Introduction
Today worldwide CSR or commonly known as Corporate social responsibility is soon turning into social demand and a regular standard of performance with respect to justified conduct of business stakeholders for which all the business enterprises feel that they are required to confirm. (Sayed 2015) Currently, governance of business houses is valued at the duties and responsibilities of the corporate house not just to its stakeholders but to other arms associated with it as well. (Metzner. 2007) The point in the case is about the UK-based alcohol beverage company ‘alcopop’ which aims at youngsters above 22 years who were bored of drinking the routine liquor available for that age bracket. Alcopop was a combination of liquor and lemonade, strawberry, and other flavors which were mixed in the liquor and the labels had the designs of cartoon characters and other attractive designs to give it a funky look. But over a period of time, it was noticed that teenagers between 12-17 were unable to distinguish between fruit juices and alcopop largely because of their packing and were found drunk. (Gerard. 2007) The government intervened and designed ways like taxation to increase the cost of the beverage so that the youth is discouraged to purchase the drink. Mike’s Hard Lemonade is one of the alcopops, Hardcore Apple Cider, Smirnoff Ice, and Rick’s Spiked Lemonade are a few of the alcopops which are doing rounds amongst the youth in the United Kingdom. (Christopher 2011).
The rationale of the owners is to maximize shareholder wealth
Two Dogs (alcoholic beverage) and Hooch (which is also an alcoholic beverage), were introduced in the market of UK in the year 1995. They were the pioneers in the industry. These flavored drinks were liked so much that by 2000, the market of alcopop reached a whooping £1.3bn. Even when the market is afloat with news of alcopop negatively affecting the teenagers, the owners’ rationale is in favor of the stakeholders as the company is now suffering losses and it is looking for ways to maximize its profit. Reports claim that the sale of alcopop and other such sweetened drinks has gone down to 22 percent from £1.6billion in the year 2002 to £1.2billion in 2011. The accounts of the Flavoured Beverages Group Holdings, indicate that the company’s loss for the financial year to September 30, 2010, came to NZ$22.7 million. Revenue has come down steeply to NZ$7 million from NZ$414.4 million. The chunk of the credit is in New Zealand dollars and the rest in Australian Dollars. Sales of the brand Smirnoff Ice of the United Kingdom, fastest-selling alcopop of Diageo both fell by 12pc by the year 2003. Not just this, the second most liked variety Archers Aqua, witnessed almost zero improvements in its sales even when the price had been reduced. (Metzner 2015)
The rationale of the corporation is to serve as per the public interest
A recent study indicated that teenagers especially girls who took to beers and other cheap liquors are now turning to these sweetened fruity flavored drinks. This is what the company emphasizes. It says it is stopping the misdirected teenagers or the youth into alcohol by serving both their curiosity as well as their urge to show them a ‘well-informed group of youngsters’. Diageo has taken an all-new approach in the market, it has changed the negative publicity to a positive approach by stressing that the all-new range of drinks are not alcopops but they are the “ready to drink” beverages. The company reports confirm that due to this change in the policy of these market players, this particular product range has started doing well in the market. The net sales of this product have gone up by 23pc in the last six months in the UK in the December of the year 2014. Crawford (industry expert) has pointed out in his reports that teenage consumption of alcohol was less linked with the variety of the alcoholic beverages available in the market as compared to the quantity and easy availability of the liquor available. In the year 2006 Wicki (industry expert) conducted another research in Switzerland along with his colleagues on the result of alcopops on the total alcohol use and the problems associated with alcohol found out that alcopops were not directly linked to any particular drinking patterns or risk per se. (Hargreves 2011)
The rationale of the corporation is to behave ethically by being a good corporate citizen
The manufacturers of these sugary drinks feel that they are creating a benchmark by being a good corporate citizen by selling a mix of sweetened juice and alcohol such that the youth does not go in for pure alcoholic habits. A recent study conducted in Germany in the year 2010 has shown results that there is absolutely no connection between these Ready To Drink (RTD) beverages and the actual ‘challenging drinking’. This particular report brought the fear out of the mind of parents to some extent. Yet another report by European Commission in the year 2013 suggested that ‘youth if just looking to experiment.’ The manufacturers of these fruity flavored drinks also add that another purpose that these drinks serve is that it becomes easy for a bartender to mix and add new flavors in the drinks and provide them to the customers. (Hargreves 2011) So mixing of cocktails is yet another reason why these companies feel that the RTD should be taken into a positive light. Few other eye-opening reports claim that Alcopops has lost the charm of ‘over drinking’ which was not found out in the report as per the office of National Statistics, it was only two percent of youngsters and people at large who took to alcopops on the days which can be rightly titled their “maximum intake days”. The report further claimed that the teenagers in the age bracket 15-16 years old consumed four-fifth of beer or wine and not alcopops. (Christopher 2011).
This has turned the tables for the manufacturers of these brands which were about to look for locks for their business units. After reinventing themselves to a much posh audience and a much mature target group, a recent report published in Just-drinks has said that pre-mixes are now being termed as “newest fashion” in the market of alcoholic drinks. (Burn 2015)
Are these corporate purposes mutually exclusive?
The corporate purpose seems mutually exclusive for the reason that if one situation holds hen the other situations stand canceled and vice versa. The report says that these alcopops were about to pack their bags. Media, government guidelines, and taxation were a few of the reasons for the situation. (Arria 2009) The sales were dropping and the pressure rose from the stakeholders to maximize the profit but on one hand, maximizing the profit means bringing down the cost so that the sales increase. But this is against the government policies which are stringent as to the taxation which is levied on the alcopops too. Taxation would mean higher the cost to dissuade the teenagers from purchasing the drink but the same cannot be achieved if the profits are to be maximized the cost will automatically need to be very competitive and achieving the two simultaneously is not possible. Secondly, reports have claimed that teenagers are taking to drugs and girls are getting pregnant once they fall into this honey trap. Yet another popular newspaper quoted that ‘a drowsy teenage means a drowsy nation’. So when the youth has replaced fruit juice with alcopop, the three rationals of the corporate cannot be in any coherence, and neither can the corporate social responsibility be achieved. (Metzner. 2007)
- e) Can you think of any recent examples that raise similar ethical/legal issues?
The raising usage of alcohol in the public tends to create many ethical dilemmas at different places between the employers and employees, patients and doctors, service providers and users in the society. The rapid increase of crimes and abuses in centers tends to create some preventive and remedial measures taken by the Australian government regarding usage of the alcohol. There are several ethical and legal issues raised in Australia due to which the ethical/legal measures are been bound to take by the Australian Government which is mentioned below:
Ethical issues and measures:
Issues at Health care centers:
Recently the usage of alcohol by the physician created a great sensation on the ground of the health care sector. It tends to mislead the practice and due to which the patient’s health condition has been dropped and finally, the patient has lost their life. This issue has created many dilemmas in society that is it ethical conduct to take alcohol by the physician at work practice? What ethical measures should be taken to protect the patients from alcoholic practices? Hence the Australian Medical Association has banned the drinking of alcohol by the medical practitioner to avoid such issues in the future (Nhmrc, 2015). This AMA code of medical ethics under Sec-E-8.15 stated “it is unethical for a physician to practice medicine while under the influence of controlled substances, alcohol or other chemical drugs also been avoided by the physician. It also offered many policies for the alcoholic physician that they must not possess any content of alcohol in the body while talking patient care. To control the potential alcohol and drug-related problems by the physician it is necessary to conduct the alcohol examination before one hour of the practice by the physicians.
Increase of cost & age limit:
The availability of alcohol in the less cost making the young ones influence towards the usage. This situation became so uncontrollable that the students including females are also been addicted to alcohol and are responsible for the health issues. Many crimes, abuses at minimum age are been increased. The culture of Australia has been changed totally due to the availability of low-cost alcohol. By keeping this in mind the Western Australian Parliamentary committee decided to increase the cost of alcohol so that the entire hazardous situation in the society can be handled. The raising young people’s death rate in Australia is increasing. The Australian National Council of Drug report found that 90% of death at night are due to usage of alcohol and that one out of eight is belonging to the age of below 21 (ABC News, 2011). Hence Government decided that the act should be amended so that the age of alcohol usage will be raised from 18 to 21years.
Campaigns against alcohol:
The usage of alcohol is being risen rapidly and due to this many issues such as physical harm, health issues, crimes, and abuses are being increased and turning the society into a wild view. Hence the Australian Government department of health (AGDH) has recently conducted a public campaign against alcohol usage. The name of the campaign is the National Binge Drinking Campaign. The campaign was launched in the year of 2008 but it is conducted every year for the sake of public health and a good environment (Australia, 2015). The main aim of the campaign is to reduce the usage of young users or teenagers.
The website was launched by the Australian Govt.
The government of Australia researched alcohol usage and its impact on public health. Through this research, they found that there is no amount of alcohol that is safe for the public. To realize the risk and harm in alcohol usage the government of Australia has been released a special website called WWW.alcohol.gov.au. Based on this website the information related to health issues raised in the public due to alcohol usage is being presented to the public (Alcohol, 2015). So that the people will realize that how harmful is alcohol for the health of the public. This tends the viewers to control the usage of alcohol.
Drink Driving penalties:
Moreover, alcohol is a legal drug, hence there are many laws and restrictions are been imposed on the public. Mainly the drivers of the vehicle must not be influenced to take any content of the alcohol. For this special traffic, rules are been noted in the law of Australia. The special act is imposed on the public called “Road traffic Act 1961 (SA). Throughout Australia, it is an offense to drive even the cycle, rollerblades, animals, etc. For this the percentage of alcohol in the blood is examined, there is a limit that the percentage of alcohol per 100mililiters of blood should be 0% percentage, if the percentage is crossed by the alcohol users then the penalty is being charged strictly (Sahealth, 2015). Recently the examination of the alcohol content is being changed, the saliva of the drivers is been taken for examination instead of the blood. These measures are taken by the Australian Government to work out to decrease the number of alcoholic users in society.
Restriction on alcohol at the workplace:
There are many acts related to the usage of alcohol, the influence of alcohol on the employee leads to many uncontrollable unethical issues at the workplace.
According to the act ILO international meeting of experts, the usage of alcohol at the workplace is a criminal offence. It also addresses many unethical practices raised due to the impact of alcohol. For the employer, it is being very problem to control and assign work. So the code of ethical practice states that alcohol usage is to be forbidden at the workplace. This act tends to manage the potential alcohol-related problems partially in the context of employment
Conclusion:
From this above assignment, it is clear that raising Alcopops in Australia and reducing the cost of alcohol tends to increase the potential users mostly of young age. Hence, by focusing on the issues that rose due to alcoholic usage in society there are a number of ethical measures taken in the context of a healthy and safe environment. These measures are some in form of Government laws and some in form of public activities. But the theme is to control the influence and impact of alcohol on the public.
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