Volkswagen shakeup means more English, female managers
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Volkswagen says it's going to speak more English and help more women reach for top positions as it shakes up its corporate culture in the wake of a diesel emissions scandal.
Personnel chief Karlheinz Blessing says that diversity and international experience would help build a culture of "discussion" and "entrepreneurial thinking."
He said in a statement Wednesday that "in the future, English is to be the group language."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The company says that means English would replace German at management conferences with dozens of people by 2021 — not in informal management conversations or among workers on the assembly line.
Some observers have blamed an insular and top-down management culture for the scandal in which it rigged cars with software to make them pass government tests on emissions.