Rephrase the article

Assignment Help Strategic Management
Reference no: EM13302790

Rephrase each section of the article and critique whether or not agreed with him, and if there are examples to support

A business can be compliant with laws of a country, yet shows no ethical responsibility and vice versa. The modern view of successful organisations entails adherence to both law and morality. The issue of morality or ethics was established by the 'stakeholder' theory which states that a corporation is a legally privileged association that have contractual obligations which are both legal and moral. Complying with the law is accountability, but complying with business ethics is responsibility. Hence, corporate social responsibility is the making of positive contribution to society (employees, customers, the public and shareholders) above and beyond legal obligations. In essence, CSR is pursued by social justice campaigners and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which mobilize public opinion against the unethical practices of corporations. They lead to customer boycotts, shareholder protests, exposing the names and images of offending corporations and managers. For example, they wage campaigns that promote prohibition of child labour, the right to a decent wage, safe working conditions. Thus, their anti-Nike sweatshop awareness campaign has ruined Nike's public relations campaigns and financial status.

It seems that there is a clear conflict between business and ethics. Business is concerned with rationality, practicality that leads to efficiency and calculability. In this regard, it is a collective notion where everyone has a cost, a value, and a purpose that can be tangible and measured. In contrast, ethics is concerned with the moral codes that govern our decisions and actions in terms or right and wrong. It is philosophical and abstract derived from the individualistic conscience with the aim of achieving goodness and justice. It cannot be measured as it is intangible and spiritual in nature.

However, it is not clear who decides the values which a business should adopt: companies themselves or the society. Again, in applying CSR, managers are faced with ethical dilemmas: they may use the company's resources for people other than the shareholders. They are unfairly taxing the shareholders, employees, and customers This is against their contractual duties, so they do not have the freedom to act since they are agents for managing the business on behalf of the shareholders.

In fact, both accountability and responsibility require freedom of action on the part of the agent. In case of corporate social responsibility, ethical issues become more complicated as people start differentiating between individual and collective rights and duties, and between legal and moral rights and duties. Again, society cannot be an actor since it is always acted for or represented. Then, 'who acts for society?'. It is even more difficult to define the identity of society: is it the local community, the state/ nation, or the international society?

According to the shareholder theory advocated by Friedman, managers are only agents for maximising profits. In this regard, some people argue that CSR is already done by the business when it creates jobs, shareholder value and goods and services - which contribute to society. But this claim can be rejected on the basis that businesses may use more resources of community than the taxes they pay.

This theory is motivated by consequentialism, which emphasises utilitarianism advocating that actions are neither good nor bad in themselves, but only in terms of what they bring about to the largest number of people. This is a Machivillian principle that treats people as a means to an end and justifies considerable harm done to others. This is against the deontological view of Kant, which advocates that for an action to be ethical, it must have a motive beyond self-interest and mutual advantage, and that justice is something contained within an action itself, not in its consequences.

Conclusion:

CSR depends on the code of ethics that is derived from moral theories, which do not show a universal consensus on what is right and what is wrong. Ethical or moral duties are duties of individuals, and wrongful conduct involves wrongful intent and conscious complicity. The problem is that corporations do not have minds or intention, and therefore corporate moral responsibility demands identifiable individuals and roles. In fact, activities of corporations are not the activity of every member or any particular member, and corporate actors are not free agents. Then, the questions of how to behave morally while protecting what is legally ours; how to look after the rights of those who have no capital; and why should only those with capital make these decisions have added to the problems of the CSR debate.

Reference no: EM13302790

Questions Cloud

What is the maximum theoretical efficency of the plant : An electrical generating plant operates a boiler at a temperature of 220 C, What is the maximum theoretical efficency of the plant
Find horsepower lost to friction between reservoir and jet : water from a reservoir is being supplied to a powerhouse that is located at an elevation 935 ft below that of the reservoir surface. Discharging through a nozzle, the water has a jet velocity of 240 fps and a jet diameter of 6 in.
How to compute the derivative of a summation : How to compute the derivative of a summation?
Find wavelength-celerity and group celerity in deep water : Offshore in deep water, a wave gage measures the height and period of a train of waves to be 2m and 7.5 s respectively. The wave train propagates toward the shore in a normal direction without refracting and the nearshore bottom slope is 1:40.
Rephrase the article : Rephrase each section of the article and critique whether or not agreed with him, and if there are examples to support
What is the spacecrafts kinetic energy : A spacecraft of 140 kg mass is in a circular orbit about the Earth at a height h = 3RE. What is the spacecraft's kinetic energy
Compute the value of the average collection period : Oral Roberts Dental Supplies has annual sales of 5,625.000. 80% are on credit. The firm has 475,000 in accounts receivable. Compute the value of the average collection period.
Determine the magnitude of the smallest velocity reached : The motion of a particle is defined as x=t^2-8t+7 and y=0.5t^2+2t+4, where x and y are in meters and t is in seconds. Determine the magnitude of the smallest velocity reached by the particle, and the time, position, and direction of that velocity.
Determine what is runoff coefficient in a basin located : What is the runoff coefficient in a basin located near the middle of the climatic spectrum, with annual precipitation P = 32 in, ecosystem evapotranspiration ET = 22 in, and baseflow U = 3 in

Reviews

Write a Review

Strategic Management Questions & Answers

  Explain cultural differences that influence decision making

Explain cultural differences that influence decision making and briefly describe how cultural differences affect decision making.

  Analysis of the organisations new product development

New product development is one of the riskiest, yet most important activities that a company can undertake. For this reason, there is significant interest and research on how companies can improve their chances of success in NPD.

  The ethical culture of the organization

Managing the ethical culture of the organization.

  Describe the implications of implementing

Describe the implications of implementing this solution on the stakeholders

  The organization''s environment

How would your advice change based on whether the organization's environment was dynamic versus stable?

  Create a metric based plan for building

Turmeric & Spice want you to survey all the spice importers in their business. You know that the average rate of response to email and electronic surveys is 30% and that T&S has 100 importers located around the world. Create a metric based plan for b..

  Difference between a problem and a purpose statement

What is the difference between a problem statement and a purpose statement?

  The improve phase in quantitative terms

Discuss the Improve Phase in quantitative terms.

  The best fitting straight-line

The best fitting straight-line drawn through the center of a scatterplot that indicates the relationship between the variables.

  Strategic decision making for accountants

Examine the success or otherwise of the area's design score indicators nominated and you will need to explain how the decisions and actions taken in that area assisted (or otherwise) to the overall success of the firm's strategy implementation.

  Identify the courses of action available to riordan

Assuming the role of a Riordan employee stationed in China develope a report that recommends a course of action for Riordan's Chinese operations. In the report what should be addressed is:

  Summarise the management story

Summarise the Management story, and how could C&I have improved their bidding strategy and suggest a Management Strategy that would have aided C&I success.

Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd