HOW ETHICS AND CSR MANAGED IN SRI LANKAN FMCG SECTOR POST COVID-19 PANDEMIC

FMCG sector that is known as Fast moving consumer goods, is having a huge economic value that it adds to the Sri Lankan Economy. It has got a continuous growth. The business ethics in the FMCG sector are undergoing a great moderation. This ethical change has higher value as this FMCG sector covers a large amount of population, any of the variations in ethics in their working method as the other type of effect on this sector’s consumers.

With the arrival of COVID-19 virus to Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan government declared curfew to the whole country. The government waved the restrictions only for the essential services. The influence of this phenomena on the FMCG sector was not ascertained initially. The Corona pandemic has different levels of influences on the business performance. But with the easing of the impacted restrictions of curfews and lockdowns, there have been a smooth transition with the restart of the business activity in the country. The Annual growth volume in the businesses of the Consumer goods was hit as a consequence of the sales disruptions in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 virus. Anyways, the application of curfew in the whole country because of the COVID-19 pandemic made sales disruptions in the month of March 2020. This incident impacted the overall volumes of the sales of FMCG sector for the quarter. The industry can gain an excess access to a higher amount of sales by focusing on the proper management of ethics and CSR activities after the pandemic of COVID-19.

Management of business ethics in FMCG sector after the COVID-19 pandemic

Ethics and corporate social responsibility are vital for the success of a business. Ethics in a business acts an essential part within the company growth because of its impact on profit. Business ethics makes a relationship between a business that is moralistic and a society that is moralistic. In the other hand, in ethics, organizations study their fair business policies, business activities, organizational behavior, organizational functioning and the organizational practices in a company on the problem areas those would be decisive in a potential way. The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic can be decreased via good governance of the Business Ethical Attributes (BEA) in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector in Sri Lanka. 

Ethics of a company simply refers to its intention to continue all of its stakeholders and operational activities with the intention of achieving social development. This is not focused only in the economical view but also in the social and community views as well. The year 2020 characterized by unprecedented challenges of COVID-19 pandemic. Sri Lankan FMCG businesses that is today taken globally as a responsible sector of the country, is needed taking a leadership role in the crisis situation. It is identified that the world over that integrating social, environmental and ethical responsibilities makes a competitive and sustainable industry.

With the decline in the Sri Lankan economy and the rapid fall of the per capita income due to the pandemic of corona virus, it is inevitable to reach the today’s market trends with use of the ethical practices of the consumers and producers. Business ethics and corporate ethics are a category of applied ethics.  In the other hand, they are professional ethics that observes the principles of ethics and moral. It also can make ethical problems those takes place in a business environment. FMCG consumers expect their producers to be aligned to a specific pre-defined and bunch of ethical values. Not only have that, but also in the other hand, consumers also needed to make their decisions in such a way just like to fulfil their own ethical beliefs and self-regard.

As there is not a clear set of ethical measures, producers often feel that their product is not gaining the ‘expected’ returns. This often creates in a scenario where in an innovative product gets scrapped.  Such issues arose during the post pandemic period in the country. Such a situation creates a push to the requirement of building up a system that evaluates the ethical expectations of its specific consumers as well as producers. Anyhow, the transparency and social responsibility are in fact indirectly impacting on the customer intentions to make the buying decision from that organization in such a critical pandemic situation and spread positive word-of-mouth about them.

Companies such as Keells has started thinking more ethical with the effects of corona virus on their customer base. They have made health and safety as their primary concern with the post pandemic situation. They have come up with highly lower prices after the corona virus without running behind the profit. All they have focused on is ensuring the wellbeing of the country while making the country healthy. Ethics are the most important aspect for the decision making process of the companies after this crisis. Because each and every organization is facing a huge problem with the health crisis including its customers. Most of the companies in the FMCG sector of Sri Lanka have closed their companies after the start of this pandemic and let their employees work from home to avoid the spread of the disease to the next level. even some of the departments and manufacturing branches have been closed after the crisis to stop the negative effects of the virus. The companies in the FMCG industry can make these ethical decisions to support the post COVID-19 situation within the country while balancing the interests of their important stakeholders. In the other hand, another most important fact is that most of the companies in the FMCG sector have decided to pay for the employees even though they are not able to perform their work from home. Most of the employees are facilitated with the arrangements needed for working from home. When focusing on the post COVID-19 situation in the country, the FMCG companies need to make their business decisions ethical while considering the health and safety of its employees as well as the economic survival of their employees, families, consumers and the community. During this pandemic, ethical decisions would always support the FMCG sector to be brilliant in their customers’ minds and to create a huge goodwill.

This approach interprets that the companies in each sector including the FMCG sector are responsible for creating health wellbeing and safety of the employees and the public. Companies with great ethical procedure, those are identified as ethically stable companies, gain sustainable growth within their business operations and customer more prefer their products and services and employees prefers the company procedure. With the arise of the crisis situation of corona virus, most of the companies in the FMCG sector has come forward to give their help hand to face the pandemic situation and to overcome the critical negative impacts of the crisis. They have come out with a set of measures to support the national efforts to tackle the virus situation presenting a wide range of supports. They have managed their procedures to help the employees and the public to protect their livelihood and their lives including all their employees and customers. Incentives have been done for the employees. Some of the FMCG companies such as Unilever has paid their small scale suppliers early to help them maintain their financial liquidity. They have been protecting their workforce from drops in the pay with the disruptions in the market.

The FMCG sector stands first in performing as per codes of ethics in Sri Lanka. Almost all the FMCG companies are actively participated in ethical practices. A major change in the ethical activities of FMCG companies can influence a change in the Behaviors of the Consumers of FMCGs.

Therefore, it is vital to find the level that the business ethics of FMCGs companies have bring any positive changes in the consumer behavior in Sri Lanka after the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is highly recommended for all the companies in the country especially the FMCG sector companies who deals with the customer more closely to bring their business activities back to the normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic by proper management of Business ethics and related activities.

 

 

 

 

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