Business Ethics: Analysis of Coca-Cola and Tobacco Industries

This report delves into the realm of business ethics, examining two distinct case studies: Coca-Cola's Water Neutrality Initiative and the tobacco industry. It begins by analyzing Coca-Cola's challenges related to water resources, stakeholder expectations, and the application of the strategic radar screen model. The report then assesses Coca-Cola's response to public concerns. Part B shifts focus to the tobacco industry, exploring its impact on health, the environment, and society, including the roles of various stakeholders. The analysis considers the implications for the individual, the company, and the country, alongside the impact of media. The report highlights ethical considerations, stakeholder perspectives, and potential strategies for responsible business practices in both contexts. The student provides a comprehensive overview, addressing the complexities of corporate social responsibility and ethical decision-making in these industries.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS
Business Ethics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Assignment 1
Part A
1. Performance-experience gap in the case study of Coca-Cola’s Water Neutrality
Initiative
Coca-Cola is one of the largest beverage country in the world, which has more than
300 number of bottling partners and operates in more than 200 countries. Recently it faced an
issue with availability and quality of fresh water. This was a mutual concern for the company
as well as for the stakeholders. It was the expectation of the customers that the company
should provide the consumers a product, which is free of contamination. The company was
accused to have harmful level of pesticide residues, which affected the business of the
company (Coca-Cola Australia, 2018). Additionally, the business of the company was largely
dependent upon water resources; they approximately used 80 billion gallons of water every
year globally. Only two-fifth part of the water was used in finished beverages, and the other
parts went into manufacturing process. This affected the expectation of the customers, who
assumed that they would face a major water shortage if this continues (Alabau et al, 2015). It
was observed that 1 billion people were facing shortage of safe drinking water. It was studied
that, by 2025, the world will face extreme water shortage, which could lead to rise in food
pricing and diseases (Austin & Gaither, 2016). It was brought to public attention that the
company had depleted the groundwater supplies for the people who were living near the
location where their bottling plants were located. This had obviously created a gap between
the expectation of the stakeholders and the performance of the company.
2. Application of strategic radar screen model in the study
If strategic screen radar model is applied to the Coca-Cola’s Water Neutrality
Initiative, six out of the eight environment of the model apply to the case (Schulte &

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Morrison, 2014). The six environments are social environment, political environment,
geophysical environment, legal environment and customer environment and technological
environment. The reason for applying geophysical environment is because public are
concerned about the contaminated products and depleted water resources. Social environment
can be applied because the company is facing an issue with the way they are using the natural
resources of the earth. Technological environment plays an important role, as there is a need
to implement an appropriate technology that could save water. Political environment is
another strategic radar screen model that can be applied in this study. Law and policies differs
in various regional government, which affects the business process in different countries. It
may be easier to do business in a country, while in another country it may seem to be
difficult. The allegation that the product of Coca-Cola was contaminated had resulted into
losing of its customers, which can be considered as a customer environment of the strategic
screen radar model. The company faced some issues in its legal environment as some
government had taken legal action against the company.
3. Respond of TCCC to this public issue- whether appropriate or not
TCCC responded justifiably by turning this public concern as their concern. They
decided to take into considerations the views of their internal and external stakeholders by
referring to their decision while solving the particular issue (Gaither & Austin, 2016).. They
used an approach which would return to the nature an amount of water comparing to what is
has used. They decided to decrease their water utilization, reprocessing of water for re-use,
and adding to water assurance wanders. I believe the TCCC showed commitment towards the
environment, society and to their customers appropriately. The team has presented a feeling
of obligation towards the present and future population. This shows that they have improved
with their setting of goal in the year 2010 (Marengo, Corea & Di Vaio).

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Part B
Tobacco industry
Tobacco is the most commonly used substances for addiction in the world. It is a plant
from the genus Nicotiana, which is known as N. Tabacum, and are native to the America. The
leaves of the plant is dried and processed for smoking as cigarettes, pipes and cigars. Tobacco
industry is comprised with the persons who are engaged in growing, preparing, shipping,
advertising and distributing tobacco related products. There are several negative impacts that
tobacco cause to the health of the people and the environment. The main identified issues of
using tobacco as an addictive substance is its effect on health like cancer, heart, lungs and
coronary diseases, increased blood pressure, contribution to poverty, and damage to the
environment. It also risks the health of the people who breathes in the smoke of other people.
Media plays an important role in promoting as well as controlling tobacco uses. Whereas, it
spreads awareness in the people of the effects of tobacco smoking and passive smoking,
prohibits smoking in public place, it also helps in publicizing the products.
1. Context
Tobacco uses has several issues in the health, environment and society. It has more
than 4000 chemicals in its smoke, out of which 250 chemicals are extremely harmful and
known to cause cancer (World Health Organization, 2013). . Tobacco is responsible for
causing disease and deaths of more than 7 million people a year. It causes almost 890000
premature deaths per year by second-hand smoking. Tobacco growing, manufacturing and
smoking has fatal consequences for environment. Apart from the direct health issues from
tobacco smoking, the chemicals and fertilizers used for cultivating tobacco causes harmful
effect on the environment and on the health of the people (Maynard, Munafò, & Leonards,
2013). The short-term economic benefit for farmers can cause long-term health and

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environmental issues. Farming and processing of tobacco has an effect on society. The
labour-practice in this industry includes several child and women labour. They are exposed to
a risk of nicotine toxicity, which is caused by dealing with tobacco leaves during the
harvesting and processing, without any protection. Minors are attracted sometimes towards
addictive substances; they tend to get addicted to tobacco without proper supervision. The
ends and waste of cigarette are non-biodegradable, which is a hazard to human health and
environmental contaminant.
The primary stakeholders in the tobacco industry are the managers, employees,
vendor and customers. The secondary stakeholders in the tobacco industry are the
Government and the media. The primary stakeholders are influenced in favour of the product.
The managers, employees, vendors and customers acts in support of the promotion of the
industry. The Government and media oppose use of tobacco due to its health and
environmental effects. Government and media plays a role to prohibit the consumption of
tobacco by spreading awareness.
2. What does it mean to my family
The hazardous effect of tobacco has caused death to several lives and different severe
diseases. No one can support their family consuming tobacco and let them have a life that is
exposed to risk of cancer and death. Youngsters are mostly attracted towards addiction;
companies are taking this chance to promote their product. Tobacco not only causes disease
but addiction to tobacco can result the economic status of the family of a person who is
consuming tobacco (World Health Organization, 2015). . When it becomes addiction, people
tends to spend a huge amount of money for this substance. My family is strongly against the
practice of tobacco consumption. They suppose addiction for a bad thing is always dangerous
and can ruin the life of a person. There may be initial pleasure but that will ultimately lead to
slow and painful death. My family believes that there should be a ban on advertising of

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tobacco. They often influence people to quit smoking and promotes ban on smoking in the
public place.
From my perspective, I strongly support the opinion of my family. There should be
strict legislative control or regulation on the growth, use and promotion of tobacco industry.
The awareness should be made in public of its effect on health, economy, culture and
environment. Addiction to tobacco has cause a danger in lives of youth, who are actually the
representative of the society.
3. What it means to my company
As an official of a company relating to tobacco products, I work in favour of the
company. It is my job to be involved in the upliftment of the company. As a manager of the
company, I work for earning profit for the company and be faithful to my job role.
Simultaneously, being concerned about the harmful effect of tobacco, I do not promote
smoking. I believe people should be aware of the consequences and then engage into
smoking. There are several step which can be taken for the development of the company as
well as for making the people aware of the disadvantages of smoking, such as:
 Advertising the truth about smoking, which shall help in promoting the company and
spreading awareness in public (Mays, 2014)
 Provide a legislative framework for the use and production of tobacco and
communicate it to people.
 Maintain a safety standard within the company to make the workplace safe.
 Provide safety for the employees who are exposed to the effects of tobacco.
 Provide medical assistance to the smokers who are suffering from any disease
(Berman, 2013).
 Assisting the people who are willing to quit smoking.

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 Ensuring that the products are not made available to the minor age group.
 Promoting a standard and clean environment.
 Planting tree for reducing the hazard for the environment.
 Prohibiting smoking in public place.
 Prohibiting women from smoking while they at their pregnancy stage.
 Supporting the tax imposition on tobacco products.
 Helping people with mental support to recover from addiction.
4. What does it mean to my country
In Canada, smoking has caused numerous premature deaths. The smoking rate in
Canada, in 2015, was found to be 13% (Huang, Chaloupka & Fong, 2013). It was found in a
recent study that 21% of the deaths over the last decade are a result of smoking, out of which
most of the death was because of lung malignancy. In a recent study it was found that 1 in 12
citizens of Canada, during his or her lifetime, will develop lung cancer. In 2016, 16.9% of
Canadians, who are aged 12 and older, were found to be a daily or occasionally smoker
(Fooks & Gilmore, 2013).. The diseases caused from tobacco use still do not have proper
treatment.
Government has taken some steps and made some legislation restricting use,
advertising of tobacco. Recently, The Tobacco and Vaping Products act was enacted to
regulate the manufacturing of tobacco products, and imposed some restriction on selling,
labelling and promoting tobacco products (Savell, Gilmore & Fooks, 2014). There is Non-
smokers’ Health Act, which puts a restriction on smoking in workplaces and public places.
The Government of Canada’s Federal Tobacco Control Strategy has helped in controlling
tobacco products. The Tobacco Products Labelling Regulations (Cigarettes and Little Cigars)
has helped in lowering the smoking rates in Canada, especially among the youth. It provides
that tobacco products should be packaged by a health-warning message. The covering should

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be made enhanced with graphics and colours (World Health Organization, 2015). Under the
Tobacco Reporting Regulation, the manufacturers and importers are imposed with an
obligation to provide the date and information of their sales, manufacturing ingredients and
promotional activities.
5. Impact of media
To promote and control tobacco use, media has always played an important role.
Media has expanded to various channels like, newspaper, radio, magazines, television and
internet, which influences and regulates tobacco industry. Industries use force to use media to
promote their products (Gallopel-Morvan, 2013). They use media as a tool to introduce their
products to grass root level. Advertisements of smoking cigarette results in promoting
smoking as a desirable thing. It is therefore required that the media should be cautious about
the consequences they may cause by promoting cigarette in the life of the people.
To control tobacco use, media has taken some important steps to make awareness
among the people, and put restriction on consuming tobacco production. The National cancer
Institute presented the Tobacco Control Monograph series, which provides information about
emerging issues in smoking tobacco, which are available online (Jolls, 2013). The ban AD,
appearing in three quarters or more, is broadcasted in movies, which shows the real life
consequences of smoking. It helps in warning people about the disease and consequences
they may face. Celebrity figures are nowadays being used by the media to aware people of
the harmful effect of using tobacco. With the intervention of mass media campaign, the
behaviour of youth towards tobacco use can be controlled (Kirst et al., 2015). Such strategies
can reach a large population within little time. The regulation on using smoking scenes in
movies has now come under the supervision, which has declined the number of smoking in
movies over the time. The message regarding consequences of tobacco use is widespread to

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the youth via internet and social media (Lu, 2013). Newspaper also includes coverage as to
the dangerous result of smoking, which has helped in spreading awareness among the public.
Conclusion
Tobacco business is growing at an irritating scale worldwide. It is affecting the
success and potentiality of every individuals. A proper check should be implemented by the
law making authority controlling the effects of smoking and tobacco. Tobacco products
should be taxed in a way that it reaches out of the affordability of the general public. To
decrease the utilisation of tobacco products, it should be made sure that it is not available to
the children and minors. For the development of the nation, it is required that cost collection
should be utilized intelligently. Every business should pay notice whether there production is
harming the society and they should always focus on the individual success rather than on
their benefits. In my view, there should be much awareness on the dangerous impact of
tobacco. As the tobacco products contains photos of the bad consequences of its
consumption, it is up to the individuals whether he should smoke or not. One of the method
which could be adopted for shielding individuals from smoking it is required that they are
conscious about the consequences so that they reconsider before they consume the product.
Additionally, a primary education about the consequences of smoking should be given in the
schools so that individuals do not attempt to smoke in future.
Assignment 2

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Part A
Question No 1. Do you feel that it is possible to develop a universal set of ethical
standards for business, or do you believe that cultural differences make universal
standards impractical and/or impossible?
Ethics is the rules of action or behaviour of individuals that addresses the ethical
choice of an individual (Weiss, 2014). It refers to the human quality which lights up his
concern regarding moral good or bad doings. Moral can be understood as a branch of
philosophy which deals with the thought of right or wrong headings of a person (Trevino,
2016). Business ethics is a form of professional ethics which examines the ethical principles
to deal with in the business environment. It can be applied to all conducts in business industry
and are relevant to the individuals and to the organisation itself. Business ethics is the usage
or ethical or unethical practices in an organisation referring to their contemporary standards,
set of norms or values, principles to govern the actions within the organisation (Melé, &
Sánchez-Runde, 2013).. It is essential for the business to consider what is unlawful or
unfaithful in the opinion of the general population (Wohlpart, 2017). A moral framework
exists in our population upon which the society relies. It provides a moral tie which makes
focal strolls and individuals considers whether it is valuable or not. They are free to decide
whether they should be removed or gotten a handle on. We are influenced to administer our
fundamental human affiliations by our morality.
Ethics is a basic quality in human beings, which can be discovered all over the world
(Hoffman, Frederick, & Schwartz, 2014). In the famous case of Chiquita Brands
International, the brand was a distributor of nutritious and remarkable sustenance things
(Jaksch, 2017). A paramilitary get-together, The United Defense Forces of Columbia, later
articulated by the Government of United States to be a psychological oppressor association,
went up against the affiliation. Chiquita made a beeline to make parcels to protect their agents

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from the mercilessness against them. In my perspective, it hard to an incredible degree to
provide a thorough course of ethics for business standards in a manner which will help a
general authority with the required qualities, practices and models of his nation sufficiently.
At the same time, it should be watchful to the different nations while executing business
attempts.
Keeping in mind the great benchmark on the off chance which was identified in the
Chiquita International Brands case, the advantages were exposed to danger if illicit bits were
not made, which could have further provoked the relationship to break down (Restrepo
Amariles, 2015). If the bits were proceeded with, it could encourage unlawful fines. The
affiliation expected that it may have to continue paying which was not a response for the
condition (Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez, 2013). In a situation including a business setting,
where associations are assumed by unlawful activities or unforgiving clash, they get related
from time to time with the corrupted exercises to secure their points of interests. If it is
continued, there might arise more incidents like Chiquita. There was a money related
defenselessness which encouraged to submit illegal acts or violation of law by combining
them in the exchanges with the general fear based oppressor association (Krkač, 2013)..
There is a belief that social differences can create comprehensive models unbelievable in
light of the manner in which every country has voting culture and apparent reactions about
what business practices are appealing and accepted in their nation (Ni & Van Wart, 2015).
Earlier, several attempts were made to create a game-plan for a generally accepted model,
which had caused the course of action of moral issues in general association regarding culture
sharing of particular respects. As demonstrated by social belief, critical quality starts to
change with every culture then onto the association. Business practices are represented as a
moral right or wrong action by the particular culture where they deal in. The U.S law
prohibits American relationship from tracking in occupation or a disconnection in different

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nations as every now and then as probable reinforced in respect of social attributes and
models. It can be ascertained that, it is necessary to correspond in the wake of setting a
universal set of ethics to be practiced in business models in a case, then the social changes
cannot be simply ignored which creates comprehensive standards checks irrational in the
cooperative situation.
Question No 2. Do corporations have a right and/or a responsibility to influence
ethics in the countries in which they operate? Defend your position?
Corporations actually have a responsibility to influence or encourage ethics in a
country in which they operates. Business are rising internationally and globally and the
corporate companies are entering into the countries resulting into creating more cross cultural
issues in the businesses. It should be considered what is ethical and what is wrong in the
business conduct. For this purpose a standard of ethics should be observed by the companies
in which country they are likely to operate. In modern times, policymakers and key deviser in
every multinational corporations are not considering the ethics of the country in which they
are conducting business. It is required for the customer based undertaking to adopt the ethics
of the countries, where it deals in, to become widely accessible and acceptable. Nowadays,
companies are trying to attack the global market where culture and conventions differ, the
acceptance of universal culture will help in growing the business of the company. A moral
good or bad perspectives should be followed up in the business operation. It is perceived by a
large number of population that they are proportionate and they should be able to meet the
open gateway. The decision makers of the corporations may face an ethical dilemma and
implement the principles in every levels and operations at workplace. It is however difficult
to enforce a set of ethics globally. The main reason behind the inconsistency is the difference
in culture. For example, it is considered to be offensive and unpleasant to eat while standing
in the society of Hausa which may offend the host and demonstrates a lack of respect for the