ETH501, Business Ethics, Mod 1 Session Long Project - Essay Example

The Coca-Cola Company is one of the largest brands of the world, if not the largest. It is said that this brand has the largest brand equity and currently running 400 different brands in 200 countries. The Coca-Cola Company also happens to be the market leader in the non-alcoholic beverages industries and is said to serve 1.6 billion servings every day. However, The Coca-Cola Company is a brand of great reputation, but it has also experienced some controversies regarding the moral issues in the last few years.

One issue which was confronted by The Coca-Cola Company was that four of its African-American employees were the discriminatory treatment given to them. According to them, the company was following “glass ceiling” policy where the minorities were no allowed to get ahead in their careers. In simple words, The Coca-Cola Company was giving preferential treatments to whites in the company. This issue was a small issue as only four people complained about the mistreatment of The Coca-Cola Company towards its employees.

A deontological framework believes that actions are judged by the motives of any action. If the motives behind certain actions are wrong, but it leads to a good outcome, despite that the action will remain a bad action and vice versa. In simple words, it is the motive behind the action that makes it right or wrong and not the outcome. Since, the motive of the company was not promote the blacks and they are practicing discrimination, the action is wrong, not matter if there are good outcomes associated with the action (Although good outcomes are not possible in this case, but let’s assume it for the sake of our understanding).

Therefore, one can clearly say that The Coca-Cola company cannot justify this problem from Deontological ethical frameworks because as it appears that the motives of the company are wrong by giving discriminatory treatment to African-Americans and other minorities working in the company. Similarly, let’s analyze the case from utilitarian framework to decide whether The Coca-Cola Company should be doing what it is or should it adopt a different policy. The Coca-Cola Company by adopting a policy of a racial bias is not letting the right talent to get ahead in his career.

This situation has more harms than merits. For example, when a person is promoted on the basis of his race and not on the basis of merit, it is more often the case that his productivity is low. This low productivity would lead to low output available for consumption for the society. It will also mean low profits for the company and will create anxiety and tension in the society. It may also open the conflict between different races. Such actions have more harms than merit and cannot be justified by utilitarian framework, which says that only those actions which produce more good should be adopted.

In the light of above discussion, we can safely conclude that The Coca-Cola Company cannot justify its bias against a particular race should make merit as the major factor for staff promotion. References:Manuel Velasquez. (2001). Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases. PearsonBusiness & Human Rights Resource Center. Coca-Cola’s Lawsuit. Retrieved on March 2010 http://www.businesshumanrights.org/Categories/Lawlawsuits/Lawsuitsregulatoryaction/LawsuitsSelectedcases/Coca-ColalawsuitreracialdiscriminationinUSA