Case Study On Kantianism

For instance, if a person were to ask me if his car was nice but I thought it was junk, Kant would disregard his feelings because telling him the truth is more important. Therefore, it is okay to perform illegal or unethical actions because morality and loyalty are more important. The problem would then arise: “What if everyone did this? What if everyone acted on impulse and did whatever they wanted? There would be no need for moral choices and

Firstly, from the view of company, Volkswagen scandal is result from the misuse of CSR that the company regarded it as a marketing tool. Although Volkswagen promised to persuade CSR as their corporation culture, the reality turns out to be opposite. Volkswagen equipped defeat devices on cars deliberately to pass environmental tasks and actually the defeat device emitted nitrogen oxide approximately 40 times of standard (Dans, 2015). This behaviour can be explained as "green-washing", which means the real performance is different from the test results (Eric, 2015). The motivation of deception largely depends on corporation’s aggressive goal called “Strategy 2018” , which aim to increase annual sales to ten million cars by 2018 (Volkswagen, 2014). Therefore, Volkswagen needs to lower the price to be competitive to its competitors and one task is to reduce cost of production. Volkswagen used CSR concept to cover unethical actions. It demonstrates that Volkswagen focused on persuading the short-term target rather than its customers, long-term reputation and environment (Bansal, King & Seijts,

One of the several topics covered in Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals is the issued of two shopkeepers. One shopkeeper is honest with his customers in order to maintain a positive reputation and improve profits. The second one is honest because he thinks it is right and exercises his respect for the moral law. The first shopkeeper is motivated to be honest by the rewards of a positive reputation and profit. The second is motivated by respect for morally right action. Taking these motivations into consideration from the standpoint of Kantian ethics, it is clear which shopkeeper is acting right.

(TCO 5) Fraud is an intentional misrepresentation of facts, made for the purpose of persuading another party to act in a way that causes injury or damage to that party. In our readings and discussions we have seen several examples of fraud in business. Using that experience (1) provide an example of a common fraudulent practice in business with an explanation of how the practice works and (2) name and describe each of the elements of the Fraud Triangle.

The second item is if VW would be unwilling to change its ways and value sales and profit over integrity to stakeholders. VW was already caught cheating just to win awards and surpass its completion, but if its willing to continually do this and not change for the better it would be best not to continue the engagement with the organization.

The action has an effect on the loyal customers, suppliers and other stakeholders such as industrial transportation in the US/European economy that have been a pivot point in the value addition to the Volkswagen business.

be shown that there is such a thing as true profit. If we decide there is, we then need to

As a multinational corporation, the implication of the scandal determines the fate of numerous stakeholders both internal and external. Internal stakeholders comprise of the board, managers and employees while external stakeholders subsume shareholders, customers and suppliers. The economic, political and social impacts of the dishonest practices would shape the fate of Volkswagen and affect the future prospects of the automotive industry. Common shareholders whilst not involved in the day to day running of the business placed faith and belief in the firm by providing capital had suffered severe economic loss as share prices (get something for stat). Despite the callous deception in advertising the defeat device displayed no signs of disturbing vehicle performance, however, customers of Volkswagen and its subsidiary vehicles suffer from lower resale value. In addition, even though the scandal was global, European consumers were the most affected with diesel cars accounting for 41% of all European cars (Fontaras, 2016). This high percentage in respect to other nations is a result of incentives provided by the European Union for the purchase of diesel vehicles such as subsidies towards the production process resulting in lower premiums compared to petrol counterparts (Vidal, 2015) In additional with sales falling suppliers of Volkswagen would likely lose future contracts or have current contracts downgraded as less parts are required. Thus, this loss of future

* Kantian Ethics- the belief that people should be treated as ends and never as means to the ends of others

When businesses are selling their products or services, they often use different motivational techniques to motive their customers to purchase more products or services. Sometimes, businesses use a combination of multiple techniques to attract more customers. Three most effective techniques are: scarcity, exclusivity, status figures. After understanding all three of these techniques, the essay then will introduce Kantian perspective and arguing from a Kantian’s perspective, why all three of those techniques are morally impermissible. Some techniques are coercive and some are deceptive. Either way, those techniques are morally impermissible according to Kant.

Kantian ethics and utilitarianism are at variance on issues of morality and do share a similar end goal on what general ethical outcomes in solving the ills of the world. These two philosophical thoughts examine nature of morality with variant theories. As Kantian ethics are based on the theories propagated by German philosopher Immanuel Kant, utilitarianism on the other hand as has been projected by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mills and many others who share in this school of thought. In this essay, I am going to examine these two contrasting views and provides responses to each objection as provided by their ethos. I will also draw some parallels as identified and make an assessment based on my personal preference.

Kantianism rejects the idea of examining the nature of our consequences because one can never be certain that their actions will beneficial. The complicated nature of the consequences that people may face as a result of their actions is what motivates the idea of rejecting a consideration of the aftermath of certain undertakings. Kantianism is consistent, impartial, and rational in its application (Ware 739). The respect for persons as we examine morality does not have mean or average consequences. The theory only recognizes actions as either absolute wrong or right. There are only two extremes of the spectrum and this does not leave out any gray areas. For instance, murder is absolutely unethical and an action that should not be tolerated as we pursue respect for human life.

Kantian ethics has its foundation built on the concepts of fairness and justice – two ideas directly opposed by extremist groups. In a world where inequality and injustice often seem to win, Kantian ethics ask us to go beyond our individual desires and act on what are called categorical imperatives. These

Kantian ethics states that one should do the right thing because it is the moral thing to do.

One of the disturbing factors regarding the scandal is knowing that it may have been a joint effort between both the employees & managers in different departments. Part of being in an organization not only entails making ethical decisions, but also holding others to the same standards as well. Unethical decisions caused by a few people or even one person can have a very negative effect on a company’s reputation and their consumer relationships. For example, there were quite a few Engineers and other Executives that were persecuted for their involvement in this incident. According to an article in the New York Times (Vlasic, 2017), “The Engineer, James Liang, is the first company employee sent to prison in the vast scandal that has tainted Volkswagen’s reputation and cost it more than $20 billion in fines and settlements consumers.” Also, according to the New York Times article, Liang’s lawyer stated that “He was not the mastermind, but he did play a role.” This brings up a good point—it shows how any kind of involvement in an illegal/unethical act can put you in bad situation.