Corporate Social Responsibility: Profit-Oriented Or Socially Responsible?

Economic dogma states that the main objective of publicly traded firms is profit maximization. In modern times, most companies have been conducting business with that objective in mind. In the process of maximizing profits, irrefutable damage has been inflicted to the environment and also to human capital. Rimanoczy (2015) referring to the maximization of profits expressed, "Focusing on the bottom line as the ultimate priority has had an impact on rising unemployment, social crises, environmental challenges, health impacts, to name a few " (para. 4). Different scholars have proposed several methods to integrate the needs for profits with corporate social responsibility; in this context, John Elkington developed a new approach to measure corporate sustainability denominated the Triple Bottom Line. The new method expands the original corporate goal of focusing on profits by also including the assessment of the company 's environmental and social performance (Boswell, Davis, & Jackson, 2011).

Modern day businesses have to be socially responsible; actions are taken to satisfy customers who might have a cause that they care deeply. Social responsibility occurs when a person or a company acts in an ethical and sensitive way towards important social issues of the day such as economic, environmental, and cultural concerns. Many businesses have a section of their website or business literature dedicated to social responsibility. Companies proudly detail the steps they are taking to address concerns that people have with the environment and economic issues. Having companies act in a socially responsible way is necessary because their actions have a tremendous positive impact on society. Candian Tire is a corporation that I most admire for their commitment to social responsibility. In the following paragraphs, I am going to explain why I admire Canadian Tire and the moral reasons why I think they are admirable for their dedication to social responsibility.

In this paper, I am going to discuss and explain my opinions on why company Q is or is not socially responsible. Company Q recently closed a couple of stores in high crime areas. Company Q also started offering very limited health conscious and organic products. The local food bank has contacted Company Q requesting day old food for donations. Company Q has declined the donation request due to possible fraud by its employees and has started throwing the food away.

In the article Accountants Save the World by Peter Bakker, one of his casual claims is that “to address current economic crises in a systematic way, we must begin to demand a return on social and natural capital as well.”1 As a result, Bakker felt that shareholders would not recognize a company's' social accomplishments if it is not captured in financial reports. However, it could be that shareholders do not put social capital into financial statements because they believe that the only social responsibility of business is profits, like Milton Friedman. Therefore, demanding a return on social and natural capital would be ineffective if the majority of shareholders agree with Friedman's view.

Analyse Milton Friedman’s position that the only social responsibility of a business is to increase its profits for its shareholders. Do you agree? Discuss in relation to examples from the IT industry.

Milton Friedman’s quote on “there is one and only one social responsibility of business---to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits” can actually be seen in different perspectives.

Target Corporation needs to buy more local and diverse product from an environmentally friendly company and create a standard that adds value to the local communities and environment. In addition, Target Corporation should source products from diverse international community, minority organization, and women run organizations. Target Corporation must diversify its retail products to add more goods that are sporting, a bakery, and household's items as well educational services using partner organizations. Target Corporation needs to identify new third-party strategic alliances through which it delivers goods at the doorsteps, selecting with a non-perishable item and eventually perishable items depending on the locations.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) relates to the actions of an organization and the effects on the environment and social wellbeing. It is about the way that the company assesses its actions and takes responsibility for this. (Investopedia, n.d.) CSR is a management concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental issues in their business operations and interactions with stakeholders . The company aims to achieve a balance of economic, environmental and social objectives, while also listening to the needs of stakeholders. (UNIDO, n.d.)

Social responsibility of business has been a debated topic for years. The ideas of different businessmen have had effects on the direction of business in this period. This essay analyses two texts, which have Milton Friedman’s arguments about social responsibility of business and John Friedman’s ideas about Milton Friedman’s, by comparison and contrast method and includes this writer’s evaluation.

Utilitarianism is a teleological ethical theory based on the idea that an action is moral if it causes the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. The theory is concerned with predicted consequences or outcomes of a situation rather than focusing on what is done to get to the outcome. There are many forms of utilitarianism, having been introduced by Jeremy Bentham (act utilitarianism), and later being updated by scholars such as J.S. Mill (rule utilitarianism) and Peter Singer (preference utilitarianism). When referring to issues of business ethics, utilitarianism can allow companies to decide what to do in a given situation based on a simple calculation. Many people would agree that this idea of promoting goodness

The selected corporation is the Volkswagen, a German car manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The Volkswagen’s corporate website is http://www.vw.com/. According to the International Ethical Business Registry,

The selected corporation is Volkswagen (VW), a German car manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937, Volkswagen is the top-selling and namesake marque of the Volkswagen Group, the holding company created in 1975 for the growing company, and is now the second-largest automaker in the world (Wikipedia, 2016). Volkswagen’s corporate website is http://www.vw.com/.

Even though economical and legal responsibilities exemplify about fairness and justice, ethical responsibilities cover those activities and practices that are expected or prohibited by members of society even though they are not codified in law. Ethical responsibilities represent those norms, standards or expectations that reflect a jest of what employees, consumers and shareholders regard as just, fair or in keeping the protection or respect of stakeholders’ moral rights. They are important to perform in a manner consistent with expectations of societal and ethical norms. The firms should recognize and respect the ethical moral norms adopted by society from time to time. In order to achieve corporate goals, these

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) relates to the actions of an organization and the effects on the environment and social wellbeing. It is about the way that the company assesses its actions and takes responsibility for this. (Investopedia, n.d.) CSR is a management concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental issues in their business operations and interactions with stakeholders. The company aims to achieve a balance of economic, environmental and social objectives, while also listening to the needs of stakeholders. (UNIDO, n.d.)

Child labor is work that children should not be doing, work that may harm their health and keeps them without education. While working children have no time for attending schools and get education that is the most important thing for their future life and success. But not all work done by children should be accepted as child labor. In other words, if a work doesn’t harm child’s health or personal development (educational issues), it is generally accepted as something positive and useful. Such activities develop children’s skills, provide experience and formulate them to be part of society. The term “Child Labor” is when children do work that damages their health or hamper mental or physical