preview

Ethical Dilemma Of Coca Cola

Decent Essays

1. Introduction This Essay deals with the concept of business ethics of an organization. Coca Cola has been taken as an example to clarify these concepts further and to describe how an organization can be caught up in an ethical dilemma and what steps Coca Cola took to minimize the ethical dilemma to ensure its survival. The Ethical issue concerning Coca Cola happened in India in the year 2003. The problematic situation happened in Kerela where the population near the Coca Cola plant complained regarding the passage of sludge as fertilizer, causing health and environmental damage. The most important issue concerning the Indian population is the depletion of water resources caused by the Coca Cola bottling operations which have dramatically …show more content…

In this dilemma they acted egoistic. The Egoism is an ethical theory of Adam Smith. He describes Egoism as the act to considering only at the individual interest of the company and their consumers neither intends to promote the public interest. The aim is to maxim the self-interest. This was the case at Coca Cola, because they considered only their interest no matter if they are reducing the availability of water in Kerela, if they are damaging the healthcare status of the Indian population or if their products were full of pesticides. This dilemma happened on the organisational and systemic level. The organisational level deals with the aspects to take responsibility of the impact of their actions, the way that an organisation treats others and the principles that guide organisational behaviour. The systematic level takes consideration of the economy, laws and cultures, they are dealing with the companies’ behaviour and what is acceptable for the society and aiming for a system that serves everyone´s best interest. After viewing the situation it will be recognised that Coca Cola´s behaviour was unacceptable for the society, because they set their interest over the interest of the population in Kerela. They damaged the healthcare state of the people who lived next to the plant as of their customers, because they did not controlled their products very …show more content…

In order to gain trust among the local society, they improved their business and decided to implement some different ethical theories one of these theories that they focused on was the Utilitarianism. The contributors for the Utilitarianism theory were Jeremy Bentham and John Mill. Utilitarianism means that everybody´s and well-being of an enterprise have an equal way. The way to act Utilitarianism refers to the greatest good for the greatest number as a consequence of a single action. The right act is defined as the one which brings about the best results. So to act in this way Coca Cola focused on reducing the water usage. Now in the year 2015 they use 34 % less water compared to the year 2007 through the practice of rainwater. Another aspect how they transact the theory is that they stabled a charity project in collaboration with the government to provide medical access to poor people. But this was not the only thing that they changed. Kant who was a contributor of the theory of duties said that if you want to act morally correct a company or a person should always act in such a way that you would be prepared for it to become a general rule and that everyone else do the same in the same situation. Under considering this statement C.C implement various quality checks for their ingredients and for the process for making soft drinks. Nowadays the water that they are using is

Get Access