What are the essential details of the event, and what do you see as the causes of the crisis and/or negative impact to society?
This would have adversely impacted the health of the general public by giving rise to severe health illnesses. Another negative impact of the actions undertaken in the Volkswagen scandal encompasses the negative impact on the environment. The results of the tests indicated, when tested on the road, a number of cars emitted just about 40 times the legal levels of nitrogen oxides (Gates et al., 2017). These emissions have a negative impact on the environment as they adversely hamper the air and the troposphere.
Where do you see failures in corporate governance?
The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal is a good example that is indicative of failures in corporate governance. Corporate governance can be delineated as the overall system of guidelines, regulations, practices, and processes by which an organization is directed and controlled. First, the executive leadership of Volkswagen was ineffective and futile, and the actions of the scandal are evident. In particular, Martin Winterkorn, the CEO of the company, was an arduous superior who loathed and did not accept failure. Former company executives defined his style of management as dictatorial and focused at fostering a climate of fear. Furthermore, the CEO set pushy objectives for public growth, made up of growing into the biggest car manufacturer in the world. Nevertheless, accomplishing this key objective came at a huge cost, which at the end of the day, comprised of a notice of violation from the EPA, a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice and several class-action legal suits against the company (Glazer, 2016).
Another aspect of failure in corporate governance encompasses the poor organizational structure of Volkswagen. In definition, the organization's structure takes into account the officially set system of job and authority associations that controls the way in which personnel are to work in tandem and make the most of resources to achieve organization's objectives. Volkswagen had a tainted top down organizational structure where decision making was reliant on a strong leader and very few executives as key advisers. These individuals had excessive power on the operation and direction of the company. This kind of organizational structure not only makes the company sluggish to respond to changes taking place in the market, but it also leaves it with palpable flaws (Ferrazzi, 2015). This methodology to organizational culture is out-of-date, obsolete and indecisive as it leaves a great deal of workers not part of the functioning decisions, unappreciated and not dependable. This causes employees not to be contented in articulating their apprehensions and organizational features to their supervisors, therefore are not stimulated to place the company's well-being first. This can be perceived in the fact that VW employees failed to report the unethical undertakings…
Business Ethics and Positive Social Change: The Ford Pinto Fiasco How much is a human life worth? Most people would likely agree that human lives are priceless, but the executives at Ford Motor Company made this type of grisly calculation when they were confronted with the alarming facts about the dangers posed by flaws in the gas tanks of their Pinto automobiles in 1970. Although Ford Motor Company would ultimately recall
Without this duty to take car of one another, government and society would have no reason to exist. Because man is a social creature, it seems reasonable that society is meant to exist, but that society will only be stable as long as everyone in it is treated fairly -- that is, ethically. Therefore, business ethics are not only important for the longevity and profitability of a specific individual
Business Ethics Reflection Prompt #1 Summarize three of the ethical theories that are explained in Chapter 1 of Introduction to Business Ethics. Explain how people running businesses would construct their companies if they utilized these ethical theories. For example, you might personally think that people should act to increase the overall happiness for the greatest number of people (utilitarianism). You would explain utilitarianism and then explain how a company based in utilitarian
Ethics in Business Business ethics can be seen from two perspectives. The first, highly personal view of ethics depends to a great extent upon a person's upbringing and life experience. Thus, if a person was raised to be ethical and moral in a general sense, and has been so throughout life, it is likely that he or she would be an ethical business person as well. Secondly there is the perspective
In this case the affair did not have any apparent effect on the business. In fact during the time of the nearly two-year affair profits actually rose. However the whistle blower believed that the affair was morally wrong, particularly because the boss was married with children. The whistleblower believed that ultimately the affair would be detrimental to the business so he blew the whistle. He believed that the affair was
Crisis Management in VW’s ‘Dieselgate’ Scandal Trust is the most important factor in the success of any organization. This trust extends to all levels of stakeholders. If customers feel that they cannot trust the company for any reason, they will not purchase their products. Stakeholders have to trust that the organization will make sound business decisions to keep profits high and manage value. This is becoming even more prominent in the