OfferGet 10% off on Dissertation, Assignments, Essays, Thesis
The article chosen for the purpose of analysis has been published in different media and publishing house. The article chosen for the case study is published in BBC News with the title “Volkswagen diesel emissions fixing bill hits $30 billion” (BBC News, 2017). The article has been analysed in a critical manner where the focus is more on understanding why Volkswagen suffered this loss along with the reasons. The reason behind choosing this article is based on the notion that it covers necessary information from organisational responsibility and organisational culture perspective. There is no doubt that the 2015 diesel emission test cheating affected the reputation and image of Volkswagen being considered as one of the finest carmakers in Europe. It owns number of brands that are not only popular but also carrying brand image and reputation making them one of the highly preferred cars in the world.
When an organsiation like Volkswagen involves in such cheating case along with trying to make amends in global markets through corrective measures, it becomes a reason of curiosity to explore the issue. The discussion also revolves around covering two other media reports on the same issue being published in CNBC (CNBC, 2017) and The New York Times (Ewing, 2017). It needs to be mentioned that all these media reports were published in 2017 and covered useful aspect related to the diesel emission scandal and aftermath. The discussion also revolves around two major topics in the form of organisational responsibility and organisational culture along with analysing the same from the case study point of view. The reason behind choosing these topics is based on the notion that organisational culture shapes organisational responsibility that is an important element to create a win-win situation.
Organisational culture also plays an important role in shaping relevant ideologies. Wilson (2014) mentioned that in many organisations culture is driven by shared values and beliefs. The article published by BBC stated that majority of the top management professionals were aware of their unethical measures but did not share it with middle or lower management (BBC, 2017). This means that the culture was mainly driven by a hierarchy approach where the top management took all the decision rather than seeking views and opinions of others especially stakeholders. The article published in New York Times also suggested that the organisational culture lacked ethical approach and measures that made the company involve in unethical acts by cheating their stakeholders (Ewing, 2017). Luthans and Doh Jonathon (2015) further added that organisational culture in the form of leadership; organisational climate, strategies, and HR policies can lead to favourable or unfavorable policies at workplace.
However, in regards to the Volkswagen, the report published in CNBC revealed that a number of board members were aware of the scandal but did not blew the whistle by supporting the unethical act (CNBC, 2017). This shows that the organisational culture was driven by strategies that defined irresponsibility and unethical measures to an extent. All the media articles further revealed that the diesel emission scandal was a thoughtful choice by the key members of the company. The culture of facilitating unethical strategies was well supported by the top management that affected the image and reputation of the company in a critical manner. Overall, it can be said that if Volkswagen had favoured an ethical and transparent culture, things would have been different in terms of highlighting the usefulness and credibility of their markets in global markets.
Aguinis and Glavas (2012) defined social responsibility of business as a way of enhancing the companies’ profit by engaging in ethical and transparent business activities without engaging in fraud and deception. However, the discussed articles revealed that Volkswagen’s notion of social responsibility was critically marred by the willful preference for fraud and deception. The New York Times revealed that entire strategy of the company starting from 2006 till date that also helped in understanding the fact that the company completely ignored the idea of socially responsible (Ewing, 2017). Carroll and Buchholts (2011) further aligned ethics and morality with organisational responsibility and found that the process of defining right and wrong is quite complete in order to create value. However, the article published in CNBC stated that Volkswagen did not define or analysed the idea of right and wrong rather was engaged in wrongful act of cheating and deceiving customers through illegal use of a software controlling emission as per the required standard (CNBC, 2017).
Crane et al (2008) pointed the usefulness of corporate social responsibility encompassing environmental and social value creation approach. However, the discussed article clearly stated that the company in question supported environmental degradation with high emission by suppressing the actual amount of emission in an illegal manner. This also shows that the approach towards the CSR was not at all ethical and transparent in nature. Finally, Agunis and Glavas (2012) added that corporate responsibility needs to be shared by the top management to support the social, political, environmental, and ethical causes. However, the top management of Volkswagen did not take the responsibility of blowing the whistle at the right time and supported the scandal for a brief period of time that cheated millions of people.
On the basis of the above discussion, it can be said that the case study of Volkswagen was an eye opener in terms of exploring the importance of organisational culture and organisational responsibility. The organisational culture of Volkswagen was seriously in question as the top management supported a culture that was driven by unethical strategies and illegal way of gaining success. On the other hand, the responsibility towards the society, environment and, stakeholders was ignored. This also shows that the company’s sole motive was to create profit by ignoring the ethical measures. The discussion also found that after the scandal, the company tried to fix its image by taking responsibility along with paying stakeholders for the suffering. However, the initial lack of a robust and honest organisational culture and lack of responsible approach affected the long-term image of the company in a negative manner.
Aguinis, H, and Glavas. A (2012) “What We Know and Don’t Know about Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review and Research Agenda.” Journal of Management 38.4 (2012): 932–968.
BBC News (2017) Volkswagen diesel emissions fixing bill hits $30bn.
Carroll, Archie B., and Buchholts K (2011) eds. Business and Society: Ethics, Sustainability, and Stakeholder Management. 8th ed. Mason, OH: Southwestern Cengage Learning
Crane, A, McWilliams A, Matten D, Moon J (2008) The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press
CNBC (2017) VW takes new $3 billion hit over diesel emissions scandal.
Ewing, J (2017) Engineering a Deception: What Led to Volkswagen’s Diesel Scandal.
Luthans, F. & Doh Jonathan, P. (2015). "International Management, Culture, Strategy and Behavior" (9th ed.). McGraw Hill
Wilson, F (2014) Organizational Behaviour and Work. Fourth Edison. Oxford Publishers.
Uniresearchers is a leading team of researchers in the field of academic writing. With the track record of delivering 500+ high quality dissertations and 2500+ essays, assignments and coursework’s Uniresearchers has always tried to keep up with the expectations of our clients.
Uniresearchers is a leading team of researchers in the field of academic writing. With the track record of delivering 500+ high quality dissertations and 2500+ essays, assignments and coursework’s Uniresearchers has always tried to keep up with the expectations of our clients.
