Tobacco Endgame Strategies Challenges in Ethics

Question: Discuss about the Tobacco Endgame Strategies for Challenges in Ethics. Answer: Introduction: On the basis of the given case analysis, it can be believed that, the major stakeholders that are considered in the debate are shareholders, government, community, and customers of the company. In this debate, both Mary Bender (marketing manager) and Randall Hedges (public relations manager) are discussing about the health warnings on cigarette packs. They both are providing their views about the health warnings on cigarette packs (Strasser, Tang, Romer, Jepson Cappella, 2012). In the views of Mary Bender, profit is the major goal of the company and health warnings on packs may reduce the market share and profits of the company. Mary also says that they must think about their shareholders. The main motive of Mary is to earn more profits and also provide high returns to the shareholders of the company. Mary is against the health warnings on cigarette packs just because to increase the revenues as well as market shares of the organization. On the other hand, Randall Hedges is in the favor of the health warnings on cigarette packs. Randall says that, according to the Australian law, they need to mention general health warnings on the pack. Moreover, they also need to fulfill their corporate social responsibility. The company has some responsibilities towards community in which it exists. So, if they will display health warnings on cigarette packs; then they would be able to work with corporate responsibility. Along with this, the health warnings on packs will also show some concern towards its customers. Randall Hedges is fully conscious about the government, community and customers (Australian Government. 2016). This way, it can be said that, community, government, shareholders, and customers are the key stakeholders in the debate on the health warnings on cigarette packs. There are some major ethical issues that are involved in the debate on health cautions on packs. The main ethical issue is that smoking is very perilous to health of people. Beside the fact, Mary Bender (marketing manager) of Big Business Tobacco is willing to sell cigarette packs without any health warnings on the packs. According to theAustralian law, health warnings on packs are essential to make aware to people. If they do not put these types of warnings then it may create ethical issues for the company (Thomas Gostin, 2013). Apart from this, the second major ethical issue involved in the conversation is that Mary Bender is only thinking about the profitability of the company. A company should think about its strong customer relationship instead of profitability. The company should offer healthier products to its customers. But, BBT is a tobacco company and cannot offer healthy products to the customers. In this situation, it is fully obliged to put health warnings on the packs. Furthermore, the third major issue is related to the CSR of the company. For case, if they do not display health warnings on packs then they would be unable to fulfill their corporate social responsibility towards the community. These things show that company does not care about its community and also does not have any concern towards its customers (Morrison, 2015). Thus, the above discussed are the most important ethical issues involved in the dispute. If I were Randall Hedges (public relations manager) then I will definitely fulfill all the responsibilities that come under the area of my designation. A public relations manager is fully obliged to have concern towards the public and community in which the company operates its business. I will display the health cautions on cigarette packs to improve the awareness of people. Along with this, I will follow all the legal rules and standards to do business and improve the intelligibility of the company. I will also follow all the ethical guidelines to escape the company from the situation of ethical dilemma. Moreover, I will fulfill corporate social responsibility of the company. I will think about each and every aspect that may be hazardous to the society. I will focus on the customer relationship rather than profits of the company. I will display health warnings on packs to show my concern towards the customers (Franck, Filion, Kimmelman, Grad Eisenberg, 2016). In this way, if I wer e Randall Hedges then I will fulfill all the ethical and legal responsibilities to increase the customer base as well as market share of the company. These things would be helpful to improve the reputation of the organization and to escape the company from ethical legal issues that may occur in future time period. References Australian Government. (2016). Health warnings. Retrieved From: https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/tobacco-warn Franck, C., Filion, K.B., Kimmelman, J., Grad, R., Eisenberg, M.J. (2016). Ethical considerations of e-cigarette use for tobacco harm reduction. Respiratory research, 17(1), p.53. Morrison, J. (2015). Business Ethics: New Challenges in a Globalised World. Australia: Palgrave Macmillan. Strasser, A.A., Tang, K.Z., Romer, D., Jepson, C., Cappella, J.N. (2012). Graphic warning labels in cigarette advertisements: recall and viewing patterns. American journal of preventive medicine, 43(1), 41-47. Thomas, B.P., Gostin, L.O. (2013). Tobacco endgame strategies: challenges in ethics and law. Tobacco control, 22 (suppl 1), .i55-i57.