Blog - Alba Graduate Business School

From Virtue to Villainy: Volkswagen Scandal Explained Using Social Psychology

Written by Vlachos Pavlos | 06 Jan 2017

Volkswagen (VW) the global automaker governed by F. Porsche’s descendants, a German state government and labor unions admitted that 11 million cars were equipped with software useful in cheating emissions tests. In simple words, when VW cars were on the road vs. the test lab they emitted pollutants up to 40 times above what is permitted in the U.S. More interesting: at the same time VW’s cars were fitted with the defeat device the company was aggressively trumpeting its car’s low emissions. Importantly, VW’s top management team in America were aware of these issues in 2014.