Organizational culture
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name and Number
Professor’s Name
Assignment Due Date
Organizational culture
Strategy 2018 was a Volkswagen ambitious growth plan launched in December 2007. The basic goal for the strategy was to make the company the best automaker in the world by 2018 with a primary focus on economic and environmental leadership. According to, VW aspired to become the most lucrative, fascinating, and sustainable firm in the automobile industry. In doing so, the group intended to have the most satisfied customers and employees in the industry by the year 2018 (Robin School Of Business, 2016). To achieve the above goals, the company put in place the following measures. Firstly, the company intended to proactively use intelligent innovations and technology to ensure excellent customer satisfaction and quality. Secondly, the company projected to increase its sales to surpass 10 million unit sales annually. Moreover, the firm purposed to become the topmost employer among the automobile industry by 2018 (Robin School Of Business, 2016)
Organizational culture is mainly supposed to help a firm achieve its goals; however, in the case of the VW group, the corporate culture worked against it. Despite having the strategy 2018 pinned on economic and environmental leadership, the emission cheating software was meant to automatically qualify the company’s diesel cars to during emission test(Blackwelder, Coleman, Colunga-Santoyo, Harrison & Wozniak, 2016). This then implied that VW cars would pass for eco-friendly cars while significantly polluting the environment. The autocratic leadership at the company is perhaps attributed to the silence and inaction despite several departmental heads being aware of the issue. Also, the reward system is primarily based on performance and productivity. The structure pushes employees to focus on what might result in the highest possible bonus, thus the silence on the cheating in the company. Thirdly, the compliance-based culture of the firm ensures that employees abide by the set downregulation to protect their jobs (Blackwelder et al. 2016). This meant that blowing the whistle on the issue would probably result in employees getting fired do to the problem. Externally, the action would have prompted investigations to ascertain the truth of the matter.
Code of conduct
Given the sensitivity of an engineer’s role in society, the engineers’ NSPE code of ethics requires that engineers should uphold integrity in their line of duty (Blackwelder et al. 2016). In their technical capacity, they are supposed to objective and truthful in there reporting. In this particular scandal, engineers failed the integrity test by issuing a falsified report about the real emission figures by the diesel engines. Secondly, the code of ethics prohibits engineers from participating in deceptive acts. However, in the VW group, the trial found several engineers as being part o the deceptive scandal. Thirdly, engineers are professionally obligated to acknowledge their errors and not distort or misrepresent facts to suit their interests. The software installed in the engines was used for cooking figures instead of showing that the engines did not meet the required emission tan
Stake Holders And Social Responsibility
The clan diesel required that diesel cars reduce carbon dioxide and nitrogen gases to very minimal levels. This then needed that diesel engines combust fuel entirely for it to have less emission; however, longer combustion meant deceleration, which bet the logic diesel engines were favored. The Volkswagen engineers realizing they cannot beat the timeframe and come up with emission friendly drivers crafted a cheat device that ensured the combustion was increased every time the car was being thus passing for an eco-friendly vehicle, but once the test is done, the engines were above the stipulated limit by over 40 times. In the short run, the engineers and the company benefited and mode incredible sales. However, on the discovery, people lost jobs, the company’s stock value dropped, and sales greatly reduced after the scandal.
Micro ethics comprise two categories, individual and professional ethics. Individual ones include values like honesty, integrity fairness, and many more, while professional ethics include virtues like compliance to safety, quality, and excellence (Parloff, 2018). Macro ethics involve aspects in a broader context and thus require collective responsibility. From the scandal, it is evident that the managers of the managers violated both micro and macro ethics. The issue of lack of integrity in the inclusion of the cheating mechanism is an apparent show of it. On the macro level, the engineers broke the social ethic code, which looks at the societal impact of the technology; in this case, it resulted in environmental pollution.
Recommendation
First in the recommendation list would be a change in the organizational culture of the company. The new culture should be value-based, with employees appraised on the value they add to the company rather than hierarchical positions. In addition, the form of leadership in the company ought to change from the current autocratic to more lenient leadership where employees can openly offer a divergent opinion. This way, employees can speak out about issues without fear of losing their jobs. finally, the reward system would be based on innovation pushing employees to focus on bettering the company’s products
Opportunity for Research
The scandal might have had a negative effect on the companies growth, image, and profits; however, it also helped the company refocus and remold to a more eco-friendly company. Out of the scandal, the company’s new strategy 2025 aims to make the VW group the leading electric car company manufacturer by 2025. Arguably, the company would benefit more from focusing on electric cars than trying to work on the diesel engine issue.
References
Blackwelder, B., Coleman, K., Colunga-Santoyo, S., Harrison, J. S., & Wozniak, D. (2016). The Volkswagen Scandal.
Parloff, R. (2018). How VW paid $25 billion for ‘Dieselgate’—and Got Off Easy. Fortune, Feb, 6.