Organizational Behavior and Behavior

¶ … Volkswagen Got Away With Diesel Deception Identify and discuss the main problems or concerns mentioned in this Organization The main problem mentioned in the Volkswagen scandal is the admission that approximately 11 million of its manufactured vehicles were fitted with software aimed to obfuscate emission tests. In particular, the equipped software detected when the car was being tested and then the software triggered apparatus that reduced emissions.

The other malcontent is that in times of regular driving, the software turned down the apparatus, which in turn gave rise to an increase in emissions that were excessively beyond the legal limits. This was most probably with the intent to have fuel savings or to improve the torque and acceleration of the car (Gates et al., 2017).

The company admitted guilty to multiple criminal charges in the United States and has allocated more than $20 billion for penalties and compensation associated with the scandal, with the payments with American regulators and vehicle owners consuming a huge amount of that money. From the time the scandal started, Volkswagen has recorded losses, declared layoffs and has had to restructure its leadership. The fall-out of the scandal for Volkswagen can be perceived in different ways. To begin with, the worldwide annual car sales declined from 10 million to less than 9 million.

This figure is set to deteriorate much further in the forthcoming years. Secondly, since the scandal broke out, the stock price of the company was at $38.03 and this substantially declined and presently stands at $31.46. In addition, the company faced a $6.2 billion loss in 2015 (Gates et al., 2017). How did these problems develop and who was responsible? These problems began when on-road testing that took place in 2014 instigated the California Air Resources Board to inspect and probe Volkswagen, led by researchers at West Virginia University.

The institution undertook tests of emissions from two Volkswagen models fitted with the 2-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder diesel engine. The results of the tests indicated that when tested on the road, a number of cars emitted about 40 times the legal levels of nitrogen oxides (Gates et al., 2017). In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found similar test-cheating proofs on other VW and Audi models as well as on a Porsche model (Gates et al., 2017). The individuals responsible for the scandal included both employees and executives.

In particular, engineers have taken responsibility for the unethical behavior. In addition, six company employees are presently facing criminal charges in the United States and an executive arrested, who was responsible for overseeing compliance in emissions. In addition, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the company, Martin Winterkorn, together with the head of operations in the United States stepped down and Volkswagen suspended numerous high-ranking executives (Gates et al., 2017). How could the problems have been avoided? The problems aforementioned could have been avoided.

First and foremost, when the technology used for developing the diesel engine failed to meet the standards set for emission, the company should have come up with a more cutting edge invention that could have met with the requirements (Glazer, 2016). This would not have necessitated the creation of the software that led to fraud and cheating. Secondly, the employees should have refused to take part in such unethical activities regardless of whether this could have cost them their jobs.

The right and ethical thing to do should have been to report such requests of creating a software for obfuscation. Identify organizational behavior concepts that were or could be applied in the organization Organizational behavior takes into account the influence that individuals, groups, and structures have on the behavior of human beings within the organization. Micro organizational behavior alludes to the dynamics of individuals and groups in the organizations.

On the other hand, macro organizational behavior examines the organization as a whole and their industry of operation, particularly the manner in which they become accustomed, the tactics, structures, and incidents that guide them (Boundless, 2016). There are various organizational behavior concepts that could be applied in this case. 1. Organizational Leadership The key role played by leaders in an organization is offering direction. In addition, leaders set up the structure and culture, which influence the behavior of personnel. The leadership of Volkswagen was poor and the scandal is proof.

The main reason why Volkswagen made such a poor decision goes down to the organizational culture cultivated by the organization's leaders. Martin Winterkorn, the CEO of the company was a demanding superior who detested failure. Former company executives call his style of management as authoritarian and directed at nurturing a climate of fear. In addition, the CEO set ambitious objectives for growth, including that of becoming the biggest car manufacturer in the world.

However, attaining this key objective had a huge cost, which in the end 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). 2. Organizational Culture Organizational culture can be defined as a system of mutual meaning. A set of mutual values and standards controls the relations of organizational members with one another and with suppliers, consumers, and other individuals outside the organization.

The culture of an entity is the fundamental set of key ideals, principles, understanding, and norms shared by employees. These core values involve ethical behavior, dedication to employees, efficacy or customer service and they are responsible for the adhesive to hold organization members together (Aquinas, 2010). The organizational failure for Volkswagen should have taken into consideration failure as a set up for encouraging dialogue and debate. The problem here is that VW has a culture that constantly expected employees to win and improve their level of innovation.

This culture set the tone of the constant need to avoid failure regardless of the means. When the personnel realized that the technology could not meet the emergent regulations, they resorted to fraud and cheating (Glazer, 2016). 3. Organizational Structure Organizational structure is the formal system of job and authority relationships that controls the manner in which individuals are to work together and utilize resources to attain organization's objectives. It controls direction and motivation and fashions behavior of individuals and organizations (Aquinas, 2010).

Volkswagen has a strained top-down organizational structure where decision-making depended on a strong leader and a minimal number of key advisers. This sort of structure not only makes the company slow to react to changes taking place in the market, but it also leaves it with obvious weaknesses in day-to-day working (Ferrazzi, 2015). This approach to organizational culture is outmoded and ineffectual as it leaves many personnel that are not part of the operational decisions, feeling undervalued and not reliable.

Consequently, such sidelined personnel are not comfortable in expressing their concerns and organizational aspects to their supervisors and are not inspired to place priority on the overall welfare of the company. This can be inferred from the fact that VW employees failed to report the unethical undertakings to their supervisors and did not place the well-being of the company first (Ferrazzi, 2015).

What organizational behavior problems occurred and what actions were or should have been taken to solve them? One of the major organizational behavior problems that took place is lack of ethical behavior. A very significant organizational challenge for organization is in relation to ethical behaviors and social responsibility. In this case, the behavior of employees of Volkswagen was unethical as they opted to misguide the superiors about the level of emissions from the company's.