OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Ethical Communities Worksheet

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

In 2015 Volkswagen was placed in a scandal that saw them cheating U.S.
emission tests using a gadget called a defeat device that helps Volkswagens diesel
engines to emit less emissions than normal in a lab setting. The Organization helped
cheat this by allowing for no accountability. Managers were able to have free reign
without questions, this ethical issue ended up costing the company billions over the
course of the years to come. Structural issues resulting in terrible culture also caused this
issue.

2) Describe how the ethics of the organization influenced the situation.

If we look in the Textbook we see a quote that says, “…a central characteristic of
organizations that succeeded over the long haul was a core ideology emphasizing ‘more
than profits’…”(Bolman & Deal, 2017). We can see this was not lived out through the
entire scandal. The scandal began from the desire to compete in the United States
industry without having to adjust the build of their diesel engines to meet emissions
limits. Due to the influence of more profits they lost the sole of their company in order to
meet the desire of money. This of course came at a great cost, and the cost was the
reputation of the company itself.

When people lose sight of ethical values they tend to make decisions that will
benefit you in the short-term, but the long-term will cause more failure than success. In
Volkswagens case, they ended up having to lose billions due to court costs and fines and
legal fees. Desire can cloud ethics, that’s why as managers we need to have ethics as a
high priority on every decision we make. If we put this into the frame of symbolism, the
ethics are supposed to be found in belief and good faith. In these terms Volkswagen lost
sight of the ethical ground they walked on.

3) Recommend how you would apply one of the ethical communities for an alternative
course of action regarding your case.

If we look at the ethical frames we can see that the political frame built around
ethics could have served a better solution to the scandal that Volkswagen faced. Politics
and competition create jungle, where the only thing we focus on is success and profit.
Volkswagen wanted to try so hard to compete in the U.S. with their diesel engines that
they lost their soul in the process and cheated. Justice can come into play by the higher

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 ups allowing for engineers and other workers who know how to create the cars, sharing in
the problem solving process. This is a share of power, letting people aide in decisions and
power shows people that they are valued. “Leaders who hoard power produce powerless
organizations.”(Bolman & Deal, 2017).

The plan is simple, when faced with the situation of emissions test, management
should have held meeting with several engineers in order to come to a better solution to
meet emissions numbers. They could have pushed back release dates and then advertised
themselves as actually “Green Diesel”. Advertising yourself as this and actually meeting
green standards would make your reputation skyrocket and in the process of letting the
engineers on board, you gain more workplace buy in. From this point on you could have
opened up a new green sector, which focuses on ways to increase your green footprint.
All of this would have been more beneficial in the long run for your ethical persona.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about ethics.

Soul is important to the long-term success. As I stated above I already have laid
out a plan in order to avoid the catastrophe that was the emissions scandal. Here I want to
talk about how culture and soul go hand in hand. As leaders we need to be the culture and
atmosphere setters. If we fail at that, then we will not have fulfilling organizations, and
we will be more inclined towards failure. We are the symbols of the organization and we
also need to set the soul. We need to bridge the gap between being cogs in a machine, and
being a functioning family who progress towards a shared vision.

How do we do that? I have been pondering that question the whole time I’ve read
through this module and throughout other modules, I have thought that ethics and morals
are the key factor into being a successful organization. If we lose our soul, we lose or
chance for greater success. I think that it starts with us as leaders. How do we do that; we
set the standard for ethics, compassion, and respect in our organizations. We are the
beginning and the end, if we don’t live out the soul; we end up leaving unproductive
organizations in our wake. It starts and ends with us, with leaders.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing  organizations: Artistry, choice, and

leadership (6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass