Description
Topic: Business Ethics
Thread Prompt:
Rarely does one individual’s decision or action create an ethical crisis entirely by itself. More often, someone’s unethical or illegal idea is adopted by other members of the company, and the problem grows within the organization until it erupts in headlines, bad publicity, and sometimes criminal penalties. After the fact, the questions always arise: How did that happen? Didn't anyone know it was going on? Why didn't someone stop it?
Recently, Volkswagen found itself in just such a position, when it was discovered that the software in the company’s diesel vehicles had been programmed to provide false data to regulators regarding the level of emissions produced by the cars.
In his article “Volkswagen: Where Were the Lawyers?” Lippe (2015) questions the role that several groups within the company played in the scandal, most notably the company’s lawyers and engineers. See http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/volkswagen_where_were_the_lawyers/.
Review this situation from legal, spiritual, and ethical perspectives. Fully explain the following:
- As an employee or a manager in either the legal office or the engineering department, how would you have prevented this incident?
- As the CEO of the diesel division of Volkswagen, how would you have responded when the situation became public? How would this response prevent future incidents?
Lippe, P. (2015, October 13). Volkswagen: Where were the lawyers? ABA Journal. Retrieved from http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/volk...
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Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS
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Business Ethics
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BUSINESS ETHICS
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1. As an employee or a manager in either the legal office or the engineering department,
how would you have prevented this incident
Business organizations tend to make decisions, which favor their overall wellbeing and
ensure that they have minimal ethical issues through developing conspiracies. It is very much
impossible to have unethical issue happening within the organizational environment without the
input of in-house lawyers. The overall need to ensure that lawyers are incorporated into the
action is based on their overall need to understand what is going on within the organizational
environment. Therefore when considering the situation, which Volkswagen has, find itself in,
there are some options, which would have been considered in ensuring that there are better
engagement and development of important elements within the organizational environment. As a
manager in the legal office, I would have focused on some options to ensure that the situation
does not escalate to its current situation.
The function of the legal department within any business organization is aimed to ensure
that there is a positive understanding on the processes and activities that are being undertaken by
the organization in ensuring that the organization is well engaged. Evaluation of the ability of the
organization to comply with both ethical and legal regulations is done by the legal office and if
these issues tend to arise ...