Power is viewed as the potential ability of an individual agent to influence the target within a certain system or context. Literature says that the different power that can be manifested must be mobized in a proper manner to get the desired output.
As per the Volkswagen case one of the powers that has come up is the Corporate Power. Corporate power can be assessed by looking at the strength of countervailing forces seeking to limit the influence of corporations. In other words, by looking at the forces that oppose the concentration of power in corporations, we can gain some insight into the power of corporations.

The increasing popularity of business ethics and corporate social responsibility over the past 30 years has happened at the same time as the colossal growth of global corporate power.
Two of the key causes of the scandal were that the senior executives did not fully understand the intricacies of the products being used; and that speaking out and challenging decisions were implicitly discouraged.
There are evidences that show that exercise of coercive/ reward power as well ill use of the legitimate power was there in the organizations.
The pressure that was put on the managers at Volkswagen was unusual which led to the crisis perhaps. One of the supervisory members of the company said “We need in future a climate in which problems aren’t hidden but can be openly communicated to superiors”. This shows how senior executives curbed the new ideas or the hidden issues to come up. Much of it is exercise of legitimate and reward power.
Another former VW executive spoke of an authoritarian style, describing how sometimes CEOs of brands could be treated "quite disrespectfully". Such grillings were not typical of the industry, said the executive, who now works for another international manufacturer. A previous VW chief in the United States, Jonathan