The overview of the assignment highlighted all the critical aspects of analysing the facts and findings by selecting a recently published news article. It mainly concentrated on business ethics and issues identified recently in the selected article. The definition of the business identifies towards choosing the right way or the wrong way in the business path, which includes a form of applied rules and regulations that examines ethical principle or ethical problems that arise in any business context. Nevertheless, there are several classifications highlighted in the study, which determined about several arguments based on real facts and findings in the selected article.
The present article concentrated on the current issue faced by the Australian supermarket giant Woolworths. Woolworths is the largest supermarket chain in Australia and it was founded in 1924.It has spread its business in the important cities of Australia and New Zealand. Woolworths and Coals account for over 80% of the Australian supermarket contribution to the Australian economy(Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2018). However, the present study highlighted the facts and findings on the current food quality issue, which this supermarket giant faced in the recent time.
Woolworths, the supermarket chain of Australia has pulled out the sewing needles from the shelves. It was done to address the fear among the consumers about eating strawberries. However, the customers across the country are still frightened due to the contamination issue (Koob, 2018). It is one the most severe issues, which the business giant faced over the decade. Analysing the mission and vision of the current company is also necessary in order to summarize the arguments. The safety of the customer is the key as well as the ultimate purpose and vision of the company. However, the firm faced a severe issue towards maintaining the quality of the food. Based on the recent conversation by the Australian Prime Minister new criminal penalties, will be applied if any organisation found tampering with food, as a part of the national response to the needle contamination crisis affecting Australia’s strawberry growers. The federal government of Australia will increase from 10 to 15 years the maximum prison sentence for food tampering offences, based on the current new report (Koob, 2018).
The entire arguments were based on the food quality issue, which Woolworths faced in the recent time. As Australia is a country with rich natural resources likes agriculture and dairy industry, the country focuses on maintaining the quality of these industries. It is a massive contributor to countries GDPs (Audi, 2012). As per the arguments Queensland is the biggest contributor in producing strawberries. It is followed by Victoria, which produced nearly 32,790 tonnes of strawberries in the financial year 2016 – 17 or nearly 36 per cent when measured in the annual production of the crop in the country (Claudia Neamtu, 2015). However, there has been a crisis that has been the ultimate focus. The problem began on 9th September when a person from Queensland claimed that he ate a strawberry with a sewing needle. The issue was not only the most challenging one but it was also an ethical problem that the business had ever come across.
The issue discussed in the article is about the food contamination process followed by Woolworths in the daily business operations. The article not only focused on the key points but also covered on the precautionary aspects, which the supermarket giant had taken to address its customer worldwide. It is one of the saddest incidents in business when majorities of the customers across the country begun to find needles in their fruit(KOOB, 2018). The role of the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was very much crucial and taken one of the most responsible measures for the said problem (De Cremer & Tenbrunsel, 2012). The entire article focused on the role-play of different Australian governing authorities such as Prime Minister, the federal government, ministry of home affairs and many more. Based on the report of Peter Dutton, the home affairs minister of Australia, it reviled that there have been more than 100 reports of fruit confirmation was subjected during the past few days (Koob, 2018). The report concluded that one young boy in New South Wales had been arrested about the crisis (Esposito, O’Sullivan & Smith, 2012). The ongoing issues that the strawberry growers faced was highlighted even more when it was known that Woolworths dumps tons of strawberries regularly. The selected article focuses on the issues regarding the measures taken for food safety and different types of food contamination.
Many scenarios might cause food contamination, but most of some categories, which includes biological, chemical, physical and cross continuation. Physical contamination is the highlighted point, described in the article where contamination happens when actual objects contaminate foods (Ghillyer, 2012).However, physical contamination is not the only concern. Dangerous bacteria that grow in the fingernails can also cause contamination. Nonetheless, the issue primarily focused on the physical contamination and the different features of it.
The reason behind selecting this specific article is that Woolworths has recently encountered some serious and important issues that have been published as well. The prime minister of
the country took different kinds of legal steps for the said cause to consider a strong ethical consideration. It was a question about the food security of the country, where Australia is considered one of the healthiest and new countries of natural foods. Food security is achieved when majorities of the people in a particular country or a particular location or a country are achieved at all times. Its ultimate objective is to develop food preferences for an active and healthy life. Australia is one of the countries, which recognise that food security is a major global issue. The federal government of the country increased the maximum prison sentence for food tampering offences from 10 years to 15 years and thereafter the new laws will draft rapidly and introduce to Parliament within few days based on the discussed issue(Koob, 2018).
It is important to determine a strong philosophical aspect, which determined the systematising, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behaviour. Based on the new business aspects philosophers of the different type usually divide ethical consideration theories into three general aspects, which reflected some of the crucial subject areas such as met ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics (Audi, 2012). Based on the recommendations of the present issue it is one of the most challenging points, to select the best philosophy for the highlighted issue. It is important to analyse all the facts and findings for the said ethical issue to determine a strong decision-making process(Claudia Neamtu, 2015). It is very much significant to determine the entire ethical dilemma as it is one of the most complex situations where the ethical principles or values conflict with each other. However, the moral philosophy will allow determining the right course of action or the right thing to do as it enables one to analyse a good as well as an effective decision-making process on the selected issue (De Cremer & Tenbrunsel, 2012).
Nevertheless, the legal team emphasis on a strong decision makes process, which maintained a cogitative process that considered the ethical principles, rules and virtues to enable a strong decision-making process towards determining a strong as well as a proper solution for the recently published problem. It is one of the most significant aspects to determine the main reason for the contamination process. Based on the findings of the contamination process the organisation must enable a strong steep as well as proper decision-making process which will assure all the affected customers(Ghillyer, 2012). The Australian prime minister wants the tough sanctions approved before federal politicians depart Canberra after the issue. MPI has been generating updates from both New Zealand police and Queensland health department on what appears to be the intentional situation and said it would continue to monitor the situation (Velasquez, 2012). On the other hand, New Zealand Strawberry growers developed a strong checking system on every fresh food items in aspects to make it 100 per cent secure for the maintenance of the food security in the country.
Conclusion
The concluding part of the study analysed all the important aspects, which highlighted the recent food contaminated issue in Australia. Woolworths is the selected organisation in the study, and it maintains the largest retail chain of supermarket industry in the country contributing nearly 80 per cent of the entire production. Towards fulfilling the requirements of the study, the recently published article highlighted the concern matter of Woolworths, which reflected as one of the most serious ethical considerations in business. There are several classifications based on the highlighted issue, which determined about the food security problems in the country. It outlined a proper summary along with relevant facts and findings to consider an ethical consideration subjected to the present issue.
Reference List
Audi, R. (2012). Virtue Ethics as a Resource in Business Ethics Quarterly, vol. 22 no. 02, pp.273-291.
Claudia Neamtu, A. (2015). Efficient Communication in Business Strategies Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 3, No. 1, p.24.
De Cremer, D. & Tenbrunsel, A. (2012), Behavioural business ethics, Routledge
Esposito, M., O’Sullivan, P. & Smith, M. (2012), Business ethics, Routledge
Ghillyer, A. (2012), Business ethics now, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Koob, S. (2018) Woolworths pulls needles from Australian shelves amid strawberry spiking fear. [Online] Stuff Available at https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/107237494/woolworths-pulls-needles-from-australian-shelves-amid-strawberry-spiking-fear [Accessed 23 Sep. 2018]
Velasquez, M. (2012), Business ethics, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson
Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2018) Woolworths Supermarkets – Woolworths Group [online] Available at https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-brands/supermarkets/Woolworths [Accessed 23 Sep. 2018]
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