Question

How do you think Volkswagen executives could justify this behavior? How do you think the actions of the Japanese automakers influenced VW' s decision-making?

Answer 1

Volkswagen being a German company was highly performance-driven and has a highly competitive culture which in many cases acts as a precursor to unethical behavior.

Volkswagen engineers and executives could legitimize their unscrupulous conduct as they were under tremendous pressure to develop a ground-breaking diesel engine to consumers and at the same time adhering to the emission. norms. Volkswagen is a revenue-driven business, and cash changed the moral temperature of culture. The organization's managers in the diesel office understood that they couldn't develop an engine with more power while additionally agreeing to the pollution norms of the US. Diesel engines were the door to fiercely fight with Volkswagen's Japanese opponents and to capture the U.S. market.

Japan has been a pioneer in automotive space due to it's TQM philosophy of achieving efficiency and reducing wastage. This gave Japan an edge in US and enabled it to make cars that were affordable and at the same time high performance. This led to a pressure on Volkwagen to develop cars which were powerful but at the same time economically viable, this combination could have only been achieved through diesel engines but at the cost of high emission which VW decided to circumvent through the "defeat device"