Directions The local community is very important to Gauze and Effect. It is a relatively new nonprofit with limited funding, so it must consider any new partnerships very carefully. Business partner D

Running head: APPLIED ETHICS

Applied Ethics

Name

Organizer

The chosen business for investigation is the Volkswagen Company. The analysis involves a falsified data controversy that Volkswagen Company was engaged in and later led to penalties. Identical to any other scandal in any business workplace, the Volkswagen data falsification creates troubling news of company misbehavior the time it was revealed. The scandal involves Volkswagen falsifying laboratory data to cheat on government emissions tests in their diesel engines. According to Kramer (2016), the scandal brings the thoughts of an ethical dilemma. Since the crisis erupted in September 2015, the media platform has conveyed much information related to Volkswagen's critical negative impacts, several stakeholders, investors, consumers, directors, and suppliers. In addition, in September 2015, the Volkswagen group was issued a notice by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States for violating the natural environment in excessive gas emission according to the Clean Air Act.

EPA discovered that the company had purposely automated their engines to provide false data in emission analysis in the research laboratory. Later on, it was revealed that the vehicle engines were not meeting the standards provided by the U.S because they were emitting up to forty times the world's environment (Eger and Schhfer, 2018). In April 2017, the company was fined a criminal fee of $2.8 billion due to the misconduct. Also, as of 1st June 2020, in terms of other penalties and financial settlements, the company was supposed to pay $33 billion. The fines and penalties ordered to be paid show that creating ethical dilemmas and controversies can be very costly and can also affect reputation (Wilburn and Wilburn, 2015). Therefore, in my decision, it was not ethical for Volkswagen Company to falsify the emission data that led to fines and lawsuits.

Although Volkswagen Company falsified the emission data, the company has been trying its best to build its image after the lawsuits and fines. The company observed specific procedures to mitigate such misbehaviors in the coming years. First, Volkswagen carried out an initial action of identifying the individual’s wrongdoing. When a crisis explodes in any workplace, it is crucial to realize the sources that resulted in it. Therefore, the company's management put more emphasis first on detecting several individuals seen accountable for the misconduct. The company also appointed a new CEO, Matthias Mueller (he brought many changes) after the resignation of Martin Winterkorn. Finally, Volkswagen has promoted transparency and created togetherness as a strategy for the coming years. Therefore I would recommend that Gauze and Effect should move forward with the proposed partnership.

References

Chonko, L. (2019). Ethical Theories. The University of Texas at Arlington.

Eger, T., & Schhfer, H. (2018). Reflections on the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3109538

Kramer, L. (2016). The Volkswagen Scandal - Air Pollution and Administrative Inertia. Elni Review, 64-74. doi: 10.46850/elni.2016.010

McGee, P. (2018). What went so right with Volkswagen’s restructuring? Retrieved 28th May 2021, from https://www.ft.com/content/a12ec7e2-fa01-11e7-9b32-d7d59aace167

Sabina Ciceala, A. (2019). The purpose of a healthy company's culture: The Volkswagen example | COSMOS Compliance Universe. Retrieved 12th April 2021, from https://compliancecosmos.org/purpose-healthy-companys-culture-volkswagen-example

Wilburn, K. and Wilburn, R. (2015), "Social purpose in a social media world," Journal of Global Responsibility, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 163-177.