Social Responsibility of Business Organizations
Social Responsibility, some may say it is an organization’s duty to behave in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner. Well, there is more to it than just that. There are four key theories or guidelines that must be followed to maintain a status of good social responsibility. A company has one a duty to its shareholders, two the duty to maximize profit and avoid harm, three a responsibility to its employees and others who may be dependent on that specific company, and last but not least they have the duty to do good to the world.
In the movie “A Civil Action”, Jonathan Harr and Steven Zaillian, starring John Travolta, you see how hard it is to distinguish who wins when it comes down to social responsibility. Many people, mainly children, suffered and died in the city of Woburn, Massachusetts due to the city drinking water, from the river, being polluted. They named two companies that are to be held responsible for these actions.
The companies who are responsible for the water pollution that killed and harmed many, failed at almost every single theory of social responsibility. Yes, they were maximizing their profits, which made the shareholders wealthy and happy, but they were also causing harm to the people. Once you cause harm to people it will eventually back fire on you and soon you will most likely be loosing your profits. No one will want you products and you will be paying for all the d...
There are three main responsibilities for a company to cover under social responsibility environmental, social and economical. When social and economical responsibilities overlap it helps create an equitable company. When environmental and economical responsibilities overlap it creates a viable company. When social and environmental overlap it creates a bearable company. But when all three are combined it creates a sustainable company that incorporates all three outcomes of overlapping
What is social responsibility? Social responsibility is an obligation to act in a way that benefits society at large, people can do this through working to help improve Earth’s sustainability through processes such as recycling, composting, and being polite to others. Thanking a police officer or veterans for their service, or confronting consequences and accepting them are just a few examples of social responsibility. Sadly, the vast majority of individuals are not socially responsible. We are often fueled by fear, and the fear of losing power is so devastating that we make irrational and socially irresponsible decisions. Then, when those individuals work in a business or group themselves into corporations, those corporations are not socially responsible either. I have made the following promises to myself about my individual and social responsibility: Be economically responsible, be socially friendly and be a good influence on others.
The problem that was investigated consisted of a question that Milton Friedman posed in one of his articles, which was featured in The New York Times Magazine in 1970. The question was, “What does it mean to say that “business” has responsibilities” (Friedman, 2007, p. 173)? Friedman (1970) elaborated on how businesses cannot have assigned responsibilities. Furthermore, he described how groups or individuals should be the only ones that can hold responsibilities, not businesses. He stated that associating responsibilities with the word business is too ambiguous. I will examine three discussion questions and three compare and contrast questions which Jennings (2009) posed in a case study that is related to Friedman’s (1970) article “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits”.
Water pollution is a serious matter that should be accounted for. Every living being has a right to acquire a life-sustaining resource as water. A city in Michigan known as Flint is a victim of having contaminated essentials. In Flint, statistics show that not only is it in poverty, but over forty percent of its residents have a low income. It is revealing because most peers in the city felt personally victimized by the lack of supervision in its water distribution. It is churlish and insubordinate for any human being to acquiesce and it will be known around The United States, that officials can too, cause harm to the innocence. Yet, it is despicable to witness people suffering from agony with a few resources that are offered.
Social responsibility is the ethical foundation and guiding principles we are to live by. This trickles down from organizations, to the individual level. It’s the duty of everyone to help in need. By doing so, helps keep the balance in our society as well as our ecosystem.
Corporate Social Responsibility, some may say it is an organization's duty to behave in an economically and environmentally acceptable manner but there is more to it that just that. A company has a duty to its shareholders, the duty to maximize benefits and avoid trouble, a responsibility to the employees and others who depend on that company for a living , and last but not least they have the duty to create a safe environment for everyone. A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr depicts a civil lawsuit that takes place in the United States. The lawsuit is filed by residents of a small town, Woburn, in Massachusetts, against two powerful corporations, Beatrice Foods and W.R. Grace, for polluting the water in the local river with carcinogen TCE and causing the deaths of many children. A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr demonstrates that the issue of Social Corporate Responsibility is prevalent throughout the piece but because of the adversary system of law there is no place for apology just winning for both parties.
So before we go in greater detail on the different perspectives related to social responsibility, one might question the meaning of social responsibility. It is generally agreed that social responsibility is defined as the business obligation to make decisions that benefit societ...
Social responsibility is the part of the framework of an organization or individual which makes up an obligation to act for the benefit of society. There are many different ways act out social responsibility. The social responsibilities of a business can be classified according to the businesses relationships to the general public, customers, employees and investors. The companies that make their product or service with the rooted mindset of benefiting the community and the world around them do this by providing things like scholarship funds, all natural products, biodegradable storage, and or just by treating the consumer as well as the employees as individuals rather than a corporate dollar sign. Businesses may exercise
While the concept of an individual having responsibility is commonly recognized, modern views have lead to the emerging issue of corporate responsibility. Business Directory.com defines corporate social responsibility as, “A company’s sense of responsibility towards the community and environment (both ecological and social) in which it operates. Companies express this citizenship (1) through their waste and pollution reduction processes, (2) by contributing educational and social programs, and (3) by earning adequate returns on the employed resources.” But such a concept has been much disputed since at least the 1970’s.
Every business has a social responsibility toward society. That means to maximize positive affects and minimize negative affects on the society. Social responsibilities includes economic-to produce goods and services, that society needs at the price, that satisfy both-business and consumers, legal responsibility-laws that business must obey, ethical responsibilities-behaviors and activities that are expected of business by society, but are not codified in the law, philanthropic responsibilities-represent the company’s desire to give back to society (charietys, volunteering, sponsoring).
Reed, B. (2011). The Business of Social Responsibility. Retrieved from Dollars and Sense Real World Economics: http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/1998/0598reed.html
Business organizations should act responsible towards society as it will benefit society, culture, economical condition and environmental issues as well. In other words, business organization are currently only focusing on their core objective that is only maximizing their profit but this profit maximization comes with a cost to the society like over exploiting resources, polluting environment, producing products which are not environmental friendly. If business organization acts socially responsible they will help the society to develop.
However, there can be more definitions about what Corporate Social Responsibility can be. For example, Corporate Social Responsibility can be the commitment which is continuing for a business to behave ethically and bring to economy the development to improve the workforces’ of the whole society and local community and their families’ quality of life. Corporate Social Responsibility is also known as the obligation of a company to serve the society’s interest and of course its own. With the help of the Corporate and Social Responsibility, social and environmental concerns companies can integrate into their business and stakeholders operations.
Business ethics and social responsibility are two concepts many individuals believe go along together for corporations in the business environment. Business ethics are the moral values a company uses to ensure all employees action in a standard manner when completing business functions. Social responsibility is typically a conceptual theory that governments and the general public hold, believing that businesses should not conduct themselves in a manner counter to cultural or societal norms. The connubial of these concepts happens when companies introduce a written code of ethics to demonstrate that the company only acts in its greatest interest so long as it does not damage the company’s social responsibility.
Corporate Social Responsibility is management’s obligation to protect and promote their stakeholders welfare. Social Responsibility is more than just obvious ethical issues like honesty and integrity in business dealings.