Ethical Issues of Volkswagen Emissions Scandal - Coursework Example

THE VOLKSWAGEN EMISSIONS SCANDAL Name Course Instructor Date Introduction In September 2015, the United States Environmental protection Agency discovered that a large number of Volkswagen (VW) vehicles in the market had been fitted with ‘defeat devices’, and the company admitted to this. A defeat device is software put in diesel engines to enable sensing of when tests are being conducted so that the vehicle alters its performance in Nitrogen Oxide emission to accepted levels.1 The malpractice was noted in 482, 000 cars within the United States alone and in virtually all the company’s vehicle brands, and it was later revealed that approximately 11 million of their vehicles distributed globally also had the device.2 Placing the software in engines was an unethical practice because it meant outright cheating in emission tests, with negative effects on the environment and VWs credibility. This paper examines the ethical problems in the VW case study from the utilitarian, libertarian, deontological and virtue ethics perspectives, and suggests the best combination in solving them. The Ethical Problems Arising The malpractice at VW brings out issues of dishonesty, greed and indirectly propagated environmental degradation by an engineering company that knows best the destructive effect of its actions. It is a good illustration of the finance myth that a company mainly exists to maximize the value to shareholders. It assumes that investors only care about stock prices and never the business impact upon society hence ethics.3 From it, one learns that unethical behavior can destroy share value. Positive environment-related messages are a valuable resource in any motor-marketing campaign and many consumers probably purchased their cars because they were told they were friendly to the environment. Having found out that it was all a lie, the loss of reputation and sudden customer mistrust is expected, and reversing the effects will be a difficult and long process. The main ethical issues that arise from the case are business dishonesty and environmental degradation. The Ethical Problems from a Utilitarian Perspective In utilitarianism, the only good that can come from an action is an aversion of pain or creation of happiness, and these are the yardsticks by which the rightness of anything can be judged so that any action, including the lie told can be accepted as long as the results of what they have done leads consequences that are of benefit at the maximum level or that some harm or perceived harm ends up being eliminated.4 From this description, an act of dishonesty may therefore sometimes be moral. However, in the VW case, what the company did would still be wrong. This is because no one ended up benefitting. The findings exposed VW to a penalty of about $37,500 for every car on American roads, translating to billions of dollars, and the news led to a 20% drop in its stocks, an immediate resignation by the CEO and institution of investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and Congress. The company is in trouble because of the fines it has to pay, the owners suffered declines in profitability and the consumers ended up tricked and driving cars with features that they did not bargain for.5 On environmental degradation, utilitarianism is essentially a teleological approach that only focuses on the purpose or end of an action, with a consequentialist dimension, where the actions will be judged as being wrong or right basing on the outcome.6 When the utilitarian question of how many people will be affected is asked, the answer would definitely be the whole world, because of the broad spread of car sales from the company. It should also be remembered that even after increasing pollution where they are, the cars will later be sold as used vehicles, especially to poorer regions of the world. Even if they are not sold to those regions, the challenges of ozone depletion are however shared, and global warming affects everyone in the world in one way or the other.7 The world is already faced with an environmental catastrophe, and emissions from large industries and automobiles are significant contributors. The deliberate provision for unacceptably high emissions by Volkswagen can therefore only worsen the problem hence is wrong. The Ethical Problems from a Libertarian Perspective According to Libertarian ethics, moral concepts even at the most basic level are human rights of the individuals, and everyone is entitled to a non-interference with their rights.8 Tricking the buyers would in this case therefore compromise their freedom of rational choice. When an individual lies, the other person being lied to is likely to make decisions that are contrary to what they would have opted for if they had been told the truth. In this regard, his autonomy and human dignity end up hurt. In the tampering with the engine and lies that were knowingly propagated by VWs management through marketing claiming that the cars were environmentally friendly violated the consumers. This is because while those who bought them consciously chose to go for environmentally friendly vehicles due to their concern for society, their desires were eventually unmet yet it cost them heavily to acquire them. In the libertarian perspective, environmental degradation is wrong. As a person who applies reasoning, one should not degrade the environment in any way. The reason is that when any environmental externality including pollution happens, there is the imposition of costs of one’s actions upon other people. It causes a violation of the property rights of others while they are not to blame.9 In the VW case, the general populations in all the areas where the cars have been sold are being forced to bear an unnecessary cost. They have a right to have decent places to live in, yet the additional pollution ensures that their air is not as pleasant as it is supposed to be. The right not to have one’s health compromised against his will is also denied to them, because the pollutants in the air are known to cause sicknesses, although in most cases it will be in the longer. The fact that these violations are as the result of someone’s deliberate action makes it totally wrong. The Ethical Problems from a Deontological Perspective Deontological ethics relates to moral duty, and is specifically concerned with what someone morally ought to do in particular circumstances, what they are obligated to do or is a requirement upon them to do. It further includes what they may choose to do and are morally justified in doing.10 VW management lied to everyone, starting from the buyers of their cars to everyone else who even though they did not purchase the cars, had the perception that the VW brand is generally a green variety. From a deontological perspective, lying can never be right. Every human being is born with a worth referred to as human dignity, deriving from his or her rationality and ability to make decisions freely, set own goals and use reason in deciding what to do. Lies therefore become wrong because first, it leads to the corruption of the most valuable quality of a human being, which is the ability to freely and rationally make choices. Every lie told contradicts the moral worth of its communicator.11 On environmental degradation, the market for VW vehicles covers a very large geographical area globally. The world is also at this time battling environmental crises and the large scale challenges they pose to societies everywhere and substantially contributed to by burning fossil fuels.12 The company is the second-largest auto manufacturer globally.13 It would be expected that a company like VW which manufactures machines that contribute to the pollution would be more sensitive to the risks that the world is exposed to. With their large amount of resources, the company should be in the frontline in dealing with issues such as deforestation, climate change and energy conservation in its Corporate Social Responsibility, rather than trying to take advantage of technology to make extra money as was the case previously. The Ethical Problems from a Virtue Ethics Perspective From the virtue perspective, the telling of a lie in the pursuit of profit as happened at VW is wrong. In this however, the focus is not on what people are supposed to do or not do, or the fact that a person is supposed to be reasoning while doing something. Rather, it dwells more on how character is supposed to develop and what an ideal human being is supposed to be irrespective of their circumstances. It therefore puts forward virtues, which are the desirable qualities in an individual and which will give them the incentive to behave in a given manner.14 For instance, honesty, which VW has failed to exhibit in the case study is a virtue that a business or its leaders will consciously uphold as a way of trying to achieve their potential within the market. Being ethical in whatever one does will require that they be virtuous. Telling a lie through cheating in emission tests is the opposite of honesty. In environmental degradation, three main virtues, namely temperance, justice and prudence arise within the virtue ethics perspective. Justice is the giving of each person and creature their due. The virtue would require people to act in a manner that would enhance the relationship between human beings and the earth. VW however failed in delivering justice because its actions led to the environment being degraded. Not only will human beings suffer the consequences of additional emissions to the atmosphere, but also plants and animals. Temperance refers to self control and restraint. VW lacked this virtue, and instead focused on making and selling vehicles that it knew was releasing toxic waste into the atmosphere, all in trying to have a competitive advantage in a market that is known to value environmentally friendly products. The greed for money was untamed by the company. Prudence relates to a habit of wise assessment of means towards attainment of an end. VW lacked prudence, as it focused more on the long term and the effect that sales would have on its balance sheet. Instead of upgrading their manufacturing gradually or being patient and launching the sale of compliant vehicles when they will be ready, the company opted for a shortcut that ended up negatively affecting everyone involved.15 The Best Approach to the Problems A combination of the utilitarian and virtue approaches will be able to best deal with the identified ethical problems. Because of the environmental challenges that the world faces, there is need for an ethical approach which is more focused on results of actions. Utilitarianism will therefore offer the best solution for the problem raised by the Volkswagen case. This is because it will be able to address the risks that the actions exposed a literally global population to. There are outcomes such as increased pollution, global warming and ozone depletion. Worse still, many of the customers that were buying the vehicles were trying to be careful not to be part of the destructive process against the environment, and trusted the VW manufacturers to help them in this. However, the company let them down in their rush to make sales, and the effects are going to be felt for far longer than is imaginable. It may be difficult to bring together environmentalism with utilitarianism in practice. This is because for instance from its definition, utilitarianism will not find it difficult to support the kind of elitism where smaller communities will have to willingly carry the burden of pollution that is caused by larger ones as long as there is maximum good feeling arising out of what has taken place. In the same way, the mistakes of a major social player such as an employer will also need to be tolerated due to the power wielded.16 In the case study, the actions of VW may be excused because of the number of people it employs, their dependants and overall value of the business to the economy. Its dishonesty might also be excusable because it was in the interest of the business as a social system. The potential weaknesses of the utilitarian approach in the case of VW necessitate its combination with the virtue perspective, so that all actions are conducted with integrity. Upholding of virtue ethics will especially be helpful for the leadership at VW because they will ensure the nurturing and formation of character. This will in turn instill lasting habits within the minds and hearts of decision makers to always seek to make positive changes in the world, although through their day to day work. The development of corporate and personal virtues will provide everyone with a framework within which they can remain engaged for longer in ethical practices. Many people in the world today seek to live well in relation with the environment and nature in general. Virtue ethics will provide the additional strength of character to engage in caring for the earth too, and not letting any other interests lead to the sacrificing of this heritage. Conclusion The VW case study raises two ethical problems, namely business dishonesty and conscious environmental degradation. The various perspectives have been able to address the two issues differently. However, they appear to be linked. From the discussion, ethical decision-making appears to involve the nature of an act, or its deontology, the expected outcomes of the action hence utilitarianism and the individual who committing the act hence virtue. Utilitarianism however summarizes the wrongness of VWs action as it did not eventually lead to anyone’s happiness with the company losing its value, a dented reputation and crashing of stock prices. Together with the environmental impact, the number of people harmed is too large. The combination of a utilitarian and virtue approach is the best in resolving the ethical problem. Bibliography Cafaro, Philip. Environmental Virtue Ethics Special Issue. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 23 (1) (2010): 3 - 7 Capps, Benjamin. Enhancing Public Ethics: Libertarianism, Legitimation, and the Problems of Technology Regulation. Asian Bioethics Review 2 (4) (2010): 273 - 287 Crane, Andrew and Matten, Dirk, Business Ethics: Managing Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability in the Age of Globalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010 Crisp, Roger. Taking Stock of Utilitarianism. Utilitas 26 (3) (2014): 231 Kernohan, Andrew, Environmental Ethics: an Interactive Introduction. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2013 Menzel, Susanne and Wiek, Arnim. Valuation in Morally Charged Situations: The Role of Deontological Stances and Intuition for Trade-off making. Ecological Economics 68 (8) (2009): 2198 - 2206 Hotten, Russell, Volkswagen: The Scandal Explained. Accessed on 24 march 2016 from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772 Sacchi, Simona, Riva, Paolo and Brambilla, Marco. Moral Reasoning and Climate Change Mitigation: The Deontological Reaction Toward the Market-based Approach. Journal of Environmental Psychology 38 (2014): 252 - 261 Shaw, William, Business Ethics: a Textbook with Cases. Westport: Greenwood Publishing, 2016 Tannsjo, Torbjorn. Utilitarianism or Prioritarianism? Utilitas 27 (2) (2015): 240 The Guardian. The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal Explained, 2015 accessed on 24 March 2016 from http://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2015/sep/23/volkswagen- emissions-scandal-explained-diesel-cars Appendix: Diagram Summarizing Essence of the Approaches Read More

The company is in trouble because of the fines it has to pay, the owners suffered declines in profitability and the consumers ended up tricked and driving cars with features that they did not bargain for.5 On environmental degradation, utilitarianism is essentially a teleological approach that only focuses on the purpose or end of an action, with a consequentialist dimension, where the actions will be judged as being wrong or right basing on the outcome.6 When the utilitarian question of how many people will be affected is asked, the answer would definitely be the whole world, because of the broad spread of car sales from the company.

It should also be remembered that even after increasing pollution where they are, the cars will later be sold as used vehicles, especially to poorer regions of the world. Even if they are not sold to those regions, the challenges of ozone depletion are however shared, and global warming affects everyone in the world in one way or the other.7 The world is already faced with an environmental catastrophe, and emissions from large industries and automobiles are significant contributors. The deliberate provision for unacceptably high emissions by Volkswagen can therefore only worsen the problem hence is wrong.

The Ethical Problems from a Libertarian Perspective According to Libertarian ethics, moral concepts even at the most basic level are human rights of the individuals, and everyone is entitled to a non-interference with their rights.8 Tricking the buyers would in this case therefore compromise their freedom of rational choice. When an individual lies, the other person being lied to is likely to make decisions that are contrary to what they would have opted for if they had been told the truth.

In this regard, his autonomy and human dignity end up hurt. In the tampering with the engine and lies that were knowingly propagated by VWs management through marketing claiming that the cars were environmentally friendly violated the consumers. This is because while those who bought them consciously chose to go for environmentally friendly vehicles due to their concern for society, their desires were eventually unmet yet it cost them heavily to acquire them. In the libertarian perspective, environmental degradation is wrong.

As a person who applies reasoning, one should not degrade the environment in any way. The reason is that when any environmental externality including pollution happens, there is the imposition of costs of one’s actions upon other people. It causes a violation of the property rights of others while they are not to blame.9 In the VW case, the general populations in all the areas where the cars have been sold are being forced to bear an unnecessary cost. They have a right to have decent places to live in, yet the additional pollution ensures that their air is not as pleasant as it is supposed to be.

The right not to have one’s health compromised against his will is also denied to them, because the pollutants in the air are known to cause sicknesses, although in most cases it will be in the longer. The fact that these violations are as the result of someone’s deliberate action makes it totally wrong. The Ethical Problems from a Deontological Perspective Deontological ethics relates to moral duty, and is specifically concerned with what someone morally ought to do in particular circumstances, what they are obligated to do or is a requirement upon them to do.

It further includes what they may choose to do and are morally justified in doing.10 VW management lied to everyone, starting from the buyers of their cars to everyone else who even though they did not purchase the cars, had the perception that the VW brand is generally a green variety. From a deontological perspective, lying can never be right. Every human being is born with a worth referred to as human dignity, deriving from his or her rationality and ability to make decisions freely, set own goals and use reason in deciding what to do.

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