Business Ethics

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS
BUSINESS ETHICS
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2BUSINESS ETHICS
Ethics is an asset of rules and regulations that must be followed by each and every
organization for propagating properly in the Global market scenario. However it must be made
sure by the management that they are taking proper care of the proper evaluation and
maintenance of those rules (Pearce 2019). Each and every employee irrespective of their ranks
must be abiding by the rules and regulations Coca Cola is one of the very well known company
that has often come under many kinds of controversies (Coca-colacompany.com. 2019).
Therefore it can be suggested that the company has to be much more careful in terms of their
tactic s and their ethical conduct so that they can actually come out from the recent backlashes
hat they have been suffering through.
The water stewardship project was initiated by the company to make sure that they are
being able to give back to the society as much as they can and ensure that they are helping the
people who lead their lives in the water stressed areas. However Lang et al. (2012) has argued
that the company has caused several harms to the people of different communities in their efforts
of checking the excessive exploitation of water. Schaltegger, Lüdeke-Freund and Hansen (2012)
have argued that it is essential for the company to abide by the Golden Rule of ethics. The theory
of Golden Rules by Adam Smith talks about the merits and the demerits of the Golden rule. In
other words, the Golden rule asks each individual to think what their reaction would be on
receiving the end of a proposed action (Chambers, Simmons and Wackernagel 2014). This is a
very useful way of enforcing the ethical activities in the company as they can place themselves in
the position of the victims. For an instance the company was forced to shut down some of some
of their plants on account of the u ethical activities. In the year 2000, the Kerala plant at
Plachimada was opened by the company but gradually the community people were angered by it.
They revolted because of the over extraction of the ground water by the Coca Cola company via

3BUSINESS ETHICS
the high powered electric pumps. Thus it can be aid that the company did not think about the
view points of people living in these local communities. Rather they kept on thinking about their
own personal benefits (RICHTOPIA. 2019). It is the duty of the company to make sure about the
immediate feelings of the consumers that is whether they will show gratitude or any kinds of
resentments.
Ethical Decision-Making: some rules of thumb are also a very important test that must have
been conducted by the Coca Cola Company. The ‘light of day’ test is a method of asking
question to oneself that whether I will be happy or not if these decisions are implemented (Pope,
and Vasquez 2016). If the answer is yes the decisions must be carried on but if it is no then there
is surely something morally wrong.
The topic taught in Lecture/Workshop Week 4 Virtue Ethics and Business has been really
enjoyable for me as virtue ethics is one of the most important aspect that must be followed by the
companies. I was unaware about the impacts and the importance of the virtue ethics before
attending these lessons (Cocacola.co.jp. 2019). Most virtue ethics theories take their inspiration
from Aristotle who declared that a virtuous person is someone who has ideal character traits.
Coenen, Benneworth and Truffer (2012) have suggested that there are some specific traits or
characteristics that are resent within all the individuals (Coenen, Benneworth and Truffer 2012).
It is because of these traits that one individual is considered to be different from the other (The
Verge 2019). As per the opinion of Aristotle in his theory, a skill is practiced unconsciously by
the individual whereas the virtue is something that is thoughtfully used by the individual. Singh
et al. (2012) has agreed to this saying that virtues have the explanatory power; an honest person
is bound to act in an honest manner.