Ethical Dilemma About Volkswagen Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Ethical Dilemma About Volkswagen. Answer: Introduction There are many scandals that have been going around in the international business world. The organizations such as Volkswagen, Worldcon, Enron, Fords are taking decisions which can be highly distrustful and have raised ethical questions. These scandals have also contributed to the serious loss of trust and confidence for those organizations and within the business integrity. In the contemporary business world, the organizations tend to increase their profits and value which is also the primary reason behind seeking more ways to do that. However, in the process of doing that, many organizations are making decisions that can be harmful (Zhou, 2016). The recent scandal of Volkswagen indicates that the business ethics are still significant to the business world and should immediately be addressed in the way of increasing the profits of the organization. The carbon emission cheating of Volkswagen has encouraged attention of the entire business world in recent times. The public and media d ebate regarding the Volkswagen scandal have already got so much attention, that it is quite easy to mark the scandal as unethical or wrong (Siano et al., 2017). This essay addresses the ethical dilemmas of the scandal in the light of various ethical theories. The ethical theories include deontology, utilitarianism and egoism theory. After the detailed analysis, the recommendation and personal reflection has been presented in this essay. Background The case of ethical dilemma about Volkswagen had affected the historical journey of the organization and its newly appointed CEO. The organization can be traced back in the 30s where it first started the journey. In the year 2014, there was a regular on road testing in California by the CARB or California Air resources. This road testing had led the organization in investing Volkswagen for violating the federal and state vehicle emission rules (Balbi, 2015). Furthermore, the researchers had tested the emission form two of the Volkswagen models. The examination has also revealed that those models were equipped with 2-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder diesel engine. Later it was also found that these models were emitting around forty times of the permitted level of NOx or nitrogen oxide and dioxide. Later the organization accepted their fault and admitted that millions off their car models were set with defeat device (Preston, 2015). It was also disclosed that around 11 millions of the die sel cars where around eight millions cars were in Europe, had been equipped with a special software which has helped the organization to cheat in the emission test. The credibility of the organization has been affected with this scandal to a great extent. The entire business world was not ready to accept the fact that this scandal has happened without the knowledge of the top executives of the organization (Nemeth Carvalho, 2017). Therefore the contemporary CEO has resigned taking the entire responsibility of the scandal. This scandal has been one of the biggest leadership and ethical challenge in the recent times. This incident has raised several questions regarding the ethical theories that the organization should adhere to. Explanation: Deontology The view of Deontology belongs to the group of normative theories. This theory is mostly focused on the moral actions and the choices of the individual, however in this case it is the organization itself. This theory also judges the morality of the action on the basis of the pre-determined rules. According to this theory, on the basis of the deontological ethics there may raise different moral obligations from any of the internal or external sources such as religious law, cultural or personal values or ethical naturalism. These choices can be forbidden, morally required or permitted. Kantianism is also a significant part of the deontology. As stated by Chakrabarty Bass (2015), Kantianism has argued that one act can be ethically right only if they have obeyed the categorical imperative. It should also be noted that this theory states that in order to make any act morally right, people should adhere to their duties. Also, it has been said that the consequences of any action do not mak e it right or wrong, rather the motives of the individual who perform the actions (Paquette, Sommerfeld Kent, 2015). Regarding this case, Volkswagen should act in accordance with the pre-determined principles. However, considering the categorical imperative, Volkswagen should offer safe, attractive and environmentally sound cars that are capable of competing in the international automobile market. The organization has already set its standards for the last few decades; therefore they should stick to it. It can also be argued that considering the categorical imperative, Volkswagen has acted ethical as their cheat software did not affect the attractiveness or the safeness of the device; however it has affected the environmental security to a great extent. Utilitarianism Utilitarianism is a part of consequentialism. This is an ethical theory that says that the best action is the one which has the maximum utility and brings maximum happiness to the world. The term utility can also be defined in different methods such as well beings, happiness etc. The founder of the ethical theory, Jeremy Bentham, defined the term utility as the joint sum of all the possible pleasures which may result from a specific action. This does not count the suffering of any person for the action (Shafer-Landau, 2014). As Utilitarianism is a part of consequentialism, this adheres to the fact that there is always a standard of wrong and right of any consequences of the action. Utilitarianism mostly states that one should maximize the pleasure out of any context; therefore one should choose the action which can contribute the most in increasing the happiness for most of the people. This theory also states that if there is any life at risk, the choice of life can reduce a huge amo unt of pleasure (Weiss, 2014). With the help of this theory, it can be assessed that how ethical was the idea of putting the cheat device n the Volkswagen models. It basically focuses on the consequences of the action. Egoism theory The Egoism theory or the Ethical egoism is the ethical position which should be done by the moral agents for their own self-interest. The egoism theory has three different parts such as ethical egoism, psychological egoism and rational egoism. The psychological egoism states that people will only act in the place where their self interest in fulfilled. On the other hand, the rational egoism considers that it is only rational where there is ones self interest (Overall, 2016). However, ethical egoism holds that the actions which are beneficial to ones self interest, can be considered to be ethical in that terms. This theory is in fully contrast with the theory of utilitarianism which states that one should not treat ones self higher than the others, however, egoism theory considers the self higher than any other being. This theory can justify the Volkswagen scandal to a great extent. Analysis and Evaluation Applying utilitarianism in the Volkswagen ethical case, it can be said that it tend to involve several sections. There are several parties that are included along with the organization, such as the organization itself and its employees, the clients, the agency that was checking the environmental testing or EPA and the other one was the indirect party which is the people of the countries where Volkswagen has sold its cars. In accordance to the utilitarianism theory, the acts of Volkswagen are not at all acceptable as they did not contribute to any incensement of the greater good or the happiness (Jung et al., 2017). Especially at the end, the organization was caught with the cheating and it did not make anyone happy. The organization was also blameworthy for the actions they had performed, as they knew it from before, what exactly was happening and what exactly could go wrong as the consequence of the actions. They had developed the software with the purpose of cheating. They may have created utility for the company itself but it did not play any safe for the environment. In such situations, there should be effective punishment for Volkswagen as its actions have not led to something great. The punishment to the action should also be obligatory for the organization as utilitarianism says that punishment should be permissible if there is no chance of leading towards great utility. Volkswagen should not do this again. Also, they have lost the marke of diesel cars and share prices dropped to a great extent. As stated before, deontology also do not support the deed of Volkswagen of misleading the environmental gas testing agency. As the car was considered to be the low emission diesel cars, it could be sent to the various countries. Therefore, the customers could also be charged more taxes that the allowed ones. Therefore considering the deontological point of view, putting the cheat software in the cars was not a morally right thing to do as this act goes exactly against to the moral duty. Volkswagen has been acting entirely against the moral law, therefore it is quite expected what has should be done and the organization should be punished for their deed. The egoism theory goes exactly to the opposite of the previously discussed theories. This theory puts more importance to the self and stats that one should exactly do whatever is beneficial to his or her own self interest (Dybus Lemmen, 2017). Considering the Volkswagen case, the organization has put the cheat device in the cars as they wanted to cheat the governments and the agencies as they wanted their diesel cars to be successful in the market. However, as they have been caught with their cheat device, they have lost a huge amount of share from the market and their decade long reputation was hampered. However, egoism theory justifies the deeds of the Volkswagen employees as it was considered to be beneficial for the organization itself. Implication for business The research on the Volkswagen case has been helpful for me. Since I have a plan to open up a business in future, I can utilize the learning in my business. In the restaurant business, one popular yet unlawful business takes place sometimes, is to use the gas which is not environmentally sound and it can hamper the environmental balance. There are many organizations that try to use this gas as it is cheap and the production cost of the food becomes quite low. However, this kind of gas emission is not easy to get as the government s quite strict about the law. However, in my business, I will not use any such product which has the possibility of violating the environmental balance. Any kind of unethical business will not be taken in my organization. We all should be responsible enough to ensure that there is no harm occurring due of our business. Conclusion This essay has explained the Volkswagen case study with the help of three different ethical theories. It can be said that other than the egoism theory, which keeps the ego at the very first place, all the other theories have considered the case to be morally permissible. The first ethical theories, utilitarianism and deontology would consider Volkswagen to be the culprit of whatever they did. These theories consider Volkswagen to be punished for hampering the environmental balance as well. However, the egoism theory can justify the act as it only considered the interest of the organization. However, in the long run, the organization was not benefitted with their decision and this has hampered their decade long reputation as well. In such situation, Volkswagen should bring a leader, for the organization, who is new, strong and ethical, therefore he or she can work hard to bring the trust of thee customers back on the organization. The organization need a strong and a moral person who can manage the work morally. References Balbi, A. (2015). Update: Volkswagen scandal: one of the world's largest automakers has admitted to unethical decision making and is working on clarifying the" inconsistencies.".Strategic Finance,97(6), 9-10. Blackwelder, B., Coleman, K., Colunga-Santoyo, S., Harrison, J. S., Wozniak, D. (2016). The Volkswagen Scandal. Chakrabarty, S., Bass, A. E. (2015). Comparing virtue, consequentialist, and deontological ethics-based corporate social responsibility: Mitigating microfinance risk in institutional voids.Journal of Business Ethics,126(3), 487-512. Dybus, C., Lemmen, J. (2017). 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