Ethics Essay
Introduction
The Coca-Cola Company is reputed to be the world’s leading soft-drink Company. It is mainly involved in the manufacturing, distribution as well as marketing of beverages which are non alcoholic. The coca cola group has more than 500 beverage brands that include waters, ready to drink teas, sparkling beverages, syrups etc. its world wide presence as well as sound management and financial muscle has ensured that it continues to dominate the non alcoholic beverages market with an estimated 1.6 billion consumers of its products on a daily basis.
The coca cola company
In early January, Kerala High court ordered coca cola to halt its ground water extraction exploits. This was after a lengthy controversial issue in which coca cola’s excessive use of water for its bottling plant in Kerala, a state south of India, caused a major water shortage for locals in that state (Fernando 2009). The bottling plant was accused of using more than one million liters of water in a single day and this drastically affected the lives hundreds of local farmers and hence reducing their ability to depend on their land for economic benefit or gain.In addition to that and at about the same period, the sludge that was being produced after cleaning bottles was being disposed by Coca-Cola in the local’s farming fields. This was after coca cola convinced farmers that the sludge could be very effective if used as a fertilizer. A BBC Radio program highlighted this issue prompting authorities to swing into action (Fernando 2009).On analysis, this sludge was found to contain chemicals such as lead which were deemed toxic and were capable of adverse health complications in humans. It was further found that the sludge didn’t have any benefit at all as a fertilizer despite cocoa cola having convinced farmers otherwise.
Utilitarian considerations
Utilitarianism is a normative ethical theory suggested by James mill and Jeremy Batham which advances that every single action should be directed towards making the greatest number of people happy (West 2004). With regard to coca cola, the utilitarian consideration it was making was probably to satisfy its global customer base irregardless of the few locals who would suffer. Coca cola was simply making its 1.6 billion customers who use its products worldwide happy at the expense of probably not more than ten thousand locals of Kerala.
Deontological right involved
According to Driver (2006), deontological ethics propose that the intrinsic qualities of an action dictate its rightness or wrongness. The main proponent of this theory was Immanuel Kant. With regard to deontological theories, actions do not conform to a moral rule are wrong and those that conform to a moral rule are right.With that in mind therefore it was wrong for coca cola to dump hazardous waste in the farmer’s fields and under deontological ethics this action cannot be justified as it is wrong in itself.
Conclusion
It is good to note that morality and business are intertwined and in the light of current developments, businesses are expected to be more responsive today to moral issues than a decade ago.
Reference
Driver, J. (2006). Ethics: the fundamentals. Wiley-Blackwell
Fernando, A.C (2009). Business Ethics: An Indian Perspective. Pearson Education India
West, H.R. (2004). An introduction to Mill’s utilitarian ethics. CambridgeUniversity Press
Is this your assignment or some part of it?
We can do it for you! Click to Order!
