Topic: Volkswagen's huge diesel scandal. You should be researching your topic as delivered to me earlier in the semester to write your paper focusing on the ethical, legal, and social responsibility issues that your topic raises. The research should be more than simple google or other internet searches. I am looking for you to explore your topic in detail and making that clear through the concise paper that you submit. You have many resources available to you, including, without limitation, through the online resources and data bases like Lexis-Nexus. Be sure you footnote your paper to identify all of your sources of information and use quotation when you are using any words that are not your own. I am looking for the (1) identification, (2) consideration, and (3) conclusion(s) regarding the ethical, legal and social responsibility issues. This will require concise writing, which means you should go through multiple drafts. Begin by writing down your ideas – try explaining your topic to a 10 year old. I will be grading based on content as well as the quality of your written work. It is a good idea to have someone you trust proof read your paper before you turn it in. The final paper should be approximately three pages, single spaced, 12 point font before any bibliography or exhibits. The paper should be in business memorandum format – to me, from you, regarding the topic as approved. (1) Tell me what you are going to tell me; then (2) tell me that; and then (3) tell me what you told me. Include how the company responded. Focus on Volkswagen’s ethical, legal, and social responsibility issues. 1    From: To: Professor Palermo Subject: Whistleblowing: Edward Snowden Whistleblowing is defined as ‘‘the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to effect action.”1 Over the last couple of decades there have been very public cases such as the Maddoff scandal in which an employee within the organization blew the whistle on the corrupt and unethical acts that occurred within the organization. It's not as easy as it seems, as there are a variety of steps an individual must take before making any accusations; in a lot of cases the employee faces major backlash and even termination, as seen by the case of Edward Snowden. It is important that an individual is properly trained in ethics and whistleblowing, so that they know the proper procedures in order to protect themselves if they are faced with the ethical dilemma on whether or not they should blow the whistle. When deciding if you should blow the whistle, you must first decide if it is a serious issue that can harm many people including the stakeholders of the organization. Stakeholders include employees within the organization and their families, customers, shareholders, the community the organization exists in, an ...

1. Topic: Volkswagen's huge diesel scandal.
You should be researching your topic as delivered to me earlier
in the semester to write your paper focusing on the ethical,
legal, and social responsibility issues that your topic raises.
The research should be more than simple google or other
internet searches. I am looking for you to explore your topic in
detail and making that clear through the concise paper that you
submit. You have many resources available to you, including,
without limitation, through the
online resources and data bases like Lexis-Nexus. Be sure you
footnote your paper to identify all of your sources of
information and use quotation when you are using any words
that are not your own.
I am looking for the (1) identification, (2) consideration, and
(3) conclusion(s) regarding the ethical, legal and social
responsibility issues. This will require concise writing, which
means you should go through multiple drafts. Begin by writing
down your ideas – try explaining your topic to a 10 year old. I
will be grading based on content as well as the quality of your
written work. It is a good idea to have someone you trust proof
read your paper before you turn it in.
The final paper should be approximately three pages, single
spaced, 12 point font before any bibliography or exhibits. The
paper should be in business memorandum format – to me, from
you, regarding the topic as approved. (1) Tell me what you are
going to tell me; then (2) tell me that; and then (3) tell me what
you told me.
Include how the company responded.
Focus on Volkswagen’s ethical, legal, and social responsibility
issues.

2. 1
From:
To: Professor Palermo
Subject: Whistleblowing: Edward Snowden
Whistleblowing is defined as ‘‘the disclosure by organization
members (former or
current) of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the
control of their employers, to
persons or organizations that may be able to effect action.”1
Over the last couple of decades there
have been very public cases such as the Maddoff scandal in
which an employee within the
organization blew the whistle on the corrupt and unethical acts
that occurred within the
organization. It's not as easy as it seems, as there are a variety
of steps an individual must take
before making any accusations; in a lot of cases the employee
faces major backlash and even
termination, as seen by the case of Edward Snowden. It is
important that an individual is

3. properly trained in ethics and whistleblowing, so that they know
the proper procedures in order
to protect themselves if they are faced with the ethical dilemma
on whether or not they should
blow the whistle.
When deciding if you should blow the whistle, you must first
decide if it is a serious issue
that can harm many people including the stakeholders of the
organization. Stakeholders include
employees within the organization and their families,
customers, shareholders, the community
the organization exists in, and the rest of society. Some issues
such as fudging numbers one time
on a report are small enough to be dealt with internally. “Issues
that involve values such as truth,
employee or customer (or other stakeholder) rights, trust,
fairness, harm, your personal
reputation or the reputation of your organization, and whether
the law is being broken or
1
Kaptein, Muel. "From Inaction To External Whistleblowing:
The Influence Of The Ethical Culture Of
Organizations On Employee Responses To Observed
Wrongdoing." Journal Of Business Ethics 98.3 (2011): 513-

4. 530. Business Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
2
compromised”2 are all different types of issues that are serious
enough to be raised beyond your
immediate manager. Once an issue is believed to be serious
enough to call it to someone’s
attention, there are a variety of steps that must be taken in order
to protect yourself and make it
as smooth of a process as possible.
When it comes to voicing your values at work, it takes a great
amount of courage. Not
everyone shares the same values and beliefs, but a good
understanding of what your values are
helps you better deal with any ethical dilemmas that may arise
in the workplace. Kathleen
Reardon developed six steps that should be taken before the
whistle is blown; you should ask
yourself how strongly you feel about the particular issue, make
sure your intentions are for the
greater good over your own personal agenda, consider the power
you have in the organization

5. and if you have established trusted relationships over time,
weigh the risks and benefits of the
action, consider timing, and develop any possible alternatives.3
It is crucial to the whistleblowing
process that these six steps are considered in order for it to be
as successful as possible. In some
whistleblowing cases, employees are terminated not for blowing
the whistle but for how the
message was communicated. An employee should first raise
concerns with management and
exhaust all alternatives internally before going public with
information. Some companies even
have hotlines where issues can be discussed anonymously.
With the increasing rise in the number of whistleblowers, many
organizations have begun
to provide their employees with resources that encourage them
to blow the whistle internally,
known as intrinsic whistleblowing. Organizations prefer
intrinsic whistleblowing as opposed to
external whistleblowing in which the employee raises concerns
with an entity outside of the
2
Treviño, Linda Klebe. "Chapter 4: When All Else Fails:

6. Blowing the Whistle."Managing Business Ethics. Straight
Talk about How to Do It Right. 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley and Sons, 2014. 136-44. Print.
3
Treviño, Linda Klebe. "Chapter 4: When All Else Fails:
Blowing the Whistle."Managing Business Ethics. Straight
Talk about How to Do It Right. 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley and Sons, 2014. 136-44. Print.
3
organization, because it allows them to correct the problem
privately in a way that helps them
preserve their reputation. If an employee blows the whistle
outside of the organization and makes
accusations that prove to be false, this could still tarnish the
company’s reputation. If the
employee is already considering blowing the whistle, then they
must already have the company’s
best interest in mind. For the greater good of the company,
external whistleblowing should be the
last resort.
The proper way to blow the whistle begins with your immediate
manager, unless he or

7. she are the individuals involved in the misconduct. Your
manager will be able to tell you the
proper procedure for moving on, or they might be able to
resolve the problem immediately. If the
manager isn’t helpful, it’s best to then contact their manager.
This is where problems can arise if
your manager feels that you are going around them. It’s best to
ask your immediate manager as
well as their manager for a meeting where the problem can be
discussed and resolved as a team.
This method helps strengthen the trust between yourself and
your manager, as well as yourself
and the upper-level manager. If the problem still isn’t resolved,
the next step is to contact the
company’s ethics officer or find out if your state has policies in
place that protect the
whistleblower if illegal activity is occurring. You can also try
contacting human resources, or
legal departments within the organization, if there is one. If the
problem still isn’t resolved and it
is in the stakeholders’ best interest to make this information
public then the next step would be to
blow the whistle externally.

8. Once the decision to blow the whistle externally has been made,
the employee is faced
with either praise or backlash. “Some see whistleblowers as
traitorous violators of organizational
loyalty norms; others see them as heroic defenders of values
considered to be more important
4
than company loyalty (for example, public health, truth in
advertising, environmental respect).”4
In some organizations, reporting ethical misconduct is not
welcomed as it is viewed as a
challenge to management, who should be trusted. This is the
main reason why organizations
retaliate against the whistleblower. Whistleblowers can also
appear to be disloyal to their
coworkers and to the company as a whole, which is sometimes
viewed as even worse than the act
initially in question. Edward Snowden is a great example of the
negative consequences
associated with whistleblowing.
Edward Snowden, the man responsible for blowing the whistle

9. on the U.S. National
Security Agency for their surveillance programs in 2013,
received major backlash among the
public and the media. Snowden, an employee for Booz Allen
Hamilton, a contractor for the
government, has gone on the record stating, "I can't in good
conscience allow the U.S.
government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic
liberties for people around the world
with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly
building."5 President Barack Obama and
his administration have assured citizens that the surveillance
programs were intended to seek out
terrorists, which actually ends up protecting the citizens.
Interestingly, Snowden genuinely
thought what he was doing was for the greater good, and some
still view him as a hero. On the
other hand, critics have argued that he is a traitor and should
have let the government do their
job. After the whistle was blown, Snowden was soon fired for
violating the company’s code of
conduct and core values. In anticipation of public backlash,
Snowden has fled the country and
currently resides in Russia where he has temporary asylum. He

10. most likely will never return to
4
Banerjee, Shivaji, and Shaunak Roy. "Examining The
Dynamics Of Whistleblowing: A Causal Approach." IUP
Journal Of Corporate Governance 13.2 (2014): 7-26. Business
Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
5
Starr, Barbara, and Holly Yan. "Man behind NSA Leaks Says
He Did It to Safeguard Privacy, Liberty." CNN.
Cable News Network, 23 June 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/politics/edward-
snowden-profile/>.
5
the United States due to the charges he faces for illegally
obtaining and releasing classified
information.
This is a peculiar case of whistleblowing, in that the
precautionary steps above most
likely would not have been helpful in avoiding the mess that
Snowden has created. Since it is the
United States government involved, there is no one for Snowden
to internally report the

11. supposed misconduct, as it would have been very difficult for
him to resolve the issue in a
private manner. It is clear that Snowden values trust,
transparency, as well as privacy; these
values were most likely the driving force behind his motivation
to blow the whistle. Snowden
genuinely believed the government was violating the trust and
privacy of its citizens, and they
had a right to know what was going on. It is possible that
Snowden considered Reardon’s steps
before blowing the whistle; he felt strongly about the issue, he
had good intentions, he weighed
the risks and benefits, he felt the timing was right, and probably
believed there weren’t any other
viable alternatives. The one step that Snowden should have
placed a more significant emphasis
on, and probably could have had alternative outcomes, was the
consideration of power and
influence.
The consideration of power and influence are critical before
blowing the whistle, and it is
apparent that Snowden didn’t place much emphasis on them.
Since Snowden had only worked

12. for the company for three months, he had virtually no power and
influence in the company or the
government. He wasn’t in a position to make a decision for the
organization on what was ethical
or unethical, and he wasn’t employed long enough to build a
trusting relationship. Booz Allen
Hamilton is a company that provides management and
technology consulting services to the
government. In this case, it was up to the higher level of
executives to raise their concerns with
the government directly, since that is the entity they work for.
If Snowden was in a more
6
prominent position within the company and had more power and
influence, it’s likely that he
could have discussed the issue with the NSA or the Obama
Administration directly, without
turning to the media. He should have at least tried to encourage
senior executives to discuss the
issue with the government, before anonymously releasing
private information, an illegal act in

13. itself.
All companies, including Booz Allen Hamilton, should take the
necessary steps in order
to avoid a whistleblowing disaster like the case of Edward
Snowden. They need to first establish
effective whistleblowing procedures. There are four pillars to
creating a successful
whistleblowing environment: “(1) hire and develop potential
whistleblowers, (2) educate
employees, (3) promote reporting of wrongdoing, and (4)
analyze and respond appropriately to
all reports. A weakness in any pillar reduces the effectiveness
of the entire system.”6 Companies
need to first start by hiring the right people; they need to focus
on the individual’s character and
professional identity. Hiring the right people reduces the
likelihood of hiring loose cannons.
They also need to create a culture that emphasizes loyalty to the
company, as well as the
expectation that all employees, including senior executives,
should act with integrity. It is
extremely important that employees are given the resources to
properly raise concerns internally,
before they feel it’s necessary to blow the whistle externally.

14. It’s also important that the
company responds to all concerns in order to make employees
feel like their concerns are being
heard, and that they matter. These four pillars are crucial to
avoiding a whistleblowing disaster;
had Booz Allen Hamilton had a whistleblowing procedure
similar to this one it is likely that
Snowden would have tried other alternatives before turning to
the media.
6
MacGregor, Jason, Michael Robinson, and Martin Stuebs.
"Creating An Effective Whistleblowing
Environment." Strategic Finance 96.3 (2014): 35-40. Business
Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
7
When making the decision to blow the whistle, it is important
that an individual considers
Reardon’s six steps in order to ensure that they are making the
right decision. An employee
should first turn to their immediate manager in order to resolve
the issue internally with little to

15. no consequences. The employee should also determine if the
magnitude of the issue is great
enough to be made public; this can usually be determined by the
number of people who are
harmed by the misconduct. As illustrated by the case of Edward
Snowden, even in cases where
the employee has great intentions, and the misconduct affects an
overwhelming amount of
people, it can still lead to dire consequences. Whistleblowers
are often perceived to be disloyal to
both the company and their coworkers. They face retaliation
which could include termination.
External whistleblowing is also disastrous for the company,
whose reputation is tarnished
through the process. As stakeholders, they should also take
precautionary measures in order to
protect themselves from a disastrous whistleblowing event.

16. 8
Works Cited
Banerjee, Shivaji, and Shaunak Roy. "Examining The Dynamics
Of Whistleblowing: A
Causal Approach." IUP Journal Of Corporate Governance 13.2
(2014): 7-
26. Business Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
Kaptein, Muel. "From Inaction To External Whistleblowing:
The Influence Of The
Ethical Culture Of Organizations On Employee Responses To
Observed
Wrongdoing." Journal Of Business Ethics 98.3 (2011): 513-
530. Business Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
MacGregor, Jason, Michael Robinson, and Martin Stuebs.
"Creating An Effective
Whistleblowing Environment." Strategic Finance 96.3 (2014):
35-40. Business
Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.

17. Starr, Barbara, and Holly Yan. "Man behind NSA Leaks Says
He Did It to Safeguard
Privacy, Liberty." CNN. Cable News Network, 23 June 2013.
Web. 26 Nov.
2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/politics/edward-
snowden-profile/>.
Treviño, Linda Klebe. "Chapter 4: When All Else Fails:
Blowing the Whistle."Managing
Business Ethics. Straight Talk about How to Do It Right. 6th ed.
Hoboken, NJ:
John Wiley and Sons, 2014. 136-44.