Ethical Analysis of the Volkswagen Emission Scandal: A Detailed Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of the Volkswagen emission scandal, exploring the ethical dilemmas faced by the company. It delves into the specifics of the scandal, where VW manipulated software to cheat emission tests, leading to environmental damage and a breach of public trust. The report examines the ethical theories of Kantianism and Nicomacean Virtue Ethics, applying them to the actions of VW and its executives. The analysis discusses the company's priorities, focusing on sales over quality and integrity, and the subsequent loss of trust from customers, stakeholders, and the government. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of ethical standards, honesty, and the need for companies to prioritize environmental responsibility and regain stakeholder trust through transparency and corrective actions.

report

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Detailed dilemmas for the case study..............................................................................................1
Ethical Theories chosen...................................................................................................................2
Discussion & Analysis.....................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
Over the time, it has been seen that Volkswagen has been dealing with the internal scandal which
has dented the integrity of the company. For this, it has been seen that the team tested the
different models of the Volkswagen car (VW) where the team tested the different models. The
company has been equipped with the different variety of the diesel vehicles where the car
manufacturer requires to have the software installed in the car for cleaning any of the diesel
exhaust (Griffin et al., 2016). The company made the changes in the software and shut off the
normal driving conditions to improve the economy of the fuel and the performance. This led to
affecting the diesel cars to release the legal amount of nitrogen oxide in the air with the havoc in
the environment. The theories that include are the Kant theory and the Nicomacean Virtue
Ethics.
Detailed dilemmas for the case study
The scandal has been about the Environmental Protection Agency where there is a change in the
installation in diesel engine that could be for improving the results. The working over the
company is for cheating the testing for the emission in US and the CEO also acknowledged the
same. They look for putting efforts with reputation and customer satisfaction that is important for
bringing the competition with best products. The competition creates the urge with creating the
situation without harming the morals and the ethics. It also includes the opportunities to the
consumers to have products and the services at the affordable pricing with the quality and
creating choice (Oldenkamp et al, 2016). The increased market for the automobile manufacturers
need to focus on the improvement of the car quality and then working over providing and
increasing the market at the reasonable price. The focus is also on adopting the unethical ways of

manufacturing, with emerging out the competition in US. It includes the values where the goal of
the company is to increase the shareholder value with the common financial myth. The proof is
about working over the scandals that have resulted mainly due to the short-term rewards of
gaining market values and then rising over the competition as well (Rhodes, 2016). VW need to
focus on the different standards and the policies which could bring a change in the image of the
company. For this, they have started working on the “Go Green” initiatives where there are
objectives related to working over the cleaning and modifying the mistakes that they have done
by making change in the software. Along with this, the focus is on the growing technology and
the forms that will remove the ethical dilemma.
Ethical Theories chosen
The theories focus on:
a. The Kantianism theory which is the moral based ethical perspective focusing over the
ethical duties to work over and handling the treating of the people with respect and
equally capable living in the autonomous life. For this, the people also work over the
rights and the justification with the range and the scope of rights that process for the
prioritizing and resolving the conflicts as well. The consumers, stakeholders, employees
and the dealers works over the incredibly immoral perspectives where VW has never
been able to give the people a proper right to know what needs to be done. The people
believe in the facts and the images of the company with major focus on the dishonesty.
VW has also kept the customers to buy the cars and the shareholders to buy the company
stock with the employees working over the company standards and building up the faulty
cars and the car dealers (Strittmatter et al., 2017). The focus is mainly on dealing and

working over the sales and the business pursuing without handling the rights for making
the decisions.
b. The Nicomacean Virtue Ethics works over the ethical standards to determine the needs
and work over handling and discovering the character traits which are for the good and
the full human life. The virtues are based on including the courage, honesty, self-control
and the justice, where there is a need to offer a detailed version about the business life to
make the distinctions that is more than good and bad at the time of describing the person
or the company with the actions (Thiroux et al., 2015). The regards are taken to focus on
the will to stand over the right ideas and the actions where VW does not need to
exemplify the company intentions with creating and installing the defective software. The
virtue of honesty is considered important for the employee’s treatment with the other
companies and the customers. The scandal is based on the occurrence where VW is not
honest and is working over designing the emission software to test and work with
shutting off afterwards to improve the performance of the fuel. The temperance and the
self-control is important for the expectations and desires that includes the focus on the
unattainable desires with the extent that must deal with meeting the personal goals as
well. Hence, there is no company, who lies to the government for the improvement of the
business. Along with this, the justice needs to be for working hard and producing the
quality products with upholding the business practices as well. VW works on creating the
software which did not take time for creating and then make a proper emission system to
comply to the regulations of the government. The entire scandal could easily be avoided
if it is abided by any of the virtues.

Discussion & Analysis
It is important to focus on the actions by VW where the entire situation is to develop a cleaner
version for the diesel engine with the major priorities of the company to focus on the sales rather
than the quality of the vehicle. With this, the company has also sacrificed the integrity and the
image for the company which needs to be dealt along with handling the decisions for the years to
come (Tse et al, 2017). With this, it did not lose its customers and the stakeholders but also the
trust of the government and the other investors. VW and its other executives are working over
achieving the high routes and now they are trying to focus on regaining the trust of the people.
Here, the major cause of the pursuits is related to the concern of air pollution and control of the
emission which is important for the environmental improvement. There are other strict laws and
regulations which are considered important for maintaining the profit of the company.
Conclusion
The company is currently working over the top-level executives with goal on the attractive, safe
and the environmental friendly solutions to compete in the tough market. With this, there are
different standards set for the respective classes where the major focus is on striving to the
achievement of the goals (Zhang et al., 2016). Along with this, the company has been able to
work on creating the different programs for the consumers and following the path of honesty.
This will help in gaining the trust of the consumers, stakeholders and the government which
involves the detailed reports about the cars and including the tests and the information to verify
the data authenticity. Along with this, there is involvement of the different techniques to rectify
the situation where the company is working on the buyback program and providing the
customers with the free exchange of the vehicle, who bought the vehicle in the time.

References
Griffin, P.A. and Lont, D.H., 2016. Game Changer? The Impact of the VW Emission Cheating
Scandal on the Co-Integration of Large Automakers’ Securities.
Oldenkamp, R., van Zelm, R. and Huijbregts, M.A., 2016. Valuing the human health damage
caused by the fraud of Volkswagen. Environmental Pollution, 212, pp.121-127.
Rhodes, C., 2016. Democratic business ethics: Volkswagen’s emissions scandal and the
disruption of corporate sovereignty. Organization Studies, 37(10), pp.1501-1518.
Strittmatter, A. and Lechner, M., 2017. Sorting on the Used-Car Market After the Volkswagen
Emission Scandal.
Thiroux, J. and Krasemann, K., 2015. Ethics: Theory and Practise. 11th ed. Sydney: Pearson
Australia, pp.47-48.
Tse, Y.K., Zhang, M., Doherty, B., Chappell, P., Moore, S.R. and Keefe, T., 2017. Exploring the
hidden pattern from tweets: Investigation into Volkswagen emissions scandal. In Supply Chain
Management in the Big Data Era (pp. 172-198). IGI Global.’
Zhang, B., Veijalainen, J. and Kotkov, D., 2016. Volkswagen Emission Crisis: Managing
Stakeholder Relations on the Web. In WEBIST 2016: Proceedings of the 12th International conference on
web information systems and technologies. Volume 1, ISBN 978-989-758-186-1. SCITEPRESS.