Mapping the Volkswagen Diesel Dupe Crisis, its Implications and Sustainability of their Responses

Abstract

The Volkswagen ‘Diesel Dupe scandal’ is no stranger in the automobile industry and the entire business community. This scandal is a fruitful reminder on the extent to which corporations can blatantly flout regulations and distort business ethics and morality. Many writers have written on this crisis and of course from various perspectives. Some approached the crisis from a technical standpoint, reviewing the ‘marvel’ of Volkswagen’s technological manipulation. Others approached the scandal from the standpoint of moral philosophy, demarcating the firm’s inherent immorality that has detracted the ethical values of the company. Journalists conversely have promulgated the scandal as a sensational headline in many reports. Of course, these writings are often detached with some paying overload responses to philosophies, others on strategic woes and a handful addressing the scandal from a techy perspective. This writing differs from previous works and attempts to fuse and associate the philosophical and strategic issues of the scandal to produce a remarkable analysis. Firstly, by improvising Andy Grove’s ‘strategic dissonance’ theory, this work attempts to plot the precise point in which Volkswagen’s diesel crisis relent a tsunamic moral repercussion. An improvised version of Grove’s model contributes to understanding the philosophical intricacies of this scandal capable of understanding the phenomenological moral repercussions in Volkswagen. Secondly, by using this phenomenological understanding, the current authors were able to accurately charter the precise impacts of the scandal and of course lastly to instill a distinctive evaluation on the effectiveness of Volkswagen’s crisis response strategies. The main contribution of this paper expounds beyond merely theoretical implications, but more importantly, the ability to connect and associate the philosophies of ethics with strategic implications.