Ch. 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

Coca Cola has an ethics and compliance program which is their code of ethics and business conduct. The program stresses that honesty and integrity is important to the success of the business. All employees are expected to follow the rules of the program. If not, the cross functional senior management team determines the violations and penalties. As a way to enforce the program, Coca Cola gives ethics and compliance training courses to its employees. They monitor and audit employees of the company regularly, and make adjustments to the policy when necessary. When hired, the new associates are trained once every three years to make sure that they continuously follow the rules the company. Coca Cola states that “Our code of business conduct serves to guide the actions of our employees consistent with our Company values. The Code helps our people do the right thing and play by the rules wherever we operate around the world”. The first page of the program books states that employees must act with integrity, be honest, Follow the law, and Comply with the Code. They define integrity as doing what is right. By having integrity they can reflect positive attitudes and maintain a good reputation with their customers. The back of the book also has a hotline and website where employees can report dishonest activities in the workplace.

Coca Cola sums up their social responsibility in three points. The first one is to make everything the company does, environmentally sustainable. The idea includes having efficient energy and resources that protect the climate, waste/water management and responsible packaging. This contributes to Coca Colas efforts to “go green”. The second point is to grow the business responsibly. Growing the business responsibly means financial growth, ethical practices and assurance of supply. This contributes to boosting the economy as well as maintaining the success of the company. Finally, social sustainability is the third point which requires producing safe and quality products, having functional workplaces i.e. equal opportunities, safety AND workplace rights. The third part of social sustainability is making society sustainable which involves enterprise development and corporate investments.