Bhopal Disaster Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bhopal Disaster - Case Study Example These include non-compliance with safety rules, lack of employee training to deal with safety standards, location of the plant close to a densely populated area and other reasons that surfaced right after the disaster. Business ethics refers to the corporate philosophy and mindset about the rights, obligations, duties, responsibilities and conduct for doing business. There is no universal principle for ethics, however several theories were proposed. Right after the disaster, Union Carbide (UCC) and their local partners in India, Union Carbide of India Limited (UCIL) started blaming each other and tried to pass the buck in hope of saving themselves for being responsible for the disaster. Hence, they failed to display Duty Ethics that refers to carrying out activities based on objective duties and obligations. The Golden Rule of ethics is to act in a way one wants others to act towards him/her. Similarly, 'the professional ethic' paradigm 'asks to take actions that a disinterested panel of professional colleagues would view as proper' (Laczniak, 1983). The Utilitarian Principle for ethics refers to acting in a way that is best for the greatest number. However, as seen from the case, UCC made no real effort to ethically justify their actions in the Bhopal disaster. Though they maintain that they acted in the best interests of the public after the disaster, yet there is no independent confirmation of this claim. They even failed to pass the TV test as Laczniak (1983) defines as 'Would I feel comfortable explaining to a national TV audience why I took this action' After the disaster, UCC remarked that it 'had never had a presence in India and that UCIL was essentially an autonomous operation' (Sharplin, 1989); although, Browning (1993) explained that 'UCC owned over 50% of the plant that was operated by UCIL'. UCC has never apologised to Indian people regarding the incident and carelessness on behalf of both the principals and the operators. Subsequent forensic investigations identified a serious lack of commitment by management to ensure implementation of health and safety standards at the plant. Many observations were noted by scientists and plant auditors, yet none of these was implemented till the disaster struck. These facts show that the company seriously violated ethical standards of utilitarianism and ethics of duties; they showed lack of respect for a large population of Bhopal and never accepted their responsibility towards doing their jobs, that is to ensure the safety standards at the plant. Corporate Social Responsibility The corporate social responsibility concepts require that companies take the responsibility to ensure the safe and secure environment for the benefit of general public. In addition, these call for establishing a standard to contribute to the society in general, and then compliance with that corporate social policy or standard to enhance the quality of life for general public in the area where a company operates. However, as evident, no such responsibility was exhibited by either

CSR for business managers, stakeholders and society Research Paper

CSR for business managers, stakeholders and society - Research Paper Example Therefore it is the duty of the companies to work in accordance with the interests of the community and environment. However, only few companies are strictly observing CSR in practice, even though most of the companies agree with CSR in principle. This paper analyses the reputation of Coca Cola in terms of corporate social responsibility. Description of the company Operating in more than 200 countries worldwide, the American company Coca cola is one among the largest soft drink manufacturers in the world at present. â€Å"In May, 1886, Coca Cola was invented by Doctor John Pemberton a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia. Today, products of the Coca Cola Company are consumed at the rate of more than one billion drinks per day† (Bellis). Even though PepsiCo is causing some serious challenges to Coca Cola in some part of the world, Coca Cola is able to maintain its superiority in most of the regions in the world. Issue Identification According to Jeff Seabright, The Coca-Cola Compan y's vice president of environment and water resources, â€Å"sustainability begins with the simple act of paying attention. You can't manage what you can't measure"(Making Sustainability the Real Thing). In other words, Coca Cola is well aware of the importance of concepts such as corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. However, the accusations against Coca Cola with respect to the violation of social responsibility are growing across the world. ... People from Kerala (India’s southernmost state) have recently conducted an agitation against the underwater exploitation by Coca Cola. Villagers near Plachimada, Kerala faced severe drinking water shortage because of Coca Cola’s uncontrolled underwater exploitation. Coca Cola forced to close down their plant at Plachimada because of the public agitation against them (EMJ). Significance of the Issue Drinking water shortage is one of the major problems facing by people all over the world. Because of injudicious farming activities and heavy industrialization, majority of the water resources such as rivers and streams were polluted in most parts of the world. As a result of that current generation is relying heavily on underwater resources for their drinking needs. Coca Cola like soft drink manufacturers is exploiting these resources and the people near the soft drink bottling plants are struggling to get enough drinking water from the nature. Stakeholder identification Som e of the major stakeholders of Coca Cola Company are; ordinary people, Coca Cola employees, shareholders in Coca Cola, government and local bodies. On one side, Coca Cola is trying to make profit and safeguard the interests of the company management and the shareholders. On the other side, ordinary people lose their drinking water resources and the government and local bodies struggle to take proper actions. It should be noted that as part of free trade agreements, it is the duty of the government of India to prepare enough facilities to Coca Cola like companies. Moreover, Indian government is currently trying to attract foreign direct investment at any cost to stimulate economic growth. The investments by Coca Cola would definitely help