Sometime in 2015, the German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen was caught up in an ethical scandal concerning a violation of the American Clean Air Act. The issue had been flagged by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), who detected that the Volkswagen car brand had the defective software. The details had revealed that the software installed to govern the engine could sense whenever the vehicles were being tested and subsequently activate emission reduction from the equipment. The same could later turn down when driven regularly and result in emissions that were way above the allowed limit as per the environmental standards in the US. The reason for this was assumed to have been to reduce fuel consumption, improve acceleration and better the torque of the vehicle (Gates, Ewing, Russell and Watkins 1).
The EPA’s decision was to wait until the claims had been substantiated since the investigations are still ongoing because has been a short while since the discovery. Hotten (13) states that it was not clear whether the management of the company had been involved in the incident however, it is inevitable that they get involved because their approval must have been needed to fit the cheating equipment into the engines of the Volkswagen automobiles. The same article reveals that the Head of Sales, Mr. Christian Klinger, who is also part of the company’s management board, is departing. This move raised suspicions. However, the firm maintained that it had been intended even before the scandal as part of the structural change and not because he had been involved. Considering the fact that there had been previous concerns over Volkswagen’s rate of emissions, which the executives had dismissed to be technical issues, it is likely that the superiors had been misleading others all this time.
There seemed to be a management conflict because, after the scandal, some senior management posts became vacant after almost half of them were fired. The fact that it involved the entire production process means that the manipulation had been a chain of mistakes that trickled down from top posts, who had been too ready to bend the rules in the name of improved efficiency. It has been expected that the former CEO Martin Winterkorn might have been involved and having such a top office as part of the decision-making process in the scandal means that it was the ultimate power in allowing the scam, no better office could have made the cheating easier. The assumption was triggered by the fact that he had been issued with a memo highlighting the irregularities in emissions in 2014 (Gates et al. 18).
As per the framework for ethical reasoning, my decision would be different because I would consider more than just the financial benefits that could have worse economic repercussions on the company. The decision to cheat was apparently formulated by the workers of the firm when they realized that the products would not meet the American standards. The decision of the executives who purported this scandalous act cannot be considered utilitarian because the consequences of their decisions bore no good in any sense. It did not generate any good for any party.
The actions of the senior staff involved in this could be argued to be in regard to Kantian ethics because this consideration does not pay attention to the consequences but on duty fulfilment instead, referred to as the Categorical Imperative (California State University 1). If this thought were to be used to defend the perpetrators, then it would be sufficient because they allowed for the defective equipment installation in the vehicle engines so that they could meet the market environmental requirements and increases the units sold as demanded by the company goals.
Works Cited
California State University. Kantian Ethics. N.d. Web. 2 May. 2016. (http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/Kantian%20Ethics.htm)
Gates, Guilbert, Jack Ewing, Karl Russell and Derek Watkins. “Explaining Volkswagen’s Emissions Scandal. New York Times. 28 April. 2016. Web. 2 May. 2016. (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/business/international/vw-diesel-emissions- scandal-explained.html?_r=0)
Hotten, Russell. “Volkswagen: The Scandal Explained. BBC News. 10 Dec. 2015.Web. 2 May. 2016. (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772)
