ATW 394 BUSINESS ETHICS

SEMESTER 1, ACADEMIC SESSION 2018/2019

DR. AZURA ABDULLAH EFFENDI

Tutorial Slot: Thursday 4pm – 5pm

Business Ethics Tutorial Chapter 3

Case Study: A Firm Production Date

Group Name: Strivers

No Name Matrix Number

1 Goh Wei Ming 128453

2 Gwanda Ooi Jing Ling 129402

3 Jocelyn Chia Xin Dragon UG150005

4 Jocelyn Lim Jia Sin 128464

5 Jong Suk Chien 128466

6 Khor Wei Sean 128473

Tutorial Assignment 2.2: Chapter 4: Banning The Real Thing (pg. 76)
1. Which ethical standards are being violated here?
Coca-Cola Company has violated the environmental standard, which can be seen from the
incident where they disposed biosolid waste in India. In addition to that, the bottling plant
sludge was that said to contain cadmium and other contaminants has been distributed to local
farmers as fertilizer. Besides, the use of groundwater in India has violated the environmental
standard too. This has seriously affected the local farmers as the company drawn down the
water table by using deep bore wells, eventually caused the poor crop harvests near bottling
pants. Pesticides in the product in India has violated the health and safety standard. Studies
have found that pesticides have been detected in Coca-Cola products in India. Lastly, Coca-
cola company did not abide by the Labor Standards in Colombia.

2. Is the university being unreasonable in the high standards demanded in its Vendor Code of
Product?
In our opinion, the university is not being unreasonable in the high standards demanded in its
Vendor Code of Conduct as the standards are to be followed by every organization. Company
have to carry out business at the same time following the primary and preferential standards ,
to ensure that every vendors are conducting its business in a legal and ethical way.

3. Do you think the University would have developed the Vendor Code of Conduct without
the aggressive campaign put forward by SOLE?
We think that the University would not have developed the Vendor Code of Conduct without
the aggressive campaign put forward by SOLE. Every business has its own way of creating
revenue. Some may do it unethical but some would have been following the ethical way.
Without a platform like SOLE, it is hard to get all vendors together to follow the standards
while conducting business. Besides, it would not have been an urgent issues to be solve by the
university if the vendor conduct its business in an unethical way. Hence, without an aggressive
campaign , there is no one would care what Coca-cola did .

4. How should Coca-Cola respond in order to keep the University of Michigan contracts?
In our point of view, Coca -cola should take the initiative to change its way of doing business
ethically. The company should abide by the vendor code of conduct in the University of
Michigan. They should follow the primary and preferential standards set by the university.
Besides, the company need to carry out Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) so that their
initiation of moving forwards towards ethical conduct can be seen. Coca-cola company need
to solve all the problem they previously caused in India and Colombia to gain back the trust
from the university again.