<\/b>Ethics must be based on principles and integrity must be aligned with these principles<\/b>. Hence something has failed at Volkswagen<\/b>… I have been always been impressed by Volkswagen’s ads <\/b>for their “intelligent humor.” Unfortunately, the engineers of the German automotive group have not learned anything from their colleagues in marketing<\/b>. I don’t know if they had an overdose of humor or not enough intelligence.<\/p>\n
For those who thought roguish behavior came from the southern European countries, it is surely a laughable sight to see how VW “engineered” a way to bypass laws<\/b>. Designing software that detects when the car is being inspected<\/b> and reduces the emission of gases is a formidable act of ingenuity<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, as human beings we often use inventiveness for evil purposes. Can you imagine what the world would be like if we used our creativity to do good? <\/span><\/a>\n How can intelligent people, who are surely dedicated to their jobs and seek what is best for their company, act that way?<\/p>\n So, what happened? Because in the end\u2014almost by chance\u2014someone smells a rat, the problem blows up, the situation gets out of hand, and the negative consequences snowball: multimillion dollar fines, reputation crisis, possible criminal charges<\/b> against executives, the stock price plummets <\/b>35% in two days.<\/p>\n And those involved will think: \u201cIf we’d known it would turn out like this, we never would have done it!\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Measuring an ethical attitude<\/strong> according to what might happen almost always leads to regretful actions. For this reason, ethics must be based on principles, not consequences<\/b>.<\/p>\n An upright attitude starts with having clear principles of conduct. But that is not enough. In addition, integrity requires being aligned with these principles<\/b>. It is crucial to create environments that foster ethical conduct <\/span><\/a>\u00a0and can detect improper conduct before it is too late. If not, senior management will be responsible by omission<\/b>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ethics must be based on principles and integrity must be aligned with these principles. Hence something has failed at Volkswagen… I have been always been impressed by Volkswagen’s ads for their “intelligent humor.” Unfortunately, the engineers of the German automotive group have not learned anything from their colleagues in marketing. I don’t know if they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":867,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[326,362,76071],"tags":[89093,91591,89091,55162],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-practices","category-business-ethics","category-ethics-for-executives","tag-envinment","tag-ethics","tag-volswagen","tag-vw","megacategoria-mc-business-ethics-and-corporate-social-responsibility"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n