The Coca-Cola Company Struggles with Ethical Crises

The Coca-Cola Company Struggles with Ethical Crises (Student Name

Business Ethics

Faculty Name

Date

Question 1 : Why do you think Coca-Cola has had one ethical issue to resolve after another over the last decade or so

Introduction

There is not single crisis situation for Coca-cola over last decade . The organization has been questioned in different areas of its operations from product to the relationship with workers . It has been facing allegations of misconduct and its questionable behavior

Discussion

Contaminated Product

This is one of the most serious

and frequent problem of Coca Cola products . In the case it is mentioned about the contaminated products of year 1999 . Coca Cola products have been found contaminated in various countries even after 1999 . There are different ethical crisis company has faced in last decade . In most of the crisis , company is also accused for its slow response to the problem . Contaminated products in 1999 like Coca Cola with poorly processed batch of carbon dioxide , Bonaqua contamination with mold had severely affected health of many consumers in French market

Unethical Competitor

In the year 1999 European Market Coca-cola was accused of adopting unethical competitive strategies . Companies like PepsiCo and Virgin accused Coca Cola for using discounts and rebates to decrease the shelf life of the product

Employee Related Ethical Issues

Racial Discrimination Charges

Internally organization faced the racial discrimination allegations by the African American employees in 1999 . This was serious allegations African American employees alleged Coca Cola management for not taking action even when they knew about the discriminatory practices

Union Problems

Coca Cola was criticized for with poor trade union dealing in Colombia where four workers died , forty eight went hiding and sixty five received death threats . Union alleged Coca Cola to be behind all these activities

Breach of Confidence in Employees

In the year 2006 , three Coca Cola employees were charged for trying to sell trade secrets and confidential information to the competitor PepsiCo . PepsiCo had taken an ethical decision by informing the Coca Cola about the offer . This has increased the brand image of PepsiCo but questioned Coca Cola 's ability to maintain confidence among its employees

Unethical Behavior with Burger King

In year 2002 , Coca Cola has been charged for fraud in market testing with Burger King . Burger King was a major customer for Coca Cola . It had to pay 21 million to Burger King but the cost of losing a major consumer was higher than that . It lost trust of stakeholders . This case hampered its reputation and brand image

Channel Stuffing

It is also accused on channel stuffing by shipping extra inventory form the wholesale and retailers at the end of quarter . It was a kind of financial malpractice . It faced lawsuit regarding channel stuffing in four of its major markets Japan , North America , Europe and South America

Distributor Trouble

In 2006 it faced problems with bottlers , who accused it for the breach of contract and violation of antitrust law . This issue had disturbed all the supply chain arrangement...