Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Report: Coca-Cola

This report delves into the critical aspects of business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR), examining the extent to which companies should prioritize profits versus ethical conduct and societal impact. It begins by exploring the core principles of business ethics, emphasizing the importance of moral guidelines, reputation management, customer loyalty, and employee relations. The report then provides a detailed analysis of Coca-Cola's CSR initiatives, including its sustainability programs focused on waste management and water preservation. It evaluates Coca-Cola's CSR record, summarizing market evaluations, highlighting both positive and negative aspects, and offering a personal assessment of the company's efforts. The analysis covers Coca-Cola's initiatives like 'World Without Waste,' bottle design, collection, and plastic circular economy strategies. It also acknowledges controversies related to water execution regulations and human rights. The report concludes by underscoring the significance of ethical practices and CSR for business development, including attracting customers, employees, and investors, and contributing to societal well-being.

Ethics and CSR

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
PART 2............................................................................................................................................5
Short description of the company and its CSR programme........................................................5
A brief summary of the company’s CSR record as evaluated by the market..............................5
Positive OR Negative information that you have found during your independent research
about the company’s CSR projects and their implementation.....................................................6
Your personal evaluation of the company’s CSR efforts............................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

PART 1
‘’A business’s only responsibility is to produce profits while complying to the laws, not to be
ethical towards the society or other stakeholders’’. Explain to what extent you agree or
disagree with this statement.
It is important for the company to produce profit but they should also be ethical towards the
society or their other stakeholders also. Business ethics provide some moral guidelines to
conduct their business by knowing what is right, fair as well as wrong. Unethical behaviour of
the company can damage their reputation as well as become less appealing to their relevant
stakeholders also. Business ethics helps in setting the standards which shows that what is good or
bad in organisational doing as well as decision making (Al Mubarak, Hamed and Al Mubarak,
2019). The growth of a company depends on its ethical code of conduct that are sets in order to
guide management and employees in their daily activities. Ethical conduct in business help them
build effective customer loyalty by treating them in fair manner. A company's reputation towards
the ethical behaviour help them to create positive image in the market, which can also result in
increases of customers. Ethical behaviour make company to treat or deal with their employees in
fair as well as open manner which helps them to retain their most talented employees in the
organisation (Awan, Khattak and Kraslawski, 2019). It is the responsibility of the employees to
perform their work in ethical manner. Which makes them honest towards their experience and
capabilities. This will help in developing the positive working environment in the organisation.
Corporate social responsibility refers to a management concept where companies are
integrating with social as well as environmental responsibility in their business and also while
interacting with their stakeholders also (Chaudhary, 2020). It describes the concept which shows
the certain responsibilities to the company in order to conduct their business in good manner. An
effective corporate social responsibility helps them to create a positive public image which helps
them to increase their market share also. By doing good by the help of CSR programme helps
company to increase their effective job satisfaction as well as long term engagement. Strong
principles and business ethics are too important for the recruitment of effective candidates
because high skilled candidates want to take a job on those company who has strong CSR
programme. Value driven purchasing, customer loyalty, and engaged employees are contributing

more to the business which helps them to devote more effective customer base. This will help
them to increase their sales revenue as well as create more sustainable value for their investors. It
also creates more opportunities to invest and make stronger business performance. The
companies contribute towards the society through their Corporate Social responsibility
programme which helps government in order to solve global problems as well as local challenges
effectively. By contributing towards the society in order to solve global issues, this will help
company to contribute towards the society in effective manner (De Roeck and Farooq, 2018).
The first and most effective responsibility of the company is to render a job to the
employees while earning profit. By keeping people employed and let them to enjoy their labour
is the finest thing that the company can do for the society (Ferramosca and Verona, 2020). The
fundamental responsibility of the employer is to provide a safe and clean working environment
to their employees that is free from any kind of discriminations. This makes company to strive in
providing the job security whenever is possible. The company can also empower their employees
in order to make their decision by their own in order to get effective solution for any kind of
company problems. This will contribute towards the employee's self-worth which helps in
increases their productivity and reduce absenteeism. In order to become successful in today's
business environment, it is important for the company to satisfy their customers also. The
company should deliver honest and forthright while interacting with their customers, suppliers
and other stakeholders. This makes company to communicate socially responsible message,
practice ethical business standards as well as utilise sustainable manufacturing processes. The
company should be responsible towards the society by providing jobs, goods and services. The
company pays many kind of taxes to the government that helps in supporting schools, hospitals
and better roads in the society. The company is also responsible for the protection and
improvement of the delicate environment in all over the world. Forests in all over the world are
destroying in fastest manner and many plant and species are coming extent category which
makes company to contribute for their protection (Harjoto and Rossi, 2019). Many uses
corporate philanthropy which is kind of social responsibility which includes cash contribution,
donation of products and equipment as well as support company employees for the protection of
stakeholders and society. Companies effective relations with their investors can also reflects their
social responsibility. A companies' economic responsibility is to produce profit which affects
their stakeholders which makes them to put their more efforts towards the social responsibility.

The business ethics and corporate social responsibility are two important factors that are
essential for any company for their development. It helps them to attract more customers to their
product and service, increase their profits and sales, encourage employees to give their best in
the organisation, reduce labour turnover, as well as increase productivity. It also helps them to
attract more employees for their organisation, enable themselves for hiring the most skilled
employees, attract investors as well as keep their company's share in higher price. This makes
important for the company to implement successful and ethical policy that are required to make
effective image in the society. This will help them to make strong relationship with their
stakeholders in order to make them to contribute great towards their organisation (Manning,
2018). From this company can increase their growth in the market as well as get proper health to
earn effective profit. All these things describe that, it is important for the company to become
ethical towards the society and their stakeholders while complying with laws for producing
profits in better manner.
PART 2
Short description of the company and its CSR programme
Coca Cola is a multinational corporation that has incorporated under the law corporation of
Delaware. This company is having operations in field of retailing, manufacturing and marketing
of non-alcoholic beverages. This company produces Coca Cola which is a sugary drink invented
in the year 1886. Coca Cola is involved in different CSR activities and sustainability
programmes. This company follows – To refresh world and make difference among different
aspects consisting of CSR. Coca Cola has initiated several programmes and activities according
to the United Nations sustainability goals.
A brief summary of the company’s CSR record as evaluated by the market
Coca Cola mainly focuses upon waste management and water preservation. The reason behind
choosing waste management is that most packaging is done by plastic components. It is essential
to manage waste as it is need of the hour. Coca Cola is using recyclable and reusable components
because this will help environment (Nguyen and Nguyen, 2020). The different initiatives taken
by Coca Cola are mentioned below –
World without waste – This is a program launched in the year 2018. It was an initiative made for
solving different problems of collecting, repurposing, recycling, reusing and repurposing. It is

concluded that packaging waste as well as containers of the products are becoming major part of
waste generated across the world. Bottles of Coca Cola are lying in trash bins or road in different
countries. The company is successful in finding lot of ways to battle problems related to
packaging. This initiative provided Coca Cola with a new perspective associated with packaging.
This company is known for focusing upon following through the CSR initiative –
 Designing of the bottle: Coca Cola is focusing upon managing the usage of recyclable
products so that there is less pollution (Rendtorff, 2019). This company has changed size
of bottle and packaging. This company has changed it’s packaging to affordable Small
Sparkling Package (ASSP). It is known for its light weight.
 Collection: Coca Cola is involved in collecting various bottles including reusable glass
bottles. This helps in ensuring that packages are reused and recycled and this does not
generate waste.
 Plastic circular economy: Coca Cola also develops sustainable economy for country. The
main objective of this company is towards collection, segregation, and treatment of
waste. Coca Cola is also focusing upon different elements like material Recovery
Facilities, knowledge management, traceability and waste management workers.
Positive OR Negative information that you have found during your independent research about
the company’s CSR projects and their implementation
There was some negative publicity in case of Coca Cola. This company is in negative image in
management business (Weller, 2020). The foreign bottling plants of Coca Cola are having
conflicts. There are lot of reports associated with Coca Cola in which it had ignored local
communities, water execution regulations and human rights. There was one area in context of
water which came into controversy (Sharma, 2019).
At the beginning of every year, Coca Cola is seen to have discussion in CSR committee and it
prepares a list of activities of CSR. For monitoring the CSR programs, Board has been devised a
transparent monitoring mechanism (Tourigny and Pan, 2019). Packaging waste is the main focus
of this organisation while working upon CSR activities (Wang, 2020).
Your personal evaluation of the company’s CSR efforts
CSR policy of Coca cola is divided into in two part in which one part consist Better Shared
Future which covers diversity, employees, community interaction as well as work related to
Coca Cola foundation. On the other hand, second part shows Sustainable Business along with

this it addresses packaging, water use, sustainable agriculture and product material. Many
companies have certain sections that relate with the usage of water. The companies who operate
their business in local areas are need to be careful in order to protect their valuable resources in
proper manner. There is a policy knows as 2030 Water Security Strategy, its main aim is to
provide long term benefits to the communities. The benefits include availability, quality and
governance in water, which makes Coca Cola to invest in this scheme which helps community to
reuse more water. By the use of sustainable packaging in their products Coca Cola can also give
their great contribution in order to maintain the environmental condition. In 2018, the World
Without Waste program is prior which makes them firm to focus on their collection, design and
partnering. Around 90% of its packaging are done by using recyclable and they want to reach it
100% before 2025. In order to make their recycling easier their community stakeholders
implement various schemes by working jointly with their community stakeholders. The materials
that are used in Coca Cola product is dairy, carbonated water, fruit juices, teas and coffees. This
makes company to make distinct shift in their products by making smaller container sizes from
their Super Sizing. The started a scheme which targeted the economic empowerment of 5 million
women in 2020 which improved the lifestyles if 6 million women. The company adopts a four
divided approach that helps them to ensure their development, workforce and community. The
main aim of this approach is to develop an inclusive environment in order to help employees
perform their work in proper manner. The management of the Coca Cola also focus on
environment with their various environmental policies. In their production processes they use
can crops and limited resources in order to make discretionary products for their potential
consumer. To control waste is refferd to a challenging problem for the management of Coca
Cola. The company use various programs that helps them to control waste in their production.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al Mubarak, Z., Hamed, A.B. and Al Mubarak, M., 2019. Impact of corporate social
responsibility on bank’s corporate image. Social Responsibility Journal.
Awan, U., Khattak, A. and Kraslawski, A., 2019. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) priorities
in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the industrial sector of Sialkot, Pakistan.
In Corporate social responsibility in the manufacturing and services sectors (pp. 267-
278). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Chaudhary, R., 2020. Corporate social responsibility and employee performance: a study among
indian business executives. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 31(21), pp.2761-2784.
De Roeck, K. and Farooq, O., 2018. Corporate social responsibility and ethical leadership:
Investigating their interactive effect on employees’ socially responsible
behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 151(4), pp.923-939.
Ferramosca, S. and Verona, R., 2020. Framing the evolution of corporate social responsibility as
a discipline (1973–2018): A large‐scale scientometric analysis. Corporate Social
Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(1), pp.178-203.
Harjoto, M.A. and Rossi, F., 2019. Religiosity, female directors, and corporate social
responsibility for Italian listed companies. Journal of Business Research, 95, pp.338-
346.
Manning, L., 2018. Corporate social responsibility. In Food ethics education (pp. 121-146).
Springer, Cham.
Nguyen, L.T. and Nguyen, K.V., 2020. The impact of corporate social responsibility on the risk
of commercial banks with different levels of financial constraint. Asia-Pacific Journal
of Business Administration.
Rendtorff, J.D., 2019. Sustainable development goals and progressive business models for
economic transformation. Local Economy, 34(6), pp.510-524.
Sharma, E., 2019. A review of corporate social responsibility in developed and developing
nations. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26(4),
pp.712-720.
Tourigny, L., and Pan, P., 2019. Ethical leadership and corporate social responsibility in China:
A multilevel study of their effects on trust and organizational citizenship
behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 158(2), pp.427-440.
Wang, C.C., 2020. Corporate social responsibility on customer behaviour: the mediating role of
corporate image and customer satisfaction. Total Quality Management & Business
Excellence, 31(7-8), pp.742-760.
Weller, A., 2020. Exploring practitioners’ meaning of “ethics,”“compliance,” and “corporate
social responsibility” practices: A communities of practice perspective. Business &
Society, 59(3), pp.518-544.
Online

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