Question

Volkswagen’s Emissions Scandal

What ethical behaviors and consequences arose from the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal as related to the items in criticisms and questionable assumptions of oligopolies (fully respond)?

Answer 1

Volkswagen's scandal hurt the goodwill of one of the most popular brand Volkswagen and its subsidiary brands. Various issues which were not ethical were seen in the company.

1 pressure : The pressure from the top management was intense. Volkswagen 25 page of code of conduct made it mandatory for every employees to be trained in ethics. But it seems irrelevant when contrasted with management's autocratic leadership style. There was single minded goal to succeed at any cost.

2. Opportunity :There exist the opportunity to cheat as well. Bosch sold Volkswagen the diesel engine management software that could detect when the vehicle was being tested and turn on emission controlling devices. But it was illegal in case of vehicles sold to the public. As modern cars operate with about 100 million lines of software so it was easy to hide cheating software code  

3.Rationaliization: In 1970s the engineers knew that Volkswagen engines had installed in volkswagens "defeat devices" It allowed the company to cheat on net enacted emission standards. As the consequence was a minimal fine of dollar 120,000 if they cheated. So the punishment was light if they cheated, they may have rationalized.

As far as consequence are concerned, these were some consequences :

1.when volkswagen defeat devices was known then it was found that on road these vehicles actually emitted upto 40 times the allowed amount

The major excess pollutants include nitric oxide which cause serious health concerns  

2.Excess emissions generated by 3 million affected vehicles will cause approximately 60 death in Us and nearly 120p in Europe  

3.when scandal was, found, company's stick dropped losing 35%of its market value.

4.It also receives negative sentiments from some vehicle owners who bought it hoping for lower emissions.

Despite the scandal, volkswagen has returned to profitability in 2016. Their sales also reached 9.6% in China. It continues to enjoy its position in the top sales chart as in case of oligopoly market.