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Ethical Evaluation of Volkswagen Over Dodging Emission Rules
Introduction
Ethical theory is a systematic effort to understand moral concepts and justify moral principles and ideas. Understanding the moral concepts and explaining moral principles and approaches is vital in evaluating ethical issues in organizations or companies. Therefore, this paper aims to ethically assess a particular company using distributive justice as a moral theory. Distributive justice theory entails the just assigning distributable goods of different forms to specific people. Therefore, this theory intends to embrace justice in the distribution of various goods in any given business.
The Volkswagen Emission Evaluation
Volkswagen is one of the largest automobile industries in the united states with a significant reputation. However, in recent years the company has been accused by the united states environmental protection agency (EPA) of dodging the rules on air pollution deliberately. The accusation is based on the fact that about five hundred thousand cars sold from this company since 2008 have breached the EPA rules. The EPA judged Volkswagen over an allegation that there is an unjust distribution of automobiles across the US and globally. Volkswagen company flouted the EPA regulations by using particular software in cars to evade the government emissions check on the product’s conditions. This company’s software is branded as a defeat device that makes the vehicles appear clean in terms of emissions. The EPA requires the automobile manufacturers to unveil their car’s designation information to be certified under the federal air-pollution standards. Even though the Volkswagen automobile company has long had a good reputation, the allegation has spoiled its reputation because of flouting the EPA regulations and becoming less considerate in handling business ethics.
Ethical Evaluation
According to the EPA rules and regulations, any automobile company should manufacture cars that emit fewer toxic gases to the environment. The rules and regulations are ensured that they are in place through a government program that runs tests on the cars before being certified for sale. From the ethical theories, Volkswagen has flouted the rules and regulations of EPA and is thus considered unethical for not embracing the distributive justice theory in running their business. Business ethics identify just as a virtue that every individual should possess in life and embrace it in different workplaces. Justice is characterized by the ability to understand what each individual should duly do to each other. Also, it entails the ability to become fair, adhering to the rules and not being biased. Justice is achieved through various principles, but this paper is more concerned with the distributive just code in evaluating the Volkswagen emission.
Having known that Volkswagen has flouted with the EPA rules and regulations, it is clear that they are unethical in running their business and responding to the EPA primary rules. Distributive justice theory advocates for justice while assigning distributable products or goods to individual people. Therefore, it is vital to ensure in your line of duty, whether running a business or a company, as an employee. What is expected of you to be considered ethical is to carry out your responsibility rather than trying to produce a significant amount of good. Therefore, it was rightful for the EPA to accuse Volkswagen of flouting the rules and regulations by using software that faked the manufactured cars’ efficiency and effectiveness in embracing the EPA rules about reducing the cars’ emission in minimizing air pollution. It is wrong for the Volkswagen company to misuse vehicle computerization technology to fake their car products as clean and safe for use when it is not valid. The defeat device made the product succeed through the test; however, the cars were not clean, as indicated by the government test. It is unethical for Volkswagen. It is a breach of the distributive justice theory for the company to distribute vehicles that do not meet the EPA standards by faking their automobiles using the defeat device.
In conjunction with the justice department, the EPA has been investigating the Volkswagen company. It has been noted that the company has been using the new technology of defeat device to evade government tests. Since using a defeat device to avoid environmental standards is illegal, the justice department’s move to penalize the Volkswagen company is ethical. The use of such a device to fake the conditions of products to be distributed for sale is illegal. It can pose lethal health issues to the public because the cars would release harmful gases to the air such as carbon monoxide, which a very poisonous gas due to the use of diesel by these cars. The Volkswagen automobiles’ software is believed to have been used to activate full emission control only during the government check. Still, they would reduce their effectiveness in everyday driving. Such an approach to evading government tests to be certified is unethical in business. The undesirable ethical practice portrayed the Volkswagen company, therefore attracted a significant financial penalty for using software to evade the government standards. The enormous financial penalties have also led to Volkswagen autos registering loss and have gone behind the other automobile companies such as Fuji Heavy Industries Limited. In my opinion, the direction taken by the EPA and the justice department to penalize the Volkswagen company is the right move because the use of software to evade the government test poses a lot of danger to the public because Microsoft is only made effective while undergoing the government the test. Still, the effectiveness is reduced during everyday driving.
Objection to the Ethical Evaluation
However, it is rightful for the Volkswagen company to defend their cars concerning the use of Microsoft. The distributive ethical principle requires companies to distribute what meets the government’s standards concerning air pollution. The EPA move could rather be opposed because the accusation is based on an allegation rather than an ascertained truth. In my opinion, the Volkswagen automobiles may have used Microsoft to improve their cars’ effectiveness during the test and everyday driving. Volkswagen is one of the leading automobiles that should maintain its products’ acceptable standards and embrace business ethics. Therefore, using a defeat device and Microsoft in their cars could reduce the more significant emission of toxic gases rather than evade government standards.
Defence to the Ethical Evaluation
It might not be true that the Volkswagen company uses the Microsoft and the defeat devices to evade the government standards primarily because all the statements have been based on allegations rather than the use of concrete evidence supporting such allegations. The justice department and the EPA are still under investigation to ascertain whether the allegations against the Volkswagen company are true or false. Also, the Volkswagen automobiles have a considerable reputation across the US. It could be unethical for them to use sophisticated technology when they should be ethical and observant of the EPA’s rules and regulations concerning air pollution.
Discussion
However, the original ethical evaluation is better because allegations directed to a particular company or an organization always have some truth. For instance, in this case of the Volkswagen company, EPA accuses the company of taking advantage of the current sophisticated technology to use a defeat device in their automobiles to evade the government standards to be certified. The company’s Microsoft is only made effective under the tests but is made less effective during the regular drive. This means that while in the trial, the emission of toxic gases is minimal, but the poisonous gas’s emission is higher after the test is done. According to the EPA rules, the cars that should be certified should meet the government standards. That is, they should emit fewer toxic gases. Considering the business issues, the Volkswagen company breaches the distributive justice theory principle because Microsoft is only useful under government trial but not in the regular drive in their cars. Therefore, the vehicles pose a health threat to the individual users and the public because it is practically below the set standards. The idea of penalizing the company is ethically correct because it is based on the investigations that the company has been using the defeat device for a long time to evade the test. Still, its effectiveness is reduced in everyday driving.
Conclusion
The distributive justice theory is an essential aspect in every organization because it imparts every team member, the administrators, managers and even chief executive officers to be fair with the type of product offered to the customers or generally the public. This concept has been analyzed in this paper regarding the Volkswagen company. Being ethical in business does not involve doing a more incredible amount of good but rather doing your role in the organization. Volkswagen company failed to embrace justice by embracing the government on their cars’ effectiveness, but they were unethical and never adhered to distributive justice theory. They finally ended up being penalized, and their reputation got spoiled because of being dishonest. Therefore, it is wise for companies to be ethical while keeping the laid rules and regulations to avoid accusations and maintain their reputations.
Works cited
Bachmann, Rüdiger, Gabriel Ehrlich, and Dimitrije Ruzic. Firms and collective reputation: The Volkswagen emission scandal as a case study. No. 6805. CESifo Working Paper, 2017.
Lamont, Julian, ed. Distributive justice. Routledge, 2017.