Ethics - Business of Water

The Business of Water

1-16-2014

Who are the main stakeholders of beverage companies such as Coca Cola and Nestlé in this case? How would you prioritize their stakes and how legitimate are the different stakes? Main stakeholders of Coca Cola and Nestlé are its customers, bottlers, suppliers, employees, investors, partners, nonprofit organizations, civil societies and governments. Their stakes can be prioritized by relationship-building through sharing information, consultation, involvement, and reporting and grievance management by proactive company involvement.

All stakes are

legitimate and of equal importance, therefore companies shouldn’t differentiate and ignore some of them. Think of the role of Nestlé in this case in terms of Carroll’s pyramid of CSR. Which responsibilities does it live up to and where would you see space for improvement? Nestlé positions in Caroll’s pyramid of corporate social responsibility lies within first layer, Economic responsibilities. Nestlé has been only concerned about shareholders acceptations and ignored many societal expectations and desires. The main ethical concern Nestlé face is water wastefulness and exploitation of non renewable aquifers. Moreover, it doesn’t practice all the legal responsibilities and have been accused of hiring activist to manipulate bans against them. There is a wide space for improvement in the company’s policies towards society and environment.

Think of privatized water companies in this case in terms of the extended view of corporate citizenship as discussed in the chapter. What are the specific governmental roles they have taken on? Evaluate their performance from this perspective. The extended view of corporate citizenship as discussed in the chapter for the privatized water companies are about the “Civil rights” of the citizens. It reveals the governmental failure to address the important issues in the society. In the case study some governments have acted in favor of the society by imposing fines and bans, like a private company fined in England to cut down leakage in their water supply network. Canada also began program of water conservation by 1

banning bottle water in 12 municipal premises and supporting the corporate citizen actions. The actions taken by the government are effective but the private companies always find a way to manipulate the laws and to disguise the society by false advertising strategies and using other unethical ways to carry out their business. Taking all this into consideration the governmental roles have not been so effective and many things have to be done to stop such false practices. How do you evaluate the growing expectations and changing roles of the companies in the arena of water management? What are the consequences for accountability, transparency, and participation of stakeholders? Discuss the potential and the limits of what corporations can ultimately achieve in the business of water? Companies in the arena of water management are more inclined towards making profit, increase their market share and growth of the company. The growing expectation towards these companies can be evaluated by considering their social policies, social programs and social impact they have it in any period. The consequences’ of accountability is that the company now has to acknowledge and assume the responsibility for actions, products, decisions and are obligated to report, explain and be answerable for their actions. Transparency will demonstrate whether the company activities are consistent with regard to the society’s interests. Increase in the participation of stakeholders helps during the planning process and it will lead to stronger, more durable management plans. The corporations in the business of water have high potential to increase the profit and productivity provided they involve all of the stakeholders in the decision makings and facilitating them with the regular updates. If they are not successful in pleasing any of the stakeholders in the process they might lose the confidence of the market and consumer which will result in loss and complete shutdown.

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