Chapter 1: the Study of Business, Government, and Society

. Explain what is meant by the “social contract” between a business and the society in which it operates.

Lawrence, Anne (2010). Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy. 13th Edition. McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions, 2010. VitalBook file. Bookshelf.

Helen’s is an upmarket fashion boutique store in Sydney’s east. Falling sales have been reflected by surveys that reveal consumers view the business as outdated and no longer relevant to consumers’ needs. Strong competition in the area has placed considerable pressure on pricing. The business’s target market, 50-65 year old females, no longer dominated the now younger demographic character of the area.

Media corporations have been merging into fewer (and larger) entities which are better able to control the flow of information to the public. Because of their size and power, they can prevent unfavorable coverage of their activities in the media outlets they own. In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. In 1992, fewer than two dozen of these corporations owned and operated 90% of the mass media; controlling almost all of America's newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. Now only 5 huge corporations - Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) - now control most of the media industry in the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth. Democracy can't exist without an informed public. We rely on unbiased news from independent

After bashing the old idea of managerial capitalism, Freeman starts explaining why his reconceptualized stakeholder concept is much more logical. Freeman modestly articulates a stakeholder theory using the “narrow definition” of a stakeholder, which includes those who are vital to the success and survival of a corporation. Specifically, these stakeholders include owners, management, suppliers, employees, customers, and the local community. As well as being directly connected with the corporation, Freeman argues that the stakeholders are also interconnected with each other as well, and that each stakeholder is vital to the survival of the corporation, and vice versa. Employees rely on the business to give them a paycheck; the business provides their livelihood. Employees return the favor because they run the business on a day to day basis. Suppliers are vital to the firm’s success because the quality of the raw materials purchased will determine the quality and price of the final good produced by the firm. As a result, the firm is a customer of their supplier, and is therefore vital to their supplier’s success. The next stakeholder, customers,

Hartman, E. (2006). Can We Teach Character? An Aristotelian Answer. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5(1), 68-81

The big businesses that dominated the United States during the nineteenth century should not be considered Robber Barons. Although some people’s livelihoods were destroyed, they were not setting out just to ruin people’s lives. They wanted to industrialize, make money, and make the United States’ economy more stable. If they continued to operate on a small scale, then the money would continue to be scarce for everyone as it had been in the past. They had to do something different in order to see any kind of change in the way things were going. Without people willing to try new innovative ideas, we would have never become this huge industrial powered nation America is today. The bigger businesses often swept up many of the smaller businesses in the process of industrializing, but in the end it all worked out to make the American economy better and avoid more depressions.

How did American businesses go about getting big after the civil war? What role did the government play in the rise of big business? What were the social costs of the rise of big business?

The ownership, advertising and ideology filters illustrate this. 9/11 was an opportunity for neo-conservatives to promote the decision to go to war in Iraq, the Bush administration sold a product under the illusion of patriotism (Moyers). The White House Iraq Group, made up of the President's circle of officials, is a marketing group that ran this propaganda machine and advertised the connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. An oligopoly was created and it became increasingly difficult to distinguish between the mass media, bureaucracies and the federal government (Moyers). Economic factors were a key part of the media's collapse, media owner's insistence on high returns for shareholders disrupted critical reporting (Kamiya).

Until the 1980s, the control of the media was in the hands of the national government. From then, the control shifted to private outlets and by the 1990’s, there were more than fifty multinational companies who controlled it (“Mass Media”). Today, only about six major companies control the larger fraction of media in America (Williams, Par. 1). Norman Solomon wrote in the New Political Science Journal that most reporters and editors work for just a few huge companies. These journalists and editors are on the payroll for “mega-media institutions”, of which, only about six exist (Solomon 297). How much will the public learn if these companies generally control the output of information?

Though business-like mechanisms can create a more efficient and potentially innovated government, government and business should be run differently, since they are inherently different in their conceptual values. Appleby explains some of these differences. He argues that no one can serve the public as it should be served unless he or she has a public-interest attitude with certain special characteristics. In addition, business has much narrower extent, while public officials are more broadly stimulated, with a breadth of view and a public-interest attitude. Government is complex as well as vastly interdependent with many other nonprofit and private organizations. Also, the government is subject to public scrutiny and public outcry. According to Denhardt and Denhardt, government acts, in concert with private and nonprofit groups and organizations, to seek solutions to the problems that communities face. In the process, the role of government is transformed from one of controlling to one of agenda setting, bringing the proper players to the table, facilitating, negotiating, or brokering solutions to public problems—often through coalitions of public, private, and nonprofit agencies. Finally, government is different from business

Stakeholders are people or groups with interest in an organization that can affect or be affected by the organization itself, its objectives, or its policies (BusinessDictionary, 2015). Each stakeholder brings their own perspective to the table based on their relationship with the organization (e.g. internal or external role), their level of experience, and their area of expertise about the subject matter they are involved with. At a high level, the list of stakeholders for any organization could include people or groups such as: customers, employees, government agencies, suppliers, unions, community resources, shareholders, and business owners. For the purpose of this assignment, I will discuss and review stakeholders relative to the

Around 50 million people watch CBS, ABC, or NBC every single night in order to obtain information from the day. Since the amount of people watching a news channel every night is so great, the media has had a great effect on the lives of everyone living in the United States. In our state and local government regions, each and every news channel or newspaper is going to take a certain view and stand-point on what the people say, think, and believe. Media effects are classified as direct or indirect, and the Media itself as well as the people behind the headlines can create positive as well as negative publicity. The media also has ways of going about their business and they even have their own terms for what they do, and how it should be

Stakeholders are the group or number of people who are directly or indirectly related to a particular business. Stakeholders can be directors, customers, employees, government, agencies, owners, suppliers, unions and the community from which the business draws its resources (Campbell, 2002). However, stakeholders are a crucial part for the success of business. If an organisation knows it’s stakeholder, then it can determine where, there is prospect for business and also by analysing stakeholders, business can set its operational activities (Graham, 2005).

Through this book, Yunus shows how social business is applied in the current business setting. Yunus also explains how the social business model could redeem the failed promise of the free enterprise model.