Ethics within companies
Within this essay I will give my opinions on the statement, 'Companies do not have to be ethical, they are guided by the law; business ethics is an unnecessary consideration.' I will investigate two different organisations' responses to this statement in marketing and identify some other ethical issues. I will also analyse ethics within the marketing mix.
Ethics, in the broadest sense of the word, is rising to the top of the corporate agenda. Scarcely a week goes by without a leading company coming under attack, rightly or wrongly, for alleged unethical business practices whether it's Shell UK dumping it's oil in the North sea or McVities, the biscuit manufacture, use of fish oil from sand eels. Some of these scandals have made international news, such as the case of Union Carbide's plant in Bhopal, India, which negligently released toxic, fumes killing 25,000 people.
Shell businesses in the UK are part of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of companies, one of the largest industrial undertakings in the world.
An 1890s advertisement showing model Hilda Clark i...
English: Detail on Elmira Coca-Cola Bottling Plant...
Coca-ColaAny oil company like Shell will have ethical issues to deal with, whether these issues are to do with extracting oil out of the sea or simply rising petrol prices, ethical issues will always have to be dealt with. It is important therefore that if the company wants people to buy their petrol, for example, they address these ethical issues as a matter of urgency. From research from Shell's website, www.shell.com they have discussions about ethics in different countries, they also show examples of some ethical issues which could affect the company.
One ethical issue that Shell has talked about is how it manages its business ethics in different countries. Shell responds to this by insisting that every Shell Country Chairman has an annual meeting with the Group Managing Director...