VW Cheats on Emissions Testing Up until late 2015, Volkswagen AG (VW) was the second largest carmaker in the world, with its 590,000 employees producing nearly 41,000 vehicles per day. At that time, the company's prospects seemed bright, with many of its 12 subsidiaries, such as Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Ducati, Lamborghini, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, performing well. A central question of this scandal—whether VW's top management knew of the deception—remains. However, many critics claim that the multibillion dollar emissions cheating scandal shows that at the very least, the VW engineers who created and installed the software did not believe company management expected them to act with integrity. If they had, VW would not have cheated and would not be in this mess. Critical Thinking Questions 1. VW has blamed a small group of engineers for the misconduct and claims that members of its management board did not know of the decade-long deception. Within many organizations, including VW, a high value is placed on people who can deliver results and get things done. This can create a problem known as "normalization of deviance," where something bad is done by a member of the group in order to achieve a goal but nobody says anything because everyone is expecting that someone else will instead. As a result, more and more bad behavior is tolerated. Perhaps, the VW engineers felt they had no other option when they realized that they could not deliver the combination of great performance, high gas mileage, and low emissions that had been promised. Some observers believe that normalization of deviance was perpetuated because VW kept hiring the same type of people with the same views—engineering graduates who are promotion-obsessed workaholics who have been taught not to say "no" to management's goals. Do you accept this explanation for the emission scandal at VW? Why or why not? 2. VW must bring in a new CEO and a key board member as a result of the forced resignation of Piëch and Winterkorn. Identify three specific actions that their replacements must do to begin to change the corporate culture at VW. 3. At the time of this writing, it has been alleged that Robert Bosch GmbH, Europe's largest supplier of auto parts, may have had a role in the VW emissions scandal. Bosch supplied the engine control unit that VW programmed to recognize when its diesel vehicles were undergoing emissions tests. However, Bosch states that it is not responsible for how its components are integrated into vehicles by customers. Do research to learn more about what role Bosch may have had in aiding VW in this deception. Do you believe that Bosch should also be sanctioned and/or fined? Why or why not?