Anyone who owns public shares in a company has invested hard-earned money into a corporation based upon their perception that the company will be profitable and sustainable. The corporation’s board of directors are then responsible to manage the company in such a way as to increase their share-holders’ investment. For hundreds of years, this attempt to increase a corporation’s worth was done with little or no interest in social responsibility. Until very recently this topic was not very much in the public eye. However, at the moment the global economy is rapidly changing and business transparency is increasing through the accessibility of information across the world. Social and global change is moving faster than ever and progressing …show more content…
This information will then be used to write a paper that demonstrates in today’s society, corporate responsibility to civilization and high ethical standards are now a requirement for profitable business to remain profitable.
Literature Review
I used a number of resources to provide even more information on the topic of corporate responsibility. The most interesting is Defining Corporate Social Responsibility because it really outlines all of the definitions, parameters and measurements of the corporate and social responsibility dynamic. It is the most comprehensive work included in my research and is relatively new, as far as business goes, from 2008. I was also able to pull 3 different articles that discussed the failures of Volkswagen to provide insight on a few different aspects as well as give a figure that highlighted the drastic drop in the stock price after the scandal. Another book used is Moral Issues in Business that really delves into the idea of morality in business and its effects on people and society. It has a multitude of charts, graphs, data and case studies. It speaks to a number of philosophical approaches are used to apply ethical theory to real life business as well as a number of real life business examples and situations.
Research Findings
A current example of a corporation neglecting its responsibility to society is Volkswagen. In
Another challenge for companies when considering social responsibility is the possible negative perception of shareholders. Historically, publicly-owned companies had a primary focus of maximizing shareholder value. Now, they must balance the financial expectations of company owners with the social and environmental
Because corporations are established to profit and shareholders invest money with expectations of a greater return, managers cannot be given a directive to be “socially responsible” without providing specific criteria of checks and balances to which needs to adhere. Therefore, it is imperative to the success of a corporation for managers to not act solely but rather to act within the policies of the shareholders.
To sum up Corporate Social Responsibility is an important element in our everyday life. These are the social, moral , and ethical consequences when we talk about decision making. It is an obligation which we face not only as a business entity, but also as individuals. I think that the movie Remember the Titans can be a great example to explain how Corporate Social Responsibility works, yet it can teach us healthy ethical practices, standards, and the most important
Many believe that business entities should have an ethical duty to be socially responsible, to work towards increasing its positive effects on society while decreasing its negative effects. Many organizations look for opportunities to be socially responsible while also creating shareholder wealth.
Business organizations today are socially and ethically responsible for doing the right thing, exercising good judgment in their business activities with employees, stakeholders, customers and the community. Business organizations emphasis should not only be on profits, but also on how business decisions impact society.
The expectation that businesses behave responsibly and positively contribute to society all while pursuing their economic goals is one that holds firm through all generations. Stakeholders, both market and nonmarket, expect businesses to be socially responsible. Many companies have responded to this by including this growing expectation as part of their overall business operations. There are companies in existence today whose sole purpose is to socially benefit society alongside businesses who simply combine social benefits with their economic goals as their company mission. These changes in societal expectations and thus company purpose we’ve seen in the business community over time often blurs the line of what it means to be socially
The Octorara Board of Directors and Finance, Facilities, and Policy Committees met on Monday, July 18, 2016. Only six members attended. Anthony Falgiatore, Brian Fox, and Nelson Stoltzfus were absent.
With employees placed at the top of stakeholder groups, it’s apparent that the hypothesis for high profitability is a direct influence from positive corporate social responsibility. The boards of directors have to take the initiative to showcase positive corporate social responsibility in order to generate these results.
Corporations can be large or small but they all have some sort of ethical impact on their employees, shareholders, customers, community, and surrounding environments. Richard DeGeorge writes, “We can speak of corporations having moral responsibilities to act in certain ways, and they are morally responsible for the consequences of their actions on people.” (p. 200). Large corporations are comprised of the board of directors, management, and their workers. They also deal with suppliers, customers, and have competitors. This essay will examine the moral responsibilities within a corporation.
The corporate world has an unfavorable view of itself by being selfish, evil, and against the average American. Companies market themselves and their products in certain ways that makes them and their products appealing to everyone and if not everyone then a certain group of people. Every company has a mission to follow and values to go by, but some companies lack ethics and morals. In this paper I am going to talk about one company that engages in ethical behavior and another that doesn’t.
This will be an over view of ethics as it relates to business in our society. Concepts from Philosophy will seek to describe the correlation between actions that are classified as morally right or ethical in our dealings with each other as human beings. Clear and concise examples will be given as well as ways in which to improve upon business ethics.
Continuous changes in the world’s economy have forced companies to go beyond their commercial purposes and pay attention to the importance of social actions. One of the first scholars to initiate the requirement of social initiatives for corporate enterprises was Bowen (1953). He argued that businessmen should aim broader than just maximizing profits for shareholders and should contribute to the society as well (Carroll, 1999). Eventually, more scholars performed research on a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) and tried to define this new insight. A few decades later, Elkington (1997) introduced the term ‘Triple Bottom Line” (Carroll, 1999). He referred to three dimensions that could be impacted by a company’s system and policy,
Corporate social responsibility has been one the key business buzz words of the 21st century. Consumers' discontent with the corporation has forced it to try and rectify its negative image by associating its name with good deeds. Social responsibility has become one of the corporation's most pressing issues, each company striving to outdo the next with its philanthropic image. People feel that the corporation has done great harm to both the environment and to society and that with all of its wealth and power, it should be leading the fight to save the Earth, to combat poverty and illness and etc. "Corporations are now expected to deliver the good, not just the goods; to pursue
Crane, A. and Matten, D. (2010) ‘Corporate social responsibility’, (3rd edition) Business Ethics. Oxford: Oxford university press, pp.51-60
In the article “Doing well by doing good”, the words ‘business” and “ethics” has been pointed out that they can’t come together. Companies wondered where do ethics go and it has been widely wrath despite being taught in school. Ethics has been the custom yet uncertain. There are protesters in Washington, DC who were criticizing the immorality of a company including the IMF. Most people reacted that companies shouldn’t be in the business ethics at one’s convenience but should be concerned of their social responsibilities, morals and environment. The leader of market economics, Milton Friedman, stated that to increase the profits, the company has to use its resources and has to engage in activities.