CocaCola Funds Scientists Who Shift Blame for Obesity away from Bad Diets - Article Example

Integrative Business Capstone Name Institution Date Integrative Business Capstone Newspaper Article: Coca­Cola Funds Scientists Who Shift Blame for Obesity Away From Bad Diets Introduction This paper focuses on analysis of a newspaper article by The New York Times on how scientists funded by Cocacola shifted blame for obesity from bad diets to lack of physical exercises. The essay will critically analyse and evaluate the newspaper article using two theoretical principles namely; corporate governance and values and identity. Corporate governance refers to the system of rules, practices and procedures that directs and controls a company. Basically, corporate governance entails balancing the interests of all organisational stakeholders such as the shareholders, administrations, consumers, funders, suppliers, government and the society as well (Kushkowski, 2010). In regard to values and identity, organisational identity can be communicated through it activities, actions, words, images, their mission statement, or maybe through their employees (Riel & Balmer, 2007). This essay therefore performs a critical analysis of the newspaper article in regard to corporate governance and values and identity theoretical principles. Corporate governance According to Kushkowski (2010) corporate governance not only involves the rules of business decisional making applied to the internal organisational mechanisms as well as the corporate ethics, accountability and reporting too. With organisations focusing on assuring regulators and investors regarding their transparency and accountability, corporate governance also requires organisations to pledge devotion to honest and fair corporate governance principles on a range of business practices. In this case, corporate governance involves how it handles the issue of bad diet contributing to obesity which includes sugary drinks such as Cocacola products. Bad corporate governance can put an organisation in bad light regarding its reliability, integrity as well as its responsibilities to shareholders. Tolerating or supporting illegal or unethical activities can result to scandals which can severely harm an organisations reputation (Kushkowski, 2010). For Cocacola, defending the fact that the company’s product contribute to obesity, speaks badly of its corporate governance. According to the newspaper article by The New York, the company’s leaders including its board of directors have been so active in countering the fact that the company’s products contribute to obesity. The company’s leadership has gone to an extent of recruiting top scientists to counter evidence that sugars and bad diet contribute to obesity. According to the article, the scientists hired or partly funded by Coca-Cola have been conveniently attributing obesity to lack of physical exercises and not bad diet. This is in an attempt to ensure that Coca-cola does not lose its market and customers who are so keen on eradicating obesity (O’Connor, 2015). Reports from Coca-cola scientists apparently countered previous evidence that bad diets play a big role in causing obesity. For instance, a study conducted by Andrea et al (2015) found out that unhealthy diet especially diet rich in sugars and fats as well as lack of physical activities are among the most leading causes of obesity. Obesity is a problem of energy balance where energy intake from food should be balanced through energy expenditure from physical activity, where lack of balance results to weight gain and eventually obesity. In Australia, poor diet is the leading cause of obesity and 6 out of 10 Australians are either overweight or obese. This indicates that diet is also a contributor to obesity (Andrea, 2015). Bad corporate governance can focus on hiding an organisation’s defects rather than exposing them and trying to find a solution (Shanikat & Abbadi, 2011). Instead of the Coca-Cola trying to cover the fact that bad diet contributes to obesity, good corporate governance would have published the study outcomes as they should be. This is comparable to company’s whose auditors try to cover their financial mistakes in order to cover financial problems and retrain or attract investors. In this case, good corporate governance obligates the scientists hired by the Coca-Cola Company to publish the correct research results and not just attribute obesity to lack of physical exercises just because Coca-Cola products are associated with increased obesity rates. Good corporate governance ensures there are transparent set of rules and companies are required to show good corporate citizenship through sound corporate governance practices as well as ensuring ethical behaviours (Shanikat & Abbadi, 2011). According to the newspaper article, Coca-Cola has teamed up with influential scientists who are spreading the message that for healthy weight people should be more focused on physical exercised and not cutting calories by avoiding unhealthy diets. The top scientists have been spreading this message through medical journals, workshops, conferences and even social media. The Coca-Cola Company in turn provides financial and logistical aid to the scientists to enable them spread this message (O’Connor, 2015). This clearly indicates bad corporate governance on the part of Coke Company because according to the article, health experts argue that the message being spread by the Coke scientists and the company is making only trying to avoid the fact that evidence indicates that sugary drinks greatly contribute in spreading obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Coke is only trying to use the top researchers due to its strong financial muscle to convince the public that physical exercises can minimise the bad side effects that come with taking sugary drinks. Instead, the company should through the appropriate corporate governance mechanisms ensure that the proper message is delivered to the public in order for the public to make an informed choice when buying their drinks. Coke should also focus in ensuring that the public is informed of the calories in their drinks, for example through introducing calorie labels on their drinks. This should be followed by the company leadership ensuring that the proper study outcomes are released to the public regarding the negative effects of consuming too much calories. As Shanikat & Abbadi (2011) explains, corporate governance ensures that a company is operated responsibly by ensuring accountability, transparency and compliance. This therefore is an indication Coke company has poor governance because it did not uphold accountability or transparency. However, as the company continues to engage in discourses concerning scientific studies and Coca-Cola product nutrition, this can indicate that the company is transparent and actually concerned in consumers’ welfare, instead of simply focusing on making profit. In addition, the company has also been transparent in regard to fighting obesity by putting calorie values on its packaging. The company informs consumers that calories matter; nonetheless, since customers are so much wary regarding the level of sugars within their drinks, calorie values might not be transparent enough. Additionally, the company’s informative advertisements regarding the safety of aspartame are steps towards the right direction of providing customers and the public more information that is pertinent to Coca-Cola products and the current health concerns. Values and identity Identity for companies refers to the symbols and names that the company uses to identify itself to people. Therefore, corporate identity assists people in recognising the company and hence identity can also be referred to the outward manifestation of the company (Riel & Balmer, 2007). On the other hand, organisational values are what influences and shapes the organisational culture. Core values assist organisations in decision-making process, for instance where a company’s core value is ensuring the quality of the company’s product is excellent, and any product that does not meet the standard quality requirements is eliminated (Shelley, 2005). In addition, organisational values inform customers as well as potential customers regarding the company and also clarify the identity of the organisation and hence give a company a competitive advantage (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000). From newspaper article by The New York, it is easy to identify the core values of Coca-Cola as well as it identity. Regarding its identity, the company attempts to create an image that it cares for people. Unfortunately, the article clearly shows that the company has attempted to create a false identity among its customers and the public at large. The public no longer identifies Coke as a company that produces healthy drinks and this is indicated by the fact that the public has become health conscious and aware of what the products they consume contain (O’Connor, 2015). As a result, sales for companies such as Coke have been decreasing and this is the reason Coke is trying to fund programs that disseminate information claiming that diet rarely results to obesity. As the newspaper article indicates, Coke is using the top scientists and research agencies to try to restore the image and identity that the public had, regarding them. The article shows that Coca-Cola is struggling to find a balance between supporting efforts against obesity and selling products that the public is aware contribute to the same issue the company is putting efforts to eradicate (O’Connor, 2015). As shown by the newspaper article, health experts as well as the media have been associating Coca-Cola products with obesity and hence the public perceive the company’s efforts to eradicate obesity as hypocritical attempts at damage control in order to maintain their sales. This is clear where the company attempts to counter well known evidence that sugary drinks contribute to obesity by spreading the message that exercise is enough to counter obesity. As aforementioned, organisational values are important in communicating what is important for the company (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000). Organisational values are seen in the organisational activities towards achieving what the company values. While the company supporting anti-obesity efforts may indicate that the customer values healthy lifestyles, the newspaper article indicates a different story. Even though the company is engaging in anti-obesity campaigns and studies, and attempting to seek solutions to the obesity problem through exercising, Coca-Cola is ignoring one of the key contributing factors to obesity and this is diet (O’Connor, 2015). This can indicate that however much Coke is trying to show that the health of its customers is one of its key values, the article indicates otherwise. The company only values retaining its customers and not their health. This is shown by the fact that Coca-Cola has gone to an extent of using renowned scientists and research agencies to convince the public otherwise regarding the key causes of obesity (O’Connor, 2015). For Coca-Cola to prove that the health of its customers is one of its key values, the company needs to focus on genuinely participating in anti-obesity efforts without trying to influence the renowned fact. If the company cannot convince the customers regarding its drink’s safety, Coca-Cola should act fast to make noteworthy product changes and communicate the changes to the customers, and public at large. This will clearly indicate that the company clearly upholds healthy products as one of its values. Corporate reputation can be associated with values like honesty, responsibility and integrity. In addition, people link an organisation with its identity. The identity assists people in recalling their organisational image and this includes the mental picture of the company. Therefore, Coca-Cola needs to ensure that its values represent the company’s real intentions (Kehinde, 2012). For example, if Coca-Cola Company really values health of its consumers, it should genuinely participate in anti-obesity efforts rather than trying to influence the results. Conclusion The paper analysed the newspaper article by The New York Times. The article focuses on research projects financed by Coca-Cola Company that shifts the blame of obesity from poor diets such as sugary drinks to lack of physical activities. In regard to corporate governance, the article indicates that there is poor corporate governance. This is because the company seems to be using its governance mechanisms to attempt to influence and change the well-known facts regarding the fact that diet contributes to obesity. Corporate governance involves organisational decision making and therefore the company’s governing body provides funds to fund the research projects whose aim is to shift blame of obesity to other factors, other than diet. Lastly, organisational identity and values are indicated through the company’s activities, actions, words, etc. According to the article, even though the company is trying to manifest that its values include integrity, honesty and quality and healthy products, its activities of funding such research projects speaks otherwise. This is because by manipulating well-known evidence that diet contributes to obesity, this indicates that the company does uphold these values. Reference list Andrea R, Cates S, Arsenault J & Muth M, 2015, Perceived stress, unhealthy eating behaviors, and severe obesity in low-income women, Nutrition Journal, 1(1), pp: 1-8. Eisenhardt, K &. Martin J, 2000, Dynamic capabilities: what are they? Strategic Management Journal, 21(1), pp. 1105-1121. Kehinde O, 2012, Organizational Culture and Its Corporate Image: A Model Juxtaposition, Business and Management Research, 1(1), pp: 121-132. Kushkowski J, 2010, Core Journals in Corporate Governance: An International Review: implications for Collection Management, International Journal of Corporate Governance, 1(4). O’Connor A, 2015, Coca-Cola Funds Scientists Who Shift Blame for Obesity Away From Bad Diets, The New York Times. Riel C & Balmer J, 2007, Corporate identity: the concept, its measurement and management, European Journal of Marketing, 31, (5/6), pp: 340-352. Shanikat M & Abbadi S, 2011, Assessment of Corporate Governance in Jordan: An Empirical Study, Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal, 5(3), pp: 93-106. Shelley L., 2005, Organizational Identity Orientation: Forging a Link between Organizational Identity and Organizations' Relations with Stakeholders, Administrative Science Quarterly, 50(4), pp: 576-609. Read More