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Volkswagen's Oxymoron Case Study

1126 Words5 Pages

Case study on: Volkswagen’s ‘Dieselgate’

Business Ethics an Oxymoron?:
‘Business’ and ‘Ethics’ are these two terms like two rivers that may never meet, or can we find an intersection in this Venn Diagram? Are Ethical Business practices all but a myth? Or is there room for values and responsible business undertaking in this cut throat world of profit maximization? When two contradicting situations regarding one event come together, it is termed as an oxymoron. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the dilemma the business organisation face of net-worth vs self-worth and to determine whether the term “Business Ethics” is truly an oxymoron.
Business ethics are often considered oxymoron, and Volkswagen’s recent scandal just added fuel to the fire. In the following case study we discuss Volkswagen’s recent Dieselgate and analyse it using various moral philosophies:

What actually happened:
In September of 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found a ‘defeat device’ in many of the Volkswagen cars in America. The defeat device was essentially a software installed in the diesel engines which could detect if the cars are being tested. Sensing a test, the device changed the performance of the performance, so as to give improved results. Volkswagen then admitted cheating the …show more content…

The question here, is not why they did it, this is rather clear. If one looks at VW AG sales ' revenues, which in 2014 (the year of the falsification) have almost doubled those of 2010, reaching 202 EUR billions it is not a hard guess. This is the highest revenue level ever reached by the company. By May 2015, profit was still remarkable, estimated at 3.3 EUR billions. But the scandal only started in September. Is a leadership change and public admission of the fraud enough to re-boost confidence in the stock and the auto

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