HC2121: Woolworths' Strawberry Crisis - An Ethical Case Analysis

This essay critically examines the ethical issues faced by Woolworths, an Australian supermarket giant, during a food contamination crisis involving sewing needles found in strawberries. The analysis includes outlining the arguments presented in a recent news article, discussing the key ethical concerns, and evaluating the ethical decision-making processes employed by the company and the Australian government. The essay also applies moral philosophies to assess the appropriateness of the decisions made, considering legal and sanction implications. The study concludes by emphasizing the importance of food security and ethical considerations in business, particularly in the context of maintaining consumer trust and ensuring public safety. The essay references various academic sources to support its arguments and analysis. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

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Running head: ARTICLE REVIEW
HC2121: COMPARATIVE BUSINESS ETHICS AND
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

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ARTICLE REVIEW
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Outline and summarise the discussed arguments made in the selected article....................2
Critical Analysis of the key issues raised in the entire article..............................................3
Ethical Consideration and Opinion on the selected article..................................................4
Ethical decision-making process allying the opinion and decision based on moral
philosophies................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion............................................................................................................................6
Reference List......................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The overview of the assignment highlighted all the critical aspects of analysing the facts and
findings by selecting a recently published news article. It mainly concentrated on business
ethics and issues identified recently in the selected article. The definition of the business
identifies towards choosing the right way or the wrong way in the business path, which
includes a form of applied rules and regulations that examines ethical principle or ethical
problems that arise in any business context. Nevertheless, there are several classifications
highlighted in the study, which determined about several arguments based on real facts and
findings in the selected article.
1.0 Outline and summarise the discussed arguments made in the selected article
The present article concentrated on the current issue faced by the Australian supermarket
giant Woolworths. Woolworths is the largest supermarket chain in Australia and it was
founded in 1924.It has spread its business in the important cities of Australia and New
Zealand. Woolworths and Coals account for over 80% of the Australian supermarket
contribution to the Australian economy(Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2018). However, the
present study highlighted the facts and findings on the current food quality issue, which this
supermarket giant faced in the recent time.
Woolworths, the supermarket chain of Australia has pulled out the sewing needles from the
shelves. It was done to address the fear among the consumers about eating strawberries.
However, the customers across the country are still frightened due to the contamination issue
(Koob, 2018). It is one the most severe issues, which the business giant faced over the
decade. Analysing the mission and vision of the current company is also necessary in order to
summarize the arguments. The safety of the customer is the key as well as the ultimate
purpose and vision of the company. However, the firm faced a severe issue towards

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maintaining the quality of the food. Based on the recent conversation by the Australian Prime
Minister new criminal penalties, will be applied if any organisation found tampering with
food, as a part of the national response to the needle contamination crisis affecting Australia's
strawberry growers. The federal government of Australia will increase from 10 to 15 years
the maximum prison sentence for food tampering offences, based on the current new report
(Koob, 2018).
The entire arguments were based on the food quality issue, which Woolworths faced in the
recent time. As Australia is a country with rich natural resources likes agriculture and dairy
industry, the country focuses on maintaining the quality of these industries. It is a massive
contributor to countries GDPs (Audi, 2012). As per the arguments Queensland is the biggest
contributor in producing strawberries. It is followed by Victoria, which produced nearly
32,790 tonnes of strawberries in the financial year 2016 – 17 or nearly 36 per cent when
measured in the annual production of the crop in the country (Claudia Neamtu, 2015).
However, there has been a crisis that has been the ultimate focus. The problem began on 9th
September when a person from Queensland claimed that he ate a strawberry with a sewing
needle. The issue was not only the most challenging one but it was also an ethical problem
that the business had ever come across.
2.0 Critical Analysis of the key issues raised in the entire article
The issue discussed in the article is about the food contamination process followed by
Woolworths in the daily business operations. The article not only focused on the key points
but also covered on the precautionary aspects, which the supermarket giant had taken to
address its customer worldwide. It is one of the saddest incidents in business when majorities
of the customers across the country begun to find needles in their fruit(KOOB, 2018). The
role of the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was very much crucial and taken one of

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the most responsible measures for the said problem (De Cremer & Tenbrunsel, 2012). The
entire article focused on the role-play of different Australian governing authorities such as
Prime Minister, the federal government, ministry of home affairs and many more. Based on
the report of Peter Dutton, the home affairs minister of Australia, it reviled that there have
been more than 100 reports of fruit confirmation was subjected during the past few days
(Koob, 2018). The report concluded that one young boy in New South Wales had been
arrested about the crisis (Esposito, O'Sullivan & Smith, 2012). The ongoing issues that the
strawberry growers faced was highlighted even more when it was known that Woolworths
dumps tons of strawberries regularly. The selected article focuses on the issues regarding the
measures taken for food safety and different types of food contamination.
Many scenarios might cause food contamination, but most of some categories, which
includes biological, chemical, physical and cross continuation. Physical contamination is the
highlighted point, described in the article where contamination happens when actual objects
contaminate foods (Ghillyer, 2012).However, physical contamination is not the only concern.
Dangerous bacteria that grow in the fingernails can also cause contamination. Nonetheless,
the issue primarily focused on the physical contamination and the different features of it.
3.0 Ethical Consideration and Opinion on the selected article
The reason behind selecting this specific article is that Woolworths has recently encountered
some serious and important issues that have been published as well. The prime minister of
the country took different kinds of legal steps for the said cause to consider a strong ethical
consideration. It was a question about the food security of the country, where Australia is
considered one of the healthiest and new countries of natural foods. Food security is achieved
when majorities of the people in a particular country or a particular location or a country are
achieved at all times. Its ultimate objective is to develop food preferences for an active and

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healthy life. Australia is one of the countries, which recognise that food security is a major
global issue. The federal government of the country increased the maximum prison sentence
for food tampering offences from 10 years to 15 years and thereafter the new laws will draft
rapidly and introduce to Parliament within few days based on the discussed issue(Koob,
2018).
4.0 Ethical decision-making process allying the opinion and decision based on moral
philosophies
It is important to determine a strong philosophical aspect, which determined the
systematising, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behaviour. Based
on the new business aspects philosophers of the different type usually divide ethical
consideration theories into three general aspects, which reflected some of the crucial subject
areas such as met ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics (Audi, 2012). Based on the
recommendations of the present issue it is one of the most challenging points, to select the
best philosophy for the highlighted issue. It is important to analyse all the facts and findings
for the said ethical issue to determine a strong decision-making process(Claudia Neamtu,
2015). It is very much significant to determine the entire ethical dilemma as it is one of the
most complex situations where the ethical principles or values conflict with each other.
However, the moral philosophy will allow determining the right course of action or the right
thing to do as it enables one to analyse a good as well as an effective decision-making
process on the selected issue (De Cremer & Tenbrunsel, 2012).
Nevertheless, the legal team emphasis on a strong decision makes process, which maintained
a cogitative process that considered the ethical principles, rules and virtues to enable a strong
decision-making process towards determining a strong as well as a proper solution for the
recently published problem. It is one of the most significant aspects to determine the main

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reason for the contamination process. Based on the findings of the contamination process the
organisation must enable a strong steep as well as proper decision-making process which will
assure all the affected customers(Ghillyer, 2012). The Australian prime minister wants the
tough sanctions approved before federal politicians depart Canberra after the issue. MPI has
been generating updates from both New Zealand police and Queensland health department on
what appears to be the intentional situation and said it would continue to monitor the situation
(Velasquez, 2012). On the other hand, New Zealand Strawberry growers developed a strong
checking system on every fresh food items in aspects to make it 100 per cent secure for the
maintenance of the food security in the country.
Conclusion
The concluding part of the study analysed all the important aspects, which highlighted the
recent food contaminated issue in Australia. Woolworths is the selected organisation in the
study, and it maintains the largest retail chain of supermarket industry in the country
contributing nearly 80 per cent of the entire production. Towards fulfilling the requirements
of the study, the recently published article highlighted the concern matter of Woolworths,
which reflected as one of the most serious ethical considerations in business. There are
several classifications based on the highlighted issue, which determined about the food
security problems in the country. It outlined a proper summary along with relevant facts and
findings to consider an ethical consideration subjected to the present issue.

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Reference List
Audi, R. (2012). Virtue Ethics as a Resource in Business Ethics Quarterly, vol. 22 no. 02,
pp.273-291.
Claudia Neamtu, A. (2015). Efficient Communication in Business Strategies Journal of
Business and Management, Vol. 3, No. 1, p.24.
De Cremer, D. & Tenbrunsel, A. (2012), Behavioural business ethics, Routledge
Esposito, M., O'Sullivan, P. & Smith, M. (2012), Business ethics, Routledge
Ghillyer, A. (2012), Business ethics now, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Koob, S. (2018) Woolworths pulls needles from Australian shelves amid strawberry spiking
fear. [Online] Stuff Available at
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/107237494/woolworths-pulls-needles-from-
australian-shelves-amid-strawberry-spiking-fear [Accessed 23 Sep. 2018]
Velasquez, M. (2012), Business ethics, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson
Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2018) Woolworths Supermarkets - Woolworths Group [online]
Available at
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-brands/supermarkets/Woolworths
[Accessed 23 Sep. 2018]