Ethical Dilemmas In The Volkswagen Company

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Ethical dilemmas can have dire consequences for companies either resulting in the death of such a company or the inevitable financial losses in a fiscal year. Each country and the globe as a whole has set rules and laws that govern different sectors such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and the motor industry. Each one of the companies that operates within this jurisdictions is then required to follow the set rules or regulations with the aim of ensuring harmony within the industry, fair competitions, and protection of the environment. Ethics governing these companies essentially test the ability of such companies in following the rules and laws and whenever there is an instance that such a company indulges in unethical practices, then legal…show more content…
Ferdinand Porsche as requested by Hitler. The very first designs of the first VW car was geared towards a lightweight car that had a low fuel consumption rating and was essentially cheap for the common German citizen. This design was referred to as type 60 and had the characteristic shape of a beetle. According to Dr. Porsche, this characteristic design of a beetle was to provide for a more streamlined shape to counterbalance air resistance. The first VW car prototype was produced and tested using a flat type engine towards the end of the year 1934. The legacy of this very first design has survived to the 21st century, proving the mastery of this craft by Dr. Porsche. For the next half a decade VW factory could produce more than 150,000 beetles per annum to the market making it the largest production factory in the motor industry in the whole of Europe. Following the second war, the production facility and the entire town that the company was located were reduced to ruins, essentially shutting down VW Company ("Volkswagen Is Founded - May 28, 1937 -…show more content…
VW Company indulged in the unethical practice of tweaking the software system of its diesel engines in order to produce results that essentially were incorrect. This practice affected more than eleven million vehicles across the globe with around 475,000 being sold in the United States. This practice critically ensured that VW broke multiple laws in different states resulting in multiple suits which resulted in the company agreeing to a settlement of 15.3 billion dollars. The scandal happened in 2015 and the settlement reached in 2016 in a San Francisco court (Hotten,

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