The writer is very fast, professional and responded to the review request fast also. Thank you.
Book/movie review
22/08/2022
Hi,
Please find below the article and questions to answer :
3.1 Social Responsibilities of Strategic Decision Makers
Should strategic decision makers be responsible only to shareholders, or do they have broader responsibilities? The concept of social responsibility proposes that a private corporation has responsibilities to society that extend beyond making a profit. Strategic decisions often affect more than just the corporation. A decision to retrench by closing some plants and discontinuing product lines, for example, affects not only the firm’s workforce but also the communities where the plants are located and the customers with no other source for the discontinued product.
Such situations raise questions of the appropriateness of certain missions, objectives, and strategies of business corporations. Managers must be able to deal with these conflicting interests in an ethical manner to formulate a viable strategic plan.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF A BUSINESS FIRM
What are the responsibilities of a business firm and how many of them must be fulfilled?
Milton Friedman and Archie Carroll offer two contrasting views of the responsibilities of business firms to society.
Friedman’s Traditional View of Business Responsibility
Urging a return to a laissez-faire worldwide economy with a minimum of government regulation,
Milton Friedman argues against the concept of social responsibility. A business person who acts “responsibly” by cutting the price of the firm’s product to prevent inflation, or by making expenditures to reduce pollution, or by hiring the hard-core unemployed, according to Friedman, is spending the shareholder’s money for a general social interest. Even if the businessperson has shareholder permission or encouragement to do so, he or she is still acting from motives other than economic and may, in the long run, harm the very society the firm is trying to help. By taking on the burden of these social costs, the business becomes less efficient— either prices go up to pay for the increased costs or investment in new activities and research is postponed. These results negatively affect—perhaps fatally—the long-term efficiency of a business. Friedman thus referred to the social responsibility of business as a “fundamentally subversive doctrine” and stated that:
There is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.2
Following Friedman’s reasoning, the management of General Mills was clearly guilty of misusing corporate assets and negatively affecting shareholder wealth. The millions spent in social services could have been invested in new product development or given back as dividends to the shareholders. Instead of General Mills’ management acting on its own, shareholders could have decided which charities to support.
Carroll’s Four Responsibilities of Business
Friedman’s contention that the primary goal of business is profit maximization is only one side of an ongoing debate regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to William J.
Byron, Distinguished Professor of Ethics at Georgetown University and past-President of
Catholic University of America, profits are merely a means to an end, not an end in itself. Just as a person needs food to survive and grow, so does a business corporation need profits to survive and grow. “Maximizing profits is like maximizing food.” Thus, contends Byron, maximization of profits cannot be the primary obligation of business.
Question: Provide arguments both
(a) in support of and
(b) against this statement;
(c) what is your position on the issue?
Please I will appericate it if you can send me the answers tomorrow by 10:15am. Thanks
Best regards…Owanaba
The writer is very fast, professional and responded to the review request fast also. Thank you.
Delivering a high-quality product at a reasonable price is not enough anymore.
That’s why we have developed 5 beneficial guarantees that will make your experience with our service enjoyable, easy, and safe.
You have to be 100% sure of the quality of your product to give a money-back guarantee. This describes us perfectly. Make sure that this guarantee is totally transparent.
Read moreEach paper is composed from scratch, according to your instructions. It is then checked by our plagiarism-detection software. There is no gap where plagiarism could squeeze in.
Read moreThanks to our free revisions, there is no way for you to be unsatisfied. We will work on your paper until you are completely happy with the result.
Read moreYour email is safe, as we store it according to international data protection rules. Your bank details are secure, as we use only reliable payment systems.
Read moreBy sending us your money, you buy the service we provide. Check out our terms and conditions if you prefer business talks to be laid out in official language.
Read more