Part A: A Brawl in Mickey’s Backyard
The primary stakeholders in the SunCal’s plans are the; Employee unions and Disney. The secondary stakeholders will include; the Backers, Affordable housing advocates, the city council the other individuals and groups drawn by the prospect of reducing long commutes and the Save Our Anaheim Resort District group.
The unions of employees are representing the Disney employees to ensure that they get affordable rental houses near their place of work. The Affordable Housing advocates are representing the employees; they are the voice of the employees for affordable housing. The other groups and individuals support the idea because it is a prospect of reducing the long commutes. The Backers support the idea to reduce congestion on their freeways. Disney opposes the idea on the basis that the land near the company should only be used for tourism-related projects like putting up restaurants and hotels. They argue that if one developer is allowed to build the houses, more developers will follow, and it will no longer be a resort but a residential area.
SunCal can opt to collaborate with Anaheim and Orange County in addressing the affordable housing issue and assure Disney that they will be the only developers in the resort district. An agreement between SunCal and the city council could be signed to ensure just that. Secondly, SunCal could buy the 26-acre outside the resort district, but near Disney and put up affordable houses for the Disney employees, with the consent of the employees.
Part B: The Tobacco Industry
Introduction
The Tobacco industry faces some issues from the public which include; secondary smoke and health issues, banning of smoking in public areas, nicotine and addiction and marketing to children. Even though the tobacco industry refuses to admit, it has proven that smoking causes lung cancer. Other diseases related to smoking include heart diseases and respiratory illness which are deadly for the victims. According to Bates and Rowell, in their document ‘Tobacco Explained’, 4 million people die annually as a result of perpetual smoking. Unfortunately, these effects extend to secondary smokers. For the sake of secondary smokers, the government puts in place policies that restrict public smoking. The ban on smoking in public will influence the consumption of tobacco since the customers must find a convenient place to smoke, which may, in turn, be difficult. Tobacco, especially the nicotine substance, just like heroin and cocaine, is physiologically and psychologically addictive, and that is why it hard for one to stop smoking once they start. The industry, however, denies that nicotine is not addictive. The issue of targeting children of ages 13 to 18 years and sometimes even below 13 years, is most prevalent in the tobacco industry. Even though the industry maintains that their target market is just adults, the teenagers and the young ones are important to their market and each company is competing for this market segment share.
The primary stakeholders influenced by such issues are; the customers (smokers), the tobacco companies, employees, the teenagers, the suppliers, wholesalers and the retailers. The secondary stakeholders will include government agencies like the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Health and non-governmental organizations against smoking.
The tobacco customers are the most important primary stakeholders for this industry, without them the industry will be non-existent. The customers are the primary consumers of the tobacco products, and therefore, the restrictions and policies put in place by the government and non-governmental organizations will first impact on them before the tobacco companies themselves. For instance, the ban on smoking in the public will restrict the freedom of smoking since the smokers need to find a convenient place, like a smoking zone, for them to exercise their smoking rights. The public places may include their place of work, inside a bus or in the streets. Since most of the time people spend time in either of these places, it will reduce tobacco consumption by finding a smoking zone may be at times inconvenient for the smokers.
The public, which includes the teenagers and potential underage smokers and the rest of the population, represents the potential new customers for the tobacco industry. Therefore, restrictions on marketing to such population and protecting them from the secondary smoke effects will mean reduced market for the tobacco industry.
The government agencies specifically the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Health will formulate the policies that restrict public smoking, selling to children and sometimes selling of tobacco altogether. The non-governmental organizations may also set anti-smoking policies.
Section 2: What does this mean to my Family?
At the family level, tobacco use issues include; smoking kills and tobacco worsens poverty. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world with almost 6 million deaths annually, and the killer of one out ten adults worldwide ("Tobacco — Global Issues", 2016). Further, tobacco is the leading preventable causes of deaths killing up to half of its users. Previous research also reveals that a large percentage of smokers are from developing countries, and therefore the premature deaths of the adults will leave orphaned young children with no one to depend on. Such children have difficulties in accessing quality education and other basic needs in life. A family may also be affected if a parent or both smoke due to the second-hand smoke health effects which also causes up to 600,000 premature deaths annually. Members of a family may, therefore, be left without a parent or both, or may die altogether due to secondary smoke from a member of the family. Statistics reveal that at least 40% of children are exposed to secondary smoke at home with 31% of the deaths attributable to second-hand smoke occurring in children ("Tobacco — Global Issues," 2016). Tobacco also worsens poverty, especially in developing countries where we have the most tobacco users. According to a study done by the WHO, some poorest households in the low-income countries spend up to 10% of total household income on tobacco when such money would have been used for basic needs such as food, education, and health care. This further increases cases of malnutrition in such families and health care costs in such families and contributes to higher illiteracy levels since money that could have been used on education is used to purchase tobacco products.
As a stakeholder, my role is to get the right and full information about health related issues and others issues such as poverty being associated with tobacco use, then sharing the information with family members to stop them from joining smoking or if they are already smokers, to help them quit. The greatest role will be to create awareness about tobacco use among family members and the society at large, and launch anti-smoking campaigns to reduce tobacco use and prevent tobacco initiation for teenagers and the youth.
Some of the perspectives influencing my position on the tobacco industry public issues include; early smoking causes early heart disease, cancer and can harm lungs. It is also perceived that young people smoke due to; social influences, movies, physical influences and environmental influences (Benjamin, 2012). If young people see their family members smoking, they perceive it a norm and are therefore encouraged to try tobacco out themselves. Since nicotine is addictive, the teens and young people may feel dependent on it, more than the adults. Without the ban on smoking in the public, young people can easily adapt to what is happening around them, and that includes smoking if they see people smoking in public. The movies featuring characters smoking also appeal to the young and teenagers who start smoking.
Section 3: What does this mean to my Company?
The banning of smoking in the public, restrictions on tobacco sales to children and teenagers, second-hand smoke health issues and warning of the public against possible addiction to nicotine all reduce tobacco use among the public. Such issues will lead to smokers quitting and prevent new smokers from being initiated thus reducing sales for tobacco companies.
As an executive in the tobacco industry, one should anticipate the above issues and formulate options for addressing such issues proactively for they present either a risk or an opportunity. The first step in the process of managing the issues discussed above is to identify the issues through media, expert’s views, activist opinion and new developments in the regulations (Lawrence & Webber, 2014). Secondly, the executive must analyze the impact of these issues on the general performance of the tobacco company. Since the tobacco industry public issues are many, the executive must handle each one of them with the relevant stakeholders. Depending on the issue to be addressed, the executive will choose which department to manage it. For instance, the issues about selling nicotine to children and banning of smoking in public, those issues are related to public policy and therefore the public affairs department will manage them. Ways of managing then will include launching or sponsoring anti-tobacco programs among children and the youth, and working with the government to provide designated smoking zones for tobacco users, by the tobacco companies. The executives should avoid sponsoring youth sports programs since such sponsorship lure the youth into starting to use tobacco. Such measures will restore tobacco companies’ reputation and build a good image for the companies in the eyes of the public. Additionally, as the executive, one can try and stop the retailers and wholesalers from selling tobacco products to minors. The executives of a tobacco company can try and look for new markets internationally to avoid the temptation of selling to minors and young adults due to a limited market. The issue of second-hand smoke health effects, and still the ban on smoking in the public can be addressed by the sustainability, environment or health and safety departments. Some of the actions the executive could take include; lobbying with the government to set up designated smoking zones in their areas of operations and working with anti-smoke activist groups and NGOs in promoting a safe environment for the non-smokers. In the tobacco company working environment, designated smoking zones should be established to save the non-smokers employees from second-hand health effects. The executive may also use the media to restore their image in the public, in a way that is morally up right.
Section 4: What does this mean to my Country?
At the country level, tobacco use is perceived to damage the environment, reduce economic productivity and contributes to ‘wasted labor' through the employees working in the tobacco industry.
Tobacco damages the environment by firstly, clearing the nearby forests to make way for tobacco plantations, which later leads to soil erosion during heavy rains. Secondly, wood is needed to cure tobacco leaves, which contribute to further cutting down of the forests. Thirdly, tobacco uses a lot of water and more pesticides which further affects the water supply. Finally, costly forest fires are caused by tobacco (Anne Landman, 2002).
Tobacco reduces economic productivity through the heavy budgets spend towards health costs of treating tobacco-caused diseases by a country. Further, it kills people at the peak of their productivity depriving families of breadwinners and countries, a healthy workforce. Tobacco users are also less productive due to terminal diseases caused by smoking, mostly in developing countries.
The role of government in business is specifically important for consumer protection and public health. The government is in charge of protecting public health and therefore the responsibility of setting policies and regulations regarding tobacco control in the country lies in its hands. It will formulate regulations which include banning of smoking in public and lay restrictions on selling tobacco products to minors in the country. The government is a law enforcer since it is charged with the responsibility of suing and charging the law breakers of such regulations. The government also formulates policies which include fiscal policies, monetary policies and social assistance policies (Lawrence & Webber, 2014). In the tobacco industry issues, the government’s role will be to formulate monetary and social assistance policies. The monetary policies will include increasing sales tax on tobacco products to make them less affordable to the public. The social assistance policies will include the government spending on mass media anti-tobacco campaigns, prevention of youth from smoking programs and funding health and rehabilitation centers for the smokers affected or trying to quit. The government will also implement regulations protecting the environment especially from air pollution by tobacco smoke, and that is why it will put controls on smoking in the public.
Such policies and regulations influence both the industry and the public in some ways. The tax policies and tobacco control regulations will lead to reduced sales for the tobacco companies and therefore reducing profitability since the taxes will make tobacco products less affordable. Controls on tobacco products advertisements and promotion will also reduce tobacco use among the public. The anti-tobacco campaigns and banning will reduce tobacco consumption and prevent initiation of new smokers among the public. Additionally, the anti-tobacco campaigns will create awareness among the public about health hazards associated with tobacco use. The regulations such as the ban on smoking in the public will also reduce tobacco consumption among the public.
Section 5: Role of media in the tobacco industry public issues
The media has expanded from the traditional channels such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television to the internet and other more advanced channels, where the youths are most vulnerable to the content. The media is used to influence both tobacco control and industry among the public. Based on the above public issues in the tobacco industry, the media's role is to promote and reduce tobacco use among the public by shaping tobacco-related knowledge opinions and attitudes among the public. Some tobacco advertisements are designed to create the perception that the dangers of smoke are less intense, providing satisfaction from taste and freshness gained from smoking and linking associations between smoking and the desirable outcomes like the feeling of independence among the youth and teenagers, success and sexual attractiveness. Tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship encourage minors and teenagers to start smoking and enhance the smokers to smoke even more as it reduces their will to quit. However, mass media campaigns against tobacco use can change the youth's attitudes about smoking, reduce smoking initiation and encourage quitting smoking among the adults. The campaigns are most especially effective if combined with school or community-based programs. One of the major tobacco industry sponsored media communications is; youth is smoking education and prevention programs through video arcades and theaters. It has however been proven that the tobacco industry sponsored media communication is not to reduce tobacco use among the youth but rather is to maintain the industry’s access to the youths, preventing effective tobacco control legislation and creating allies with policy makers(Anne Landman, 2002). The themes of the programs are; smoking is an adult choice, an emphasis on the law as the reason not to smoke and that child are influenced into smoking by their peers or lack of proper guidance from their parents. The programs, however, do not address such issues as; secondary smoking is harmful, that nicotine is addictive and that tobacco advertising increases tobacco use among the public. The purpose of such programs is to serve the industry’s political agenda. The programs are designed to speak directly to the youths, others to parents, to retailers and others fund mainstream youth organizations. The industry started such programs as Helping the youth Decide in mid-1980s designed to speak directly to the youth and funding of youth programs in the 1990s (Anne Landman, 2002). The government’s main role is to protect public health through the policies it formulates to control tobacco use in the country.
The government uses the media to communicate tobacco control regulations and for anti-smoking campaigns. Such regulations include; increases in sales taxes, restrictions on tobacco advertising and cases against tobacco companies. The government, therefore, spends heavily annually to launch mass media anti-smoking campaigns to create awareness among the public about the health-related effects of tobacco smoking. An example of such campaigns includes the anti-smoking campaign termed as Fairness Doctrine, launched by the U.S. Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) in the late 1960s (Yu, NA). Examples of regulations formulated by the government include; restriction on tobacco products advertisements and promotion, cessation of illegal sales of tobacco products to minors and a requirement for the tobacco industry to disclose much larger, visible and informative health warnings on advertisements for tobacco products.
References
Anne Landman, S. (2002). Tobacco Industry Youth Smoking Prevention Programs: Protecting the Industry and Hurting Tobacco Control. American Journal Of Public Health, 92(6), 917. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447482/
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