Volkswagen's Learning Barriers, Ethical Training & Implementation

This report delves into the barriers hindering organisational learning at Volkswagen, a prominent player in the global automobile industry. It highlights past failures in change management, ineffective operational control, and ethical breaches related to false emissions claims. The report identifies a centralised organisational structure as a significant impediment. To address these issues, the report recommends adopting an adequate controlling and monitoring system, decentralised decision-making, and flexible policies. It further proposes a need analysis, an ethical training plan encompassing specific goals, two-way communication, situational analysis, and monitoring measures. The importance of a well-structured implementation plan and continuous evaluation for enhancing efficiency is also emphasised. This student contributed the assignment, and more resources are available on Desklib.

5.0 Analysis of existing barriers to the organisational learning at the Volkswagen.
Volkswagen is a well-known brand in the global automobile industry. Organization has invented
various new ideas in relevance with keeping their competitive image in the automobile industry.
Organization also failed to adopt change management in past few years to match up with the
requirements of the business environment. This has affected organizational performance and the
major reason behind this was the inadequate and ineffective control over its operations
(Volkswagen AG, 2018). Employees of the organization was making false promises in relevance
with their diesel cars that their diesel cars are environment friendly and they are low in
emissions. But after quality tests, it found that company was fooling its target audience and the
company was also found guilty in relevance with breaching the standards set up by the
governments. This affected organizational revenues, profitability as well as the reputation of the
organization the global automobile industry. Apart from the false promises made by the top level
management, company’ organizational structure was also becoming the barrier as it was
following centralised system in which controlling and decision making authority was with top
level management. Due to these barriers, organization was not able to cope up with the dynamic
requirements of business environment.
6.0 Recommendations to Volkswagen to become an Ethical Learning Organisation.
Following are recommendations for the Volkswagen in relevance with overcoming from the
barriers:
 Adaptation of an adequate controlling and monitoring system;
 With the effective controlling system, organization would be able to control and monitor
its employees’ activities;
 Adaptation of decentralised system of decision making; and
 Adaptation of flexible policies with the motive of matching up with the requirements of
the dynamic business environments.
6.1 Need Analysis
It is an effective tool to analyse the target audience’s demands along with adaptation of adequate
procedures to fulfil them. In terms of Volkswagen, need analysis also includes making their
cards as per the dynamic business environmental needs, competitors’ products, and target

audience’s requirements along with fulfilling the quality and safety standards prescribed by the
regulation authorities.
6.2 Designing ethical training plan
Following are steps through which Volkswagen could make an ethical training plan:
 Specific plan with organizational goals and objectives;
 Two-way communication process;
 Interactive sessions;
 Situational analysis must be done to make the plan as per the current business’
requirements;
 Developing plan as per the standards and the requirements; and
 Implementation of reviewing, controlling and monitoring measures (Hollings & Hume,
2018).
6.3 Implementation
Implementation plan must include appropriate steps through which organization could be able to
extract desired benefits and positive outcomes. Organisation could also adopt employee feedback
technique in relation with making the implementation plan more effective as well as per
organizational requirements.
6.4 Evaluation
It is required for the Volkswagen to implement appropriate strategies in order to enhance the
efficiency. Along with the adaptation of strategies, it is required for the organization to
implement appropriate strategies with regards to the monitoring and evaluation. With the help of
evaluation techniques, organization will be able to analyse the effectiveness of its policies so that
the desired goals could be acquired along with enhancing organizational efficiency.

References
Hollings, S.C. and Hume, P.A., 2018. Training and Accreditation Systems and Ethical
Considerations. In Best Practice Protocols for Physique Assessment in Sport (pp. 231-241).
Springer, Singapore.
Volkswagen AG. 2018. History. [Online]. Accessed from:
https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/group/history.html. [22nd May 2018].