Organizational Wrongdoing, Boundary Work, and Systems of Exclusion: The Case of the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal

Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to scientific reportsResearch

Authors

The Volkswagen (VW) emissions scandal was one of the largest examples of organizational wrongdoing in corporate history, costing the firm immense damage to its reputation and over $33 billion in fines, penalties, financial settlements, and buyback costs. In this paper, we draw on the concept of boundary work to provide insight into the causes of wrongdoing at VW. Supplementing other work on the scandal, we show how the ways in which boundaries became established in the organization resulted in an internal context that defined “in” and “out” groups, normalized certain behaviors, and limited communication across intraorganizational boundaries. This allowed wrongdoing to not only become established but also to go unchallenged. We provide contributions to broader understandings of organizational wrongdoing and to the temporal unfolding of boundary work by theorizing how a combination of cognitive, horizontal, and vertical boundaries can create an infrastructure of organizational design that permits organizational wrongdoing, prevents it being challenged, and ultimately normalizes it in everyday activities.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOrganizational Wrongdoing as the "Foundational" Grand Challenge : Definitions and Antecedents
EditorsClaudia Gabbioneta, Marco Clemente, Royston Greenwood
Number of pages22
PublisherEmerald Publishing Limited
Publication date24.07.2023
Pages171-192
ISBN (print)978-1-83753-279-7
ISBN (electronic)978-1-83753-278-0
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24.07.2023
Externally publishedYes

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Local levers for change
  2. How does economic integration influence employment and wages in border regions?
  3. Reallabore im Kontext Transformativer Forschung
  4. Audio Video Sampler
  5. Is decoupling becoming decoupled from institutional theory?
  6. Implementierung und langfristige Wirkungen des Projekts ‚Jedem Kind ein Instrument‘.
  7. Lagrangian analysis of long-term dynamics of turbulent superstructures
  8. A Systematic Literature Review Of Machine Learning Approaches For The Prediction Of Delivery Dates
  9. Efficiency of HPV 16 L1/E7 DNA immunization
  10. Not Feeling Good in STEM
  11. Modeling and Simulation of Electrochemical Cells under Applied Voltage
  12. An Advanced Double Column-Switching Technique (LC-LC) for Liquid Chromatography/Electrospray Ionisation Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Fully Automated Analysis of Caspofungin
  13. Predictive Maintenance of Bearings Through IoT and Cloud-Based Systems
  14. Sprachliche Muster
  15. Harmony at the Workplace
  16. Soft Landing for electromagnetic actuators through adaptive pre-action combined with a slide surface to avoid electrical saturation
  17. Taming a Wicked Problem
  18. Emotions and multimedia learning
  19. Fernsehen
  20. Ice clamping system in manufacturing systems as a cyber-physical system towards Industry 4.0
  21. Stochastic modelling of intersectional pay gaps in universities
  22. Liquidity, Flows, Circulation
  23. Trusting as a 'Leap of Faith': Trust-Building Practices in Client-Consultant Relationships
  24. Schreibende unterstützen lernen
  25. Differentiated Instruction Around the World - A Global Inclusive Insight