Business Ethics
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Business Ethics The increased importance placed on organizations and businesses to behave ethically today has shed light into the ethical crisis concept. An ethical crisis is basically a situation where entire organization, or people within the business, are faced with circumstances where they have to choose between what is right or wrong. During the course of normal business operations and dealings, it is inevitable that organizations and individuals within the organization will encounter instances where a decision has to be made between the ethical and the unethical. Making the right choice fosters organizational goals and mission while selecting the unethical choice may potentially damage the reputation of the business and dent its profitability. This paper examines business ethics and the issue of ethical crises by reviewing the Volkswagen situation from a legal, ethical, and spiritual …show more content…
In line with the environmental protection regulations, each car manufacturer has to ensure that their cars meet certain emission thresholds. Various government agencies regularly conduct emission tests to determine whether these companies are compliant or not. Volkswagen’s core value proposition is the utilization of clean diesel which does not harm the environment. However, as it was later discovered, the organization had, for a while, been using fuel that harms the environment. And to cover it up, as Lippe noted, diesel cars were cheated with software that cheated emission tests with more than 11 million cars having been equipped with this software by the time the scandal broke out. It is clear that the ethical crisis was not a result of a single person’s actions or decisions, but, rather, a failure of the entire organizations. The problem was nurtured and allowed to grow until it finally
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Business Ethics The increased importance placed on organizations and businesses to behave ethically today has shed light into the ethical crisis concept. An ethical crisis is basically a situation where entire organization, or people within the business, are faced with circumstances where they have to choose between what is right or wrong. During the course of normal business operations and dealings, it is inevitable that organizations and individuals within the organization will encounter instances where a decision has to be made between the ethical and the unethical. Making the right choice fosters organizational goals and mission while selecting the unethical choice may potentially damage the reputation of the business and dent its profitability. This paper examines business ethics and the issue of ethical crises by reviewing the Volkswagen situation from a legal, ethical, and spiritual …show more content…
In line with the environmental protection regulations, each car manufacturer has to ensure that their cars meet certain emission thresholds. Various government agencies regularly conduct emission tests to determine whether these companies are compliant or not. Volkswagen’s core value proposition is the utilization of clean diesel which does not harm the environment. However, as it was later discovered, the organization had, for a while, been using fuel that harms the environment. And to cover it up, as Lippe noted, diesel cars were cheated with software that cheated emission tests with more than 11 million cars having been equipped with this software by the time the scandal broke out. It is clear that the ethical crisis was not a result of a single person’s actions or decisions, but, rather, a failure of the entire organizations. The problem was nurtured and allowed to grow until it finally