I really enjoyed reading through your discussion about the VW scandal. You brought up
some great points of view that I had not thought about when doing my research. I agreed with
most all the points that you brought up about what you would do in each situation as a different
employee of the VW company. As each perspective from the different employees creates
different problems, I agree that each aspect could have been handled differently. Although I
agreed that almost everything there were some things that I chose to do a little different.
Employers view
One of the points you made about communication I could not have agreed more with.
Communication is key to any aspect of life whether it be in jobs, relationships, partnerships,
business, etc. Good communication means good business. Business communication is helpful in
to promote a product, service, or organization (Munjal, 2017). It was very evident in this
situation that the Volkswagen Corporation lacked communication from the top down. I enjoyed
how you highlighted this aspect. If VW had exhibited the transparency, I believe that this
situation would have turned out different. “In Volkswagen, not knowing was just as bad as
knowing and acquiescing. Maybe we should start talking about a duty to know what is going on”
(Lippe, 2015). Lippe says here that by just knowing what is going on just might be a key to
better business practice. That knowing by the company essentially starts with communication
withing the business. As my career in the Air Force starts to take off, I am slowly earning that
communication up the chain, as well as down the chain, is vitally important in having a
successful mission and without that communication the mission is most likely going to fail or go
horribly wrong.
CEO view
It is this aspect of your discussion that I partly disagreed with. Although I believe that
everyone reading this would have jumped to the conclusion that everyone in that diesel division,
from the lawyers, to the managers, to the engineers, all should e fired. I believe that a different
approach should have been taken. “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you
have a grievance against you. Forgive someone as the lord forgave you” (ESV, 3 Colossians
3:13). Everywhere in the bible God talks about forgiveness. It takes forgiveness to clean this
mess up. An internal investigation into the events that led to this scandal would reveal where the
breakdown in transparency happened. If an employee wants to admit fault and plan to correct
wrong doings they deserve forgiveness, but if an employee does the opposite and does not want
to admit wrong doings then they do not deserve the forgiveness you are willing to give them.
Afterall, these are the people that created the company so far. The CEO is the “face” of the
company, but the employees are the “heart” of the company. By going in and clearing house the
CEO creates an environment that is not inducive to a successful company that pushes out great
products.
References
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). Crossway Bibles.
Lippe, P. (2015, October 13). Volkswagen: Where were the lawyers? ABA Journal. Retrieved
from
http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/volkswagen_where_were_the_lawyers/
Research-info@allresearchjournal.com, I. (2017). Effective business communication: Key to
success. Retrieved November 15, 2020, from
https://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/?year=2017
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your article and the different points of view you had for each
different position in the company and how you would handle the scandal through their eyes. It is
evident that Volkswagen had a lot of problems up and down their chain and you highlighted
them. The legality of the issue could have been taken a lot deeper. Certainly, an employee who
brings a suit against his employer might be worried about retaliation, such as being fired or
demoted. Thus, the act provides protection for employees who use the law (Kubasek et al, 2020).
The False claims Act would have been a great avenue for an employee to stop the scandal that
VW had on their hands. But the fear of retaliation outweighed this employee view.
Employee view
As an employee it is of vital importance to be able to voice concerns up the chain of
command without fear of being ostracized or being afraid of losing their job form this.
Communication is key to a successful company. VW lacked with this and this cost them big. It is
eye opening that according to Rogerson, several people on the management team were aware of
the software and kept their selfish needs first. This highlights even more the fault of the CEO to
not uphold his employees and management team to have integrity. The lack of integrity in the
company led to many lives being put in danger. This created an ethical dilemma for VW that they
failed to take care of properly. Moving forward the management of VW needs to start creating an
environment for employees to be able to speak up if they see defects or problems with the
products that are being pushed out. IF an environment like this had been established then this
dilemma could have been avoided or stopped on a much smaller scale.
CEO view
After reading your response to what the CEO of the diesel division, it opened my mind to
The approach you decided to use. In my approach it seemed that I was extremely close-minded
when thinking abut what the CEO should do. “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not
prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” (ESV, Proverbs 28:13). God
says in the book of Proverbs that he who confesses and forsakes their transgressions will obtain
mercy. Therefore, the fact that you explained that the CEO should start by admitting his
wrongdoings is the biblical perspective that is taken into consideration as the right steps to
mercy. When looking into other transgressions of CEO’s, many topics show that they often have
a hard time to admit wrongdoing and for good reason. “She says one of the main reasons
companies like JPMorgan don't usually admit to wrongdoing, is because that will open them to
crushing liabilities from plaintiff's lawyers” (Glinton, 2013). This might have looked like the
same result for the company of VW. Bu not coming out and straight up admitting wrongdoing
they might have saved themselves from many other forms of legalities.
References
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). Crossway Bibles.
Glinton, S. (2013, September 20). Why Companies And CEOs Rarely Admit To Wrongdoing.
Retrieved November 15, 2020, from https://www.npr.org/2013/09/20/224296660/why-
companies-and-ceos-rarely-admit-to-wrongdoing
Kubasek, N. K., Browne, M. N., Barkacs, L., Herron, D., & Dhooge, L. (2020). Biblical
worldview edition of dynamic business law (2nd ed.). N. J. Kippenhan (Ed.). New York,
NY: McGraw Hill Education.
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