TOBACCO COMPANIES AND PRODUCT SAFETY Assignment

TOBACCO COMPANIES AND PRODUCT SAFETY - Assignment Example Thus it is very important to set a strict code of business or marketing ethics for every company in order to avoid the existence of unethical behavior within the business operations. This is also applicable in the selling of the products or services involving the behavior of the salesman (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2009). Deregulation within various industries has raised the scope of committing unethical activities which in turn have resulted in intense competition between all the companies within the industry. It is the competitive pressure mixed with the uncertainty in the existence which has resulted in compromising with the business ethics by the organizations (Barnett, 2007). There are a large number of evidences claiming that many organizations have violated the ethical rules and regulations within last few years. As the buyers cannot identify or evaluate the purchasing variables or purchasing criteria, it results in giving possible chances for the markets to conduct various unethi cal activities at an increasing rate (Carroll and Shabana, 2010). Because of the unethical activities the organizations seek to achieve short term profits but in a broader aspect it negatively impacts the image, goodwill or reputation of the organization. The organizations that were suspected of performing various unethical activities had also to suffer from the legal terms. The businesses generally perform these sorts of unethical activities for achieving their short term goals or objectives, but there are evidences which claim that it declines their reputation in each and every sphere. The unethical activities might be conducted by the marketers in different manner. They might be providing misleading information to the customers in order to persuade them in their purchasing decisions (Curwen and Whalley, 2005). Another example of performance of unethical activities includes charging higher prices for lower quality of products or services. Thus it can be said that one organization conducts its business performance by unethical means in order to achieve short term profits and they face the consequences hampering their reputation in the latter part (Friedman, 2004). The case study deals with the unethical activities conducted by the tobacco producing companies in United States. It represents how the companies neglected the standards set by the department of justice i.e. DOJ in United States. According to the district judge, if DOJ could prove that the big tobacco producing companies are performing deceptive activities for their short term profit seeking purpose, then they would be penalized strictly and have to pay a heavy amount of money. This paper would be highlighting the moral or ethical issues related to the selling of products or services in the market. The responsibilities or duties of an organization towards its organization are very significant. Theories or literatures would be reviewed for strengthening the entire arguments made in this paper. The pa per would be finding the key issues that might be taken into consideration while solving the case study. It would be starting with an introduction about the duties and responsibilities of an organization towards its consumers. Duties of the Companies There is a big procedure involved in the offering of products or services to the consumers. An organization has to handle a large number of duties for dealing with