Assignment : Individual Essay
Topic: "Why should I care about the shareholders, who I see once a year at the general meeting. It is much more important that I care about the employees; I see them every day." - Attributed to the CEO of Volkswagen in 1983.
In 2015, it became apparent that the car maker, Volkswagen, had for years been using illegal software installed in 11 million of its cars worldwide to help the company satisfy emissions standards required by US state testing agencies. When news of this broke, the company faced a global backlash.
Can some blame for this deceit be directed towards the company's governance structure? Basedon your analysis of the crisis, explain whether you think suitable steps have been taken to prevent future scandals of this type.
Notes: The Individual Essay calls on students to investigate a corporate crisis, and whether governancecontributed the organisation's culpability. Students also need to assess the organisation's response.
Emphasis is placed on careful background study.
The purpose of the Individual Essay is for students to do some in-depth research on the topics and to take a position and argue and explain why your position has merit.
This means that you have to think through what the topic and questions are about, then formulate your position and justify that position, drawing on actual examples.
Students are not to conduct primary research as this could require University Ethics clearance.
Thus, students must NOT contact any organisation directly. Acceptable sources of information for the Individual Essay are limited to online and secondary sources only.
Please note: There is a minimum requirement of 20 references required for this research report, which is the absolute minimum needed to show sufficient depth of research.
All students to submit online via LMS in a Word Document Format only - this is the only format accepted.
The essay:
- Is limited to a maximum of 2,000 words or less in length; though quotations and references will not be included in this count.
- Should include an electronic cover sheet, Urkund originality report, cover page, content page,executive summary, introduction, discussion section, recommendations, conclusion, reference pages, any appendices (optional).
A penalty applies for exceeding word limit - students may use fewer words with no minimum.
It is expected that students do some in-depth research and it is recommended that a minimum of 20 references from 20 different sources is presented for this essay. BUS284 students are required to useChicago Referencing Style in all assignments.