Laura Fey honoured for publication on organisational processes in connection with the VW scandal

It was one of the biggest scandals in the history of Volkswagen AG (VW): in 2015, it became public knowledge that VW had installed illegal defeat devices in the engine management systems of its diesel vehicles. This resulted in immense reputational damage for the company, as well as fines, penalties, financial settlements and buyback costs totalling 33 billion US dollars.
But how was such misconduct by VW employees possible? This question was the subject of one of Laura Fey's dissertation projects. The researcher in the field of corporate organisation analysed how organisational structures at the Wolfsburg-based company were able to establish certain boundaries: for example, groups formed at VW to which not all employees had access. Certain behaviours became normalised in these groups, and they also restricted communication across organisational boundaries. "This not only allowed the misconduct to become established, but also to remain unchallenged," explains Laura Fey. She co-authored the article with John Amis, Professor of Strategic Management & Organisation at the University of Edinburgh.
With her research, Fey is contributing to a better understanding of misconduct in organisations – and showing how it is normalised in companies. Her publication "Organisational Wrongdoing, Boundary Work, and Systems of Exclusion: The Case of the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal" meets the The British company Emerald Publishing has been awarding the prize since 1993 to honour scientific publications that are expected to have an impact on society and can bring about change beyond the academic world. In addition, the contributions should be brilliantly written and relevant for practice or further research.
In her research on the VW scandal, Laura Fey not only analysed media coverage, but also the company's annual reports from 2008 to 2020. Fey has a personal connection to her research topic: she worked at VW from 2013 to 2018 as a dual student and later as an employee in human resources.
Since March 2024, Laura Fey has been working at the Institute for Management and Organisation at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her research interests focus on processes of organising, especially on the change of organisational practices, as in the case of the diesel scandal. In addition, she is investigating new forms of organisation and is looking at the Edinburgh Festival, for example. Laura Fey relies on qualitative research methods.
Fey studied International Business at Ostfalia University, at Nelson Mandela University (South Africa) and at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). She also completed her doctorate there, which was funded by the University of Edinburgh Business School and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) UK. In 2022, Laura Fey completed an institutional visit at the Alberta School of Business (Canada).