Communication in Business
ramm
Rav_Volkswagen.docx1
Volkswagen Corporate Social Responsibility
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Volkswagen is one of the successful car manufacturing company I the world. The company’s management strategy and social responsibility have played an essential role in its increased market share in Europe and abroad. The company was based in Germany, and it has now expanded its activities to different parts of the world. It has employed more than 300,000 employees who can manufacture at least 20,000 vehicles each day. Currently, the company has various production firms around the world for instance in Africa, Asia, and America. The firm is also divided into two different segments such as Volkswagen and Audi, which have produced different brands of vehicles (Abdul 2002). Volkswagen desires to increase its central point on business background, reducing the production cost at the same time enhancing its profitability. The current paper intends to assess VW CSR.
The Volkswagens scandal (I did not see any description of the scandal. You cannot assume that the reader know which scandal you are referring to.) is considered as one of the biggest in the present century. The company has raised concern about business performance and corporate social responsibility. The case study has made people raise questions about sustainability and reviving the philosophical debate on ethical practices, which is characterized in CSR. Volkswagen is very committed to making sure its activities are transparent and has adopted the most effective corporate governance. The execution of its strategies to all business levels and the value chain has become one of the biggest challenges.
The company’s sustainability implies the instantaneously determined for economic, social as well as environmental objective as the way of giving them equal precedence. The firm has established and enduring value, offering a conducive working environment and managing environmental issues with care. Based on the emission issues, the company has failed to meet the CSR requirements and standards.
Human activities have negatively affected the environment in the past few years. Some companies have failed to stick to CSR guidelines and environmental sustainability while consumers expect the company to follow the CSR by modifying their practices (Abdul 2002). Studies have indicated that the automobile industry is publishing their CRS performance in public revelation. To accomplish positive impact on stakeholder anticipation, VW revealed that it is committed to environmental sustainability using their website and media release. VW is one of the most renowned company for sharing their commitment or obligation to CSR, mainly based on environmental sustainability problems as well as stakeholders correspondence. Gruber indicated that various factors affect environmental issues are energy, noise, emission, etc.
The indiscretions in managing the emission problems contradict with what the organization believes in. This is disappointed by the stakeholders who believe in the company operations. The firm is working on these issues and coming up with ways of making sure that all the CSR standards are met. Even though this may take time and resources, it will help the company to restore its customer’s confidence and expectations. Volkswagen management started reviewing its sustainability impression. This has aimed at noting the risks and coming up with opportunities in environmental impacts. Volkswagen corporate responsibility (CSR) practices have contributed to an increased reputation and value.
According to the study carried out by Gruber indicated reasons as for why companies such as VW have encountered SCR issues. There is an argument between two schools of thoughts about CSR and the role played in managing company activities. Business has to increase its value and trust by observing its ethical principles. Alternatively, some researchers believe that companies should conduct their business and enhancing their moral and ethical values; this has played a crucial role in meeting their set goals. In assessing issues affecting VW, social contract theory is the most useful concept to carry out its analysis ( Rasche , Mette and Moon 2017). In brief, the concept of social contracts indicates that society has the right to liberty, rights, and affluence. The emission of harmful gas hurts the environment, which in term cause climate change hence affecting the quality of life.
Volkswagen has established a comprehensive management structure that helps to promote CSR and to synchronize sustainability. The company’s committee consists of the Group Board of Management. The board is informed regularly about the company’s CSR and environmental sustainability (Koplin, Mesterharm and Seuring 2007). The company management has ensured that all employees are in a position to meet their set goals and objectives. Moreover, all the stakeholders are involved in decision making and other production activities. The board is also given the responsibility of making the premeditated sustainability objectives, assess the level that is achieved utilizing the management pointers, noting significant activities as well as accepting the maintainable report. (This may not be relevant.)
It can be noted that CSR and Sustainability department endorses the board group. Its role consists of organizing its sustainable action in the Group and its product brand but also organizing stakeholder’s actions at different levels, for instance, the sustainability of investors and analyst. The project teams have been able to handle all business concept like reporting, management of stakeholder or increasing its supplier’s relationship. This organization and working on structure is developed across all its brand and increasing its operations. From 2009, the company’s CSR for Sustainability VW products brand can be improved by effective communication across all areas and developing the most consisted structure. The CRS department has proven to be part of the company structure. (This is irrelevant.)
In case VW is successful in reviving its reputation, it has to act conclusively. VW has to acknowledge its organizational responsibility but not an individual arrangement for its emission cases. It is essential for the company to lay down a very credible framework on minimizing the emission and proving its compliance based on the regulatory guidelines. (We are not looking for recommendations in this report. Keep it for Assessment 3.)
Moreover, the company has to also reduce its stress by making significant, long term Research and Development for it to become the market leader instead of lagging in adoption of technology and minimizing emission at the same time improving performance. Furthermore, the company has to develop an effective transparent and accountable practices in addition to promoting significant change in company culture. This will play an imperative role to prevent future scam. VW has offered us a blatant lesson in ways companies should handle social responsibility and sustainability (Zhang, et al. 2016).(Irrelevant)
Even though VW has indicated its commitment by sticking to CSR guidelines and promoting environmental sustainability, some researchers contend against the company action citing that there is a lack of proactive methodology and adverse outcome. Abdul and Saadiatul noted that one of a contributor to environmental effect in the automobile industry is air pollution and climate change. The general public is one of the stakeholders that is profoundly affected by environmental issues. As such, when VW is unable to adhere to CSR principles, the whole society is affected. Hence it will not be able to meet its expectation of profit maximization ( Rasche , Mette and Moon 2017).
In the entire literature about social responsibility, it can be agreed that corporate social responsibility is vital for company success in a competitive environment (Beske, Koplin and Seuring 2006). The increased VW development has led to an increase in both negative and positive effects on its expansion. The company follows the strict principles of joining the economic development depending on the company responsibility; this means that the concept of social responsibility and sustainability is deeply rooted in the organizational culture (Gruber 2018).(Irrelevant)
The company has increased its efforts in designing and inventing new types of the automobile that saves much fuel and are environmentally friendly. The company has also followed the sustainability policy despite experiencing various challenges in the implementation process. Social media acts as the window for VW to create awareness of its products and CSR activities. The firm has also published its financial and environmental issue that helps in understanding what consumers, government and other stakeholders. It is important to note that to some level, the execution of these practices might increase the gap between consumers and the company. Furthermore, VW has increased its investment on social media as a way of creating public awareness and expansion to different parts of the word.(You need to review your conclusion once you change your content.)
Bibliography Rasche , Andreas, Morsing Mette , and Jeremy Moon . "Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategy, Communication, Governance." Cambridge University Press, 2017. Abdul, Md Zabid. "Executive and management attitudes towards corporate social responsibility in Malaysia." MCB UP Ltd, 2002: 10 -16. Beske, Philip, Julia Koplin, and Stefan Seuring. "The use of environmental and social standards by German first‐tier suppliers of the Volkswagen AG." Wiley Online Library, 2006. Gruber, Maria. "CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY RHETORIC IN TIMES OF CRISES. A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF CSR REPORTS PRIOR TO AND AFTER MAJOR CORPORATE CRISES." MedienJournal, 2018: 33-50. Hartman, Laura , Robert Rubin, and Kathy Dhanda. "The Communication of Corporate Social Responsibility: United States and European Union Multinational Corporations." Journal of Business Ethics, 2007: 373–389. Koplin, Julia, Michael Mesterharm, and Stefan Seuring. "Incorporating sustainability into supply management in the automotive industry – the case of the Volkswagen AG." Journal of Cleaner Production, 2007: 1053-1062. Zhang, Boyang, Vos Marita, Jari Veijalainen, Shuaiqiang Wang, and Denis Kotkov. "The Issue Arena of a Corporate Social Responsibility Crisis – The Volkswagen Case in Twitter." Redfame Publishing Inc., 2016.
