Assignment 2
“The Coca-Cola Company Struggles with Ethical Crises”

Strayer University
Ethics and Advocacy for HR Professionals
HR 522

Coca-Cola’s Ethical Issues and Dilemmas
For a decade, from 1990 through 2000, Coca-Cola was under the umbrella of mismanagement, poor decision making, and a lack of acceptable conduct. For the first time in ten years, in 2000, Coca-Cola failed to make the top ten of Fortune’s 500 annual “America’s Most Admired Companies” list. A whopping disappointment for the company’s start point of the new millennium. Coca-Cola did not make the list again until 2010 and only obtained the tenth spot (CNN Money, 2010). During this time, CEO’s Doug Investor and Doug Daft left the company in turmoil with their lack of leadership and cavalier approach to the market with little regard to international marketing rules. Under Investor and Daft, the company was involved in various issues such as, competition, water pollution & contamination; allegations of racial discrimination; misrepresentations of market tests; manipulation of earnings by inflating numbers; distribution & distributors; labor union conflicts; and health related issues of their product.
Coca-Cola’s most significant Issues/Dilemmas – Union Relations
People - the most valuable asset and resource of a company (Fulmer, 2014). In 1989, Coca-Cola was accused for the murder of 8 unionized workers employed at the Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia and Guatemala; allegedly forced 48 unionized workers into hiding and made death threats to a total of 65 other employees. The accusations against Coca-Cola were believed, by many, were the results of bullying union workers. The local union sought compensations for the families of the slain and displaced workers alleging the Company and its local bottlers were complicit in the intimidation and the deaths of the unionized