Week 5 – Assignment: Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Scandal

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapter 10: Ethical Decision Making: Corporate Governance, Accounting, and Finance in Hartman et al. (2021), and Ethics and Justice – What Penalty Should Volkswagen Be Compelled to Pay for Its Unethical and Unlawful Conduct, and on What Basis?Links to an external site. (Huckabee, 2018). Also, watch The Crisis at VolkswagenLinks to an external site. (Yale School of Management, 2015). In addition, you may wish to review Chapter 15 in A Companion to Business EthicsLinks to an external site. (Frederick, 1999)

In October 2015, Mathias Müller became CEO of Volkswagen amid a scandal alleging the company had deliberately installed devices in many of its diesel cars to cheat U.S. emissions requirements. Imagine you are an ethical advisor to the organization who has been asked to explain the situation to Müller. You should acknowledge and explain the unethical decisions and actions, what makes them unethical, and then make suggestions about how to ethically respond. You do not need to worry about public perception or be concerned about an apology by the organization. Rather, you should aim to honestly explain and critique the situation, aiming to inform about the circumstances that led to unethical choices as well as what ethical choices are available in response.

In Hartman et al. (2021), review the section titled Volkswagen Diesel Fraud (pp. 352–355). In a short argumentative paper of at least 800 words (excluding title, abstract, and reference pages) and citing at least two scholarly, peer-reviewed sources in addition to required readings, address the following:

• • • Discuss the ethical offense or offenses in the Volkswagen Diesel Emissions scandal. Explain what unethical decisions were made and why they were unethical. Be sure to incorporate an ethical theory to defend your explanation.
    • Explain why these unethical decisions were made, assessing what likely led to them. What were the circumstances in which the decisions were made? What organizational cultural elements, pressures, and leadership actions contributed to the unethical decisions? Explain how reasonable people could have made those decisions.
    • Conclude with a recommendation for Volkswagen to move forward following this scandal. Can Volkswagen correct its mistakes and, if so, how?

The Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Scandal written assignment

• • Must be at least 800 words in length (not including title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA StyleLinks to an external site. as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA Formatting for Microsoft WordLinks to an external site. resource.

Tutorial for Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Scandal