Tan Ee Shuen Michelle U2010231L
AY2022/23 Semester 1
BE2601 Management Principles, Skills and Competencies
Seminar Group 10
Ethical Reasoning Individual Assignment
Name: Tan Ee Shuen Michelle
Matriculation No.: U2010231L
Word count:
Tan Ee Shuen Michelle U2010231L
Student Assignment Declaration Cover Sheet
Course Assessment: Ethical Reasoning Assignment
This student assignment declaration is to be used as a cover sheet and submitted together with
the assignment submission. The purpose of the sheet is to remind you as a student of the
commitment you have made to complete your assignment(s) with integrity and honesty expected
of you as NTU student(s), as defined in the NTU Honour Code.
Declaration of Academic Integrity
Please tick to indicate that you have read and accepted the following statements. Your
assignment will not be accepted without this declaration.
☑I confirm that:
1. I have read and understood the University’s Shared Values & Honour Code, including the
information
on
practices
concerning
the
academic
integrity
(given
in
http://academicintegrity.ntu.edu.sg/a-guide-to-academic-integrity/) and that in the attached
coursework
submission
I
have
worked
within
its
expectations
(http://academicintegrity.ntu.edu.sg/shared-values-honour-code/).
2. I am aware that failure to act in accordance with the University’s Shared Values & Honour
Code may lead to the imposition of penalties which may include the requirement to revise
and resubmit an assignment, receiving a lower grade, or receiving an F grade for the
assignment; suspension from the University or termination of my candidature.
3. I consent to the University copying and distributing any or all of my work in any form and
using third parties to verify whether my work contains plagiarised material, and for quality
assurance purposes.
Tan Ee Shuen Michelle
08/09/2022
Name
Date
(Note: For team work - Write names of all the members. Submit only one form.)
Tan Ee Shuen Michelle U2010231L
1.
Ethical Sensitivity or Awareness
The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) is an American beverage company, most well-known for CocaCola. It offers more than 500 brands in over 200 countries and territories (The Guardian, 2010).
The ethical issue that will be discussed is TCCC engaging in misleading advertising and studies.
1.1
Misleading Advertising and Studies
TCCC has been financially supporting studies that regard lack of exercise as the leading cause in
food-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease, and using these arguments to
counter criticisms about their sugary drinks. In 2015, they started funding Global Energy Balance
Network, which argues that people should focus more on exercise than diet to maintain a healthy
weight (O’Connor, 2015). Such false advertising with the intention of luring customers from young
using vague phrases (Matsangou, 2017) can lead to them leading unhealthy lifestyles, as they
disregard their diets. In 2019, TCCC’s internal documents revealed that its marketing was targeting
teens, even amidst soaring child obesity rates (Reiley, 2019).
2.
Ethical Knowledge, Understanding and Judgement
2.1
Egoism
It is clear that TCCC follows the egoism ethical system in its decision-making. This system defines
acceptable behaviour as that which maximises consequences for the individual, which is TCCC
itself. As a business, it seeks to maximise profit for self-interest. By investing in these studies and
misleading advertisements, the public will be more inclined to purchase TCCC’s sweet beverages
as they learn through advertisements that their diet will not significantly affect their health. This
Tan Ee Shuen Michelle U2010231L
in turn will increase their revenue and hence profit, while the interests of the consumers are being
neglected, as their health will be negatively affected – more people might suffer from food-related
diseases due to the smaller emphasis on healthy diets.
2.2
Virtue Ethics
There is a lack of virtue ethics in TCCC’s operations. Virtue ethics assumes that we acquire
virtue through practice. People are most likely to make the right decision when faced with ethical
challenges (UT Austin, 2017). However, due to TCCC’s decisions, when consumers learn about
this false information, their health can be compromised as they start neglecting their diet. They
might end up with a higher risk for food-related diseases because of the misleading advertising.
This consequence is even more likely for people who get miseducated from young about diet and
health. Children are more likely to believe what they see on advertisements, and if they neglect
their diet from young, the effects on their health can be detrimental. By aiming to maximise profit
while ignoring consumers’ health, TCCC has not displayed virtue ethics. These unethical actions
cause negative effects on human welfare in the long term.
2.3
Caux Principles
TCCC’s actions also go against the ethical ideas of the Caux Principles. The Caux Principles
consist of two basic ethical ideas – Kyosei and Human Dignity. TCCC does not demonstrate
Kyosei as using false advertising and supporting studies beneficial to them, which are proven to
be unreliable, lead to unfair competition. TCCC’s competitors will be affected by these unfair
competition strategies, and might retaliate. TCCC is not working together with individuals and
organisations for the common good, as they are negatively impacting their consumers’ health.
Tan Ee Shuen Michelle U2010231L
TCCC also does not display Human Dignity as they do not value each person as an end, as
attributed to their lack of consideration for their consumers’ health. The false advertising and
studies are used as a means to be the fulfilment of TCCC’s and its shareholders’ profit-maximising
goals.
3.
Ethical Reasoning and Solution
3.1
Compliance-based: Restructuring & Enforcing Ethics Codes
TCCC has a Code of Business Conduct in place and an Ethics & Compliance Committee (The
Coca Cola Company, 2018). However, although this has been in place, TCCC still engaged in
unethical false advertising to teens in 2019 amidst the obesity crisis. This goes to show that more
stringent measures have to be put in place to prevent unethical decisions being made in TCCC’s
operations. TCCC’s current Ethics & Compliance Committee should be restructured to increase
its effectiveness – its members should be carefully evaluated and selected, ensuring that they will
remain objective and consistent with legal procedures and standards, auditing, monitoring and
compliance. The committee should also be given more power to enforce the ethics codes during
TCCC’s decision-making.
However, this solution will only be effective if employees understand and embody the ethics
codes. Restructuring might not be carried out properly if the management does not see the
importance of the ethics codes and does not carefully select the members for the committee. If the
members are not carefully selected and are not objective while auditing and monitoring TCCC’s
operations, the root problem will not be solved.
Tan Ee Shuen Michelle U2010231L
3.2
Integrity-based: Education System
To supplement the compliance-based strategy, TCCC should continue to educate its management
about its business code, with the objective of them embracing these guiding principles, so that they
can lead by example and employees will follow suit. Competence and ethics come hand-in-hand
and leading by example will empower employees to have more confidence to make the right
choices when ethical dilemmas arise (Beaupre, 2021). This will allow the ethics codes to be
integrated into TCCC’s operations, thinking and behaviour.
However, education will only be effective if the management and employees are willing to be
trained. The older employees might be less receptive to education as they might be more used to
doing things a certain way since they started working, whereas it might be easier to educate
younger employees. TCCC must find a way to motivate its employees to change their mindsets
and attitudes towards ethics.
References
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/companies-list-c-d1
Misleading:
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/coca-cola-funds-scientists-who-shift-blame-forobesity-away-from-bad-diets/ O’Connor
https://studybreaks.com/thoughts/coca-cola-boycott-ban/
https://www.worldfinance.com/markets/coca-cola-sued-for-misleading-advertising Matsangou
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/18/coca-cola-internal-documents-revealefforts-sell-teens-despite-obesity-crisis/ Reiley
Tan Ee Shuen Michelle U2010231L
Solutions:
https://www.coca-colacompany.com/content/dam/journey/us/en/policies/pdf/corporategovernance/code-of-business-conduct/coca-cola-coc-external.pdf (The Coca Cola Company)
https://www.dashe.com/blog/training-on-code-of-conduct-and-ethics-in-the-workplace Beaupre