of technological advances at an exponential rate. Similar to other professionals, engineers are tasked with making ethical decisions, especially during the production and distribution processes of new inventions. One field that has encountered ethical dilemmas since its inception is the automotive industry. Today, the dawn of the autonomous, self-driving, vehicle is upon us. In this new-age mode of transportation, humans will be less responsible for decisions made on the road. With the wide adoption of autonomous vehicles, there exist a possibility to reduce traffic-related accidents. Even though computers have the ability

    Read More

  • Morality Of James Liang And The Volkswagen Emission Scandal

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    James Liang, seasoned Volkswagen engineer, pleaded guilty to charges of “conspiracy to commit fraud against U.S. regulators and customers and to violate the Clean Air Act”. He faces up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 dollars. In order to design a clean diesel engine, James and other Volkswagen employees developed and implemented a software device that would detect and cheat the U.S. emissions test. Under the façade of a software update, Volkswagen engineers also improved the accuracy of the emission beating setting of purchased vehicles in order to avoid warranty costs. I will morally analyze James Liang’s actions using Immanuel Kant’s theory of duty ethics and rule utilitarianism.

    Read More

  • Ford Pinto Ethical Ethics

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    When we consider the case of the Ford Pinto, and its relative controversy, through the varied scope of ethical viewpoints, the results might surprise us. From a personal standpoint, as a consumer, the idea of selling a vehicle to the masses with such a potentially devastating flaw is completely unethical. When we consider the case from other directions and other ethical viewpoints, however, it makes it clear that often ethics are a matter of perspective and philosophy. It’s also clear that there are cases where more information will muddy the waters, rather than clear them.

    Read More

  • Ford Pinto Ethics

    663 Words  | 2 Pages

    Companies that ignore the safety of their consumers in order to push a product to meet its deadline while saving some money are acting immorally. Ford knew their new automobile, the Pinto, had serious consequences to human welfare, yet ignored it and sold the product as is anyway. The Pinto did not meet the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s proposed standard for rear-impact collisions and failed every crash-test. This posed a serious safety concern considering that the Pinto represented a serious fire hazard when struck from the rear; even at low speed collisions. Even with this knowledge, Ford decided to push the product as is and ultimately ended up harming many people. Therefore, Ford acted immorally.

    Read More

  • Volkswagen Case

    1181 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Fall of 2015, Volkswagen was accused and found guilty of cheating on emissions tests that were put in place by the United States government in order to regulate the amount of harmful gases released when driving vehicles. In the aftermath of the scandal, their CEO Martin Winterkorn was replaced by Matthias Muller who found himself in need of drastically changing the corporate culture in order for VW to once again be a reputable automobile manufacturer. In order to understand why the scandal occurred in the first place an analysis of the historical culture that had dominated the company until recently. Volkswagen was established by the Nazi’s with help from Ferdinand Porsche and the majority of the company continues to be held by his descendants. Nazi Germany is infamously known to have been extremely authoritarian with orders being strictly followed coupled with a unparalleled sense of self-righteousness. This culture inevitably influenced how VW operated and led to it’s CEOs demanding perfection, setting

    Read More

  • T.J. Maxx CSR

    1886 Words  | 4 Pages

    Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the way a corporation achieves a balance between its economic, social, and environmental responsibilities in its operations so as to address shareholder and other stakeholder expectations. In general, when firms hold this wider encouraging role on the public by being engaged with stakeholders, a variety of profit can be produced for both company and the stakeholders. A key inclination is the combination of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into the organization strategy, culture, mission and communications. By incorporating corporate citizenship into the company it is no longer an additional “nice thing to do” or something made to obey laws or regulations. Instead, corporate responsibility has become something business leaders and workforce want to engage in, frequently because executives who believe in the long-term see business profit. The four types of social responsibilities a...

    Read More

  • Procter & Gamble Rely Tampons Case Study

    2253 Words  | 5 Pages

    Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is about how companies manage their business processes to produce a positive impact on society. Companies introduce new products in markets, usually after testing concludes that the product is safe for use or consumption. It is nearly impossible for a company to truly know all of the potential risks a brand new product may have, even after thorough testing. However, once a company receives reports that its product may be causing harm to consumers, it is their responsibility to conduct more research and tests to rule-out any possible truth in the reports. This is what a socially responsible company would do, one who is preoccupied not only with their bottom-line, but one that is also worried about its customers.

    Read More

  • Corporate Social Responsibility

    1700 Words  | 4 Pages

    In recent years, companies are becoming socially responsible and now stakeholders almost expect a company to have CSR policies. Therefore, in twentieth century, corporate social responsibility (CSR) became an important development in public life (Barnett, ND).Corporate social responsibility is defined as “the ways in which an organisation exceeds the minimum obligations to stakeholders specified through regulation and corporate governance” (Johnson, Schools and Whittington, N.D cited in March, 2012). Stakeholders can be defined as “those individuals or groups who depend on the organisation to fulfil their own goals and on whom, in turn, the organisation depends” (Johnson, Schools and Whittington, N.D cited in March, 2012). There are many purposes for this essay, the first purpose is to descried the key principles of corporate social responsibility and explain their importance for stakeholders. Secondly, is to show how far this company follows those principles in order to be accountable to at least three of its stakeholders. In this essay, three stakeholders, environment, customers and employees will be evaluated respectively and the key principles of the stakeholders will be examined.

    Read More

  • A Report On Volkswagen Scandal

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 2014, researchers from West Virginia found out that recent models of Volkswagen vehicles were emitting up to 40 times the allowed levels of nitrogen oxides (2). These vehicles had a special software that would determine when the vehicle was in laboratory testing conditions, and the software would then alter the vehicle 's functionality to emit the legal amount of nitrogen oxides allowed by the EPA. The software was found in around half a million vehicles in the United States. In addition to the bad publicity, the Volkswagen scandal will cost the company at least $15.3 billion dollars in compensation to the owners of the affected vehicles (3). In 2016, Volkswagen engineer James Liang pleaded guilty for being a crucial part in developing the illegal software (3). The software was created because Volkswagen was unable to meet the rigorous EPA emission standards. Therefore, a small team of engineers including James Liang decided to cheat the emission exams to allow Volkswagen vehicles to be sold in the U.S.

    Read More

  • Corporate Social Responsibility Analysis: Wells Fargo

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    An organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) drives them to look out for the different interests of society. Most business corporations undertake responsibility for the impact of their organizational pursuits and various activities on their customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment. With the high volume of general competition between different companies and organizations in varied fields, CSR has become a morally imperative commitment, more than one enforced by the law. Most organizations in the modern world willingly try to improve the general well-being of not only their employees, but also their families and the society as a whole.

    Read More

  • Volkswagen Case Study

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    Last Sunday, the company’s then CEO, Martin Winterkorn, issued a brief statement declaring that the Board of Management at Volkswagen AG “takes these findings very seriously.” The findings revealed that the automaker used “defeat devices” to fool emissions testing, effectively concealing the reality that certain cars spew emissions some 10 to 40 times the legal limit.

    Read More

  • Toyota's Ethical Issues

    1423 Words  | 3 Pages

    Toyota issues in automotive industry resulted from a lack of moral and ethical obligations to loyal customers. In fact, people encounter ethics at one time or another. A business expectation is to act in manner upholding society values. According to authors Trevino and Nelson, (2004) states, “a set of moral principals or values, or the principals, norm, and standards of conduct governing a group or individual.” On the other hand, three ethical criteria determined in this discussion like obligation, moral ideas, and consequences which this article highlights an ethical dilemma with automobiles makers.

    Read More

  • Essay On Corporate Social Responsibility

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    Corporate Social Responsibility is an organisation’s obligation to serve the company’s own interest and the one’s of the society. Moreover, Corporate Social Responsibility has a definition of a concept where the companies integrate social and the environmental concerns into their own business operation and also on a basis of voluntary with their interactions they have with the stakeholders. Corporate Social Resp...

    Read More

  • Essay On Business Ethics And Social Responsibility

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    Now-a-days it is considered that CSR is one of the major concerns of organization’s business ethics. Companies increasingly increase their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical management accepting the positive impact on the bottom line. The vast bulk of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies publish sustainability reports unfolding their program challenges and achievements. These pre-emptive efforts can pr...

    Read More

More about Social Responsibility Of Volkswagen: Case: Volkswagen's Ethical Issues

Open Document