Ethical Challenges Case Study : Volkswagen Ethical Scandal

work and of where they function in wide ranging roles, face ethical dilemmas on their daily

A lot of key factors would need to be considered when determining if a company is being ran ethically

Ethics by definition is a system of moral principle. These principles affect how people make decisions and the choices they make in their lives. Ethics shape the way we live and what we do through our choices. All of us make ethical decisions on a daily basis which inform who we are and our morals.

Government support for environmental friendly products- this is an opportunity for Volkswagen to market and promote its clean energy cars in support of environment and to improve in its existing products to meet the environment

The problem to be investigated is the application of business ethics. In the business world, ethics are extremely important. Ethics are prime elements that help a business to grow and to become more productive. It is by applying proper business ethics that a business can operate in a moral or ethical business environment and managed to conduct all activities in a manner that maximizes profits while not compromising all other non-economic concerns(Schwab, 1996). Businesses have over the years failed to nurture business ethics in order to fulfill shareholders' interests and to have a culture that is oriented towards profit maximization and high performance(Jennings, 2012; Sims & Felton, 2006). This has led business to have gray areas in their activities. Gray areas are those situations or problems that do not fit exactly into any ethical analysis. These are the activities which may be represented to be immoral as a result of lying and false representations on the part of the business.

Ethics, as defined in the dictionary, are moral principles that help govern a persons behaviour or the conducting of an activity. Ethics must be taken into consideration when forming a decision towards major and minor issues in our society.

Ethics is the systematic study of what a person’s conduct and actions should be with regard to self, other human beings, and the environment; it is the justification of what is right or good and the study of what a person’s life and relationships should be, not necessarily what they are. Ethics is a system of moral conduct and

Industries around the world, some more than other, have revenue and assets higher than the GDP of a number of nations. This makes them more powerful than those nations. These companies are run by Individuals who essentially make decisions on how the profit is made and how operations and activities are carried out. Their actions and decisions could potentially have an impact on a number of things, generally; the environment, national economies and even the lives of people somewhere on the globe. Making ethical decisions entails the decision maker(s) moral judgement about what is right and wrong and is carried out based on what they think is the right course of action. This may involve whiling away what could potentially increase a business’s yield financially but will also cause harm or pain for other stakeholder’s involved. This is why among many other reasons, ethics is very important for both the businesses and the society.

The ethical issues are based on the social code and daily morality. Since the discussion is based on customer loyalty, stem cell research and abortion. Yet this invokes some serious arguments which proves that there are ethical issues which are yet of considerable concerns and need to be addressed. The ethical issues that are faced by the company mostly revolve

Ethics are moral principles that affect how people make decisions and live their lives. Ethics focuses on what is the good for individuals and society. Ethics are involved in how to live a good life, our rights and responsibilities, right and wrong and moral decisions. The concept we use as ethics came from religions and cultures.

What are ethics? The connotation of ‘ethics’ is challenging to explain and is perceived as a set of rules we should strive to live by. It According to Ghillyer (2010), ethics is the study of how people try to live their life according to a standard of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

Today’s business world presents numerous ethical issues. In today’s world above board/moral ethics in organizations do not often materialize intuitively. Organization must strive to provide employees with a clear understanding of the overall company vision. This will aid employees in practicing the code of ethics, policies and procedures in the workplace. Companies must be unwavering in continuously delivering the uppermost ethics of provision in which customers, applicants and employees are entitled to under fair business practices. One major core value is to uphold responsible and fair business practices.

Volkswagen created a device that would pass an emission test, a cheaper ignition switch was used, which caused air bags not to deploy and cars to stop when bumped into moving vehicles. In the article “Volkswagen: Where were the lawyers?”, the decisions of the lawyers involved are examined, were these lawyers being ethical did they follow proper guidelines? After reviewing this article, I feel as an employee or manager in either the legal office or the engineering department, this could have been prevented.

According to Guido, ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the evaluation of human action. A broader definition would be that ethics involves the principles or assumptions underpinning the way individuals or groups ought to conduct themselves.

The formal definition of ethics is as follows, moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity or alternatively the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles. (Ethics definition: dictionary.com, 2014)