Volkswagen Ethical Issue: Assignment
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Added on 2020-04-01
Volkswagen Ethical Issue: Assignment
Added on 2020-04-01
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1. Volkswagen Ethical IssueVolkswagen is a car manufacturer based out of Germany and formed in 1937. The organisationhas global presence and is one of the most popular car manufacturers all across the globe. Theorganisation has also been one of the best in diesel cars and recently it had claimed that the dieselcars that it manufactures are environment friendly and low on emission. However, this claim wasproven to be false as it was found that the organisation had been “engineering” its cars to providedeceptive results. The scandal was termed as the “Diesel Dupe” and in this the organisation hadsoftware in the engine which could sense if the car was being tested (Mansouri, 2016). On beingtested the software would change the performance factors and thus provide deceptive results. Later on Volkswagen accepted cheating emission tests in the US market but denied otherallegations. However, this unethical practice has led to loss of reputation for the organisation andalso has led to financial losses. According to ABC News (2015) Volkswagen is facing billions ofdollars in losses and fines as it had to recall its cars and also had to pay huge fines. This is furthermagnified with diminished sales. Ethics and ethical practices have several branches and ifConsequentialism is applied it will be clearer why this act of Volkswagen was unethical.According to this branch of ethics the outcome of the action needs to provide for a greater good.In this case the outcome would mean increased environmental pollution (de Vries et al. 2017).People were lured into buying these cars as they were low on pollution, but eventually they areadding to environmental pollution and thus the action is causing a greater harm to theenvironment. Apart from ethics there have been legalities that have been associated with the Volkswagenscandal. Volkswagen has been manipulating the emission test results and therefore it has beenduping the customers and also the government (The Conversation, 2017). This is definitely acase where the organisation has been utilising technology for fraudulent purposes in order toboost their own sales and profits. In every country there are government regulations onemissions. There are set standards and the car manufacturers are to abide by these regulations.However, Volkswagen used a mechanism to alter the performance and hence dupe the emissiontests and thus although it was actually polluting more it provided results which werecontroversial. All of these meant that there were several legalities that Volkswagen had brokenand as a result there are Government investigations against the organisation.
From this case it could be seen that Volkswagen had used unethical means to boost the car salesbut however, the unethical business practice was only capable of giving the organisation a shortterm sales boost and ultimately lead to huge losses for the organisation. Any organisation needsto focus on ethical business practice in order to sustain in the long run. The triple bottom linesustainability approach focuses on environmental, economical and societal sustainability and thisapproach ensures long term success for any organisation. 2. Billabong CSRIn the first part it was illustrated how organisations need to focus on triple bottom linesustainability. Corporate Social Responsibility is a way of focusing on the environment and theoverall society at large. Businesses take from the society and the environment and it is theirresponsibility to give back. Major organisations all across the globe have CSR charters butunfortunately it can be seen that CSR is a way or promoting or marketing. CSR should in linewith the values and this is something which needs to be investigated. Billabong has been chosenfor the same and the following will look into how the CSR activities of Billabong reflect thevalues of the organisationBillabong International started as a surfing company and therefore values of the organisationalways included environmental protection. Environment has been one of the key concerns forthis organisation and this gets reflected in the CSR. Billabong has been supportive ofenvironmental groups and has also focused on recycling for focusing on the growing concerns ofclimate change. Billabong has also focused on reducing the carbon footprints by focusing onrecycling. It has been noticed that approximately 100 million plastic bottles are used each dayand 86% of these bottles go into landfills (Billabongbiz.com, 2017). Billabong has focused onrecycling plastic bottles and 57 million bottles have been recycled so far. Recycling the bottlesalso ensures that there is 50-60% less power consumption and therefore this adds towards thereduction of carbon foot prints. Billabong has had a five year plan to cut down its carbon emissions by 15% by the end of 2017.Focus on the environment has always been a prime concern for the organisation and towards thisdirection there have been several innovative steps that the organisation has taken(Billabong.com, 2017). The organisation has also teamed up with the World Wildlife Funds
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