The Ethical Decision Making Of Coca Cola Company

When someone is making an ethical decision they are going through a process of making this decision based on their moral principles. Ethics are principles of behaviour that inform people how to act in certain situations are based on one’s environment

Decision-making in the field of psychology refers to a cognitive process that results in a selection among multiple possible solutions in a situation (Colman, 2008). Decision-making is based on available information from the environment as well as intrinsic information and existing schemas (Rogerson, Gottlieb, Handelsman, Knapp & Younggren, 2011). These internal schemas, along with knowledge and personal preferences, influence the decision-making process. Ethical decision-making differs from "normal" decision-making in that ethical standards influence the decision maker 's choice (Rogerson et al., 2011). Numerous professions and organization adhere to some form of ethical standards including business,

PepsiCo is a huge, multi-billion-dollar company that invests its time and money into creating loveable and lasting products for consumers all over the world. PepsiCo has been on the rise for years and if things continue to prosper like they do know, they should be a lasting company for many more years to continue. PepsiCo relates to their customers and continues to create new and improved products that bring publicity to their company, while still producing the recognizable products that that they are known for.

Luke is an employee of ABC Company. He has been assigned to a construction of an adult entertainment retail store within a neighborhood his brother, Owen, lives in. The development of the retail store has not been made public yet and will be announced one month from today. This announcement will decrease the property values of the surrounding areas significantly. Owen is trying to sell his house. He told Luke that he recently received an ‘okay’ offer. However, in hopes that a better offer might be present itself in a few years after the real estate market improve, he has not taken the offer yet. Luke is very close to his brother, which makes him concerned about his confidentiality obligation to ABC Company.

The issue of ethical decision making has become more important in recent years for a variety of reasons. An understanding of ethical decision making in organizations is more significant to the development of organizational science. Managers engage in decision-making behavior affecting the lives and well-being of others. The individual responds to an ethical dilemma with cognitions determined by his or her cognitive moral development stage.

Ethics are principles that are kept throughout one’s life so that he/she maintains a respectable level of honest value. Based on my moral outlook on life, my view of ethics may differ to that of many in this class. The reason for that is ethics partially depends on the individual feelings of a given situation. For example, some cultures believe that it’s unethical to have multiple partners, but in other cultures, you find that this is the norm. Morals and values are the framework to having and understanding ethics. Morals and values are the drivers

Individual ethics refer to the ability to differentiate what is right from what is wrong. This may entail personal values, norms and beliefs. The influence of individual beliefs and values as well as the values of the coworkers has a great impact on an individual’s decision making (Ferrell, Fraedrich and Ferrell, 2006). While some organizations encourage their employees to come up with ethical choices, other organizations lead to promotion of immoral conduct within their employees. There is an assumption that many people make choices which are grounded on their personal values and beliefs. According to social scientists, there are various factors that influence ethical decision making, and individual factors are among the significant factors to consider.

Probability → Considers how likely each effect might be, given that we don’t know ahead of time which of the many possible effects will actually occur.

All employees (including the company executives) should be guided by moral principles and ethical values when making decisions (Balc & Simionescu, 2012). The ability of executives to make ethical decisions can be influenced by their cognitive bias (Zeni, Buckley, Mumford & Griffith, 2015). Utilitarianism is one of the frameworks that can be used to address ethical dilemmas. Utilitarianism holds that decision makers should take alternatives that maximize the happiness of the majority of the stakeholders (Choe & Min, 2011 and Marques, 2015). This presentation will discuss how the 8-step ethical decision making process can be applied when addressing a dilemma using the utilitarianism framework. The presentation will also guide the executives of Toyota on how to address the negative publicity associated with the production of cars with faulty acceleration system.

Coca-cola boasts of being the world’s largest beverage company serving approximately one billion customers daily. The most dominant products distributed by Coca-cola are Coke, Fanta, Sprite and Diet Coke. This strategy is aimed at ensuring that every customer gets satisfied whenever they use a Coca-cola brand. Coca-cola has large distributions across the globe making it the largest distributor in the world. The late Roberto Goizueta termed Coca-cola to be an American company with large international business and a sizeable American business (Ferrell, 2008). This has helped a lot with brand selling as it is the most recognized brand in the whole world. “Coca-Cola has the most valuable brand name in the world and, as one of the most visible companies worldwide, has a tremendous opportunity to excel in all dimensions of business performance” (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2008). Coca-cola, however, has not been smoothly running over the decades in operation. It has on numerous occasions been criticized for overlooking some ethical standards that it should have rather upheld. This essay aims at looking into some of the issues facing Coca-cola, the most significant of them, how they were resolved and how Coca-cola should have solved them.

To make an ethical decision, it is necessary to perceive and eliminate immoral options and select the best and ethical alternative. It is a process of choosing the best ethical option among the alternatives.

While looking at Ethics, we can see the direct correlation and relationship that it has on our decision making. Ethics ties in the assumption that one has moral knowledge. This thought is produced to support the notion that one’s moralistic values directly influence the knowledge or perception on knowledge. Moral obligation is thought to require some form of action, again bringing in the notion that one’s moral belief system plays a huge part in the shaping of their conclusions. A conclusion can be defined by a judgement or decision reached by reasoning, bringing in the thought that this could possibly be a contemplative decision. There are so many ethical implications that support ones

“A Coke is a Coke, and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same, and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."(Andy Warhol, 1975) Regardless of its corporate reputation, the organizational performance and its social responsibility of Coca-Cola makes it loved around the world. Ever since its creation in 1886 Coca-Cola has been a household brand known globally for generations of families. I have to mention, of all the cases researched this is my least favorite not only because of my childhood love for the product because the ethical issues in one way or another always manage to resolve themselves not before further tainting the reputation Coke worked so hard to obtain. Most times, whether an organization is innocent of an unethical act, it becomes secondary to the suspicion of the original act. Almost as if the court of public opinion has the power to ruin the reputation of an organization based on an unfounded accusation. In spite of my loyalty after having ready the case, I do believe Coca-Cola to be flawed. The contamination scare in Belgium is a great example of a public relations nightmare. The slightest hint of impurity should have pushed Coca Cola into crisis management mode but they were slow to react, citing it a minor issue (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, (2011). It was not until local officials

Boatright, J. R. (2009). Equality, Liberty, and virtue. In Ethics and the conduct of business(6th ed., p. 79). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Coca-Cola is a big recognized brand that produces many products than just soda drinks. With all the money and brand recognition the company possesses, there are possibilities for the company to past the scandals and keep up in the business market, like we have discovered the company has invested money to cover illicit activities. However, it is very important for the company to act ethically and respond to the scandals that the company has been accused. If Coca-Cola responds morally correct, it will shows the customers that the company cares about social responsibility, but if the company does not act fast and ethically, it exists the possibilities that the company’s sales keep declining.