Are Corporations Moral Agents

Because corporations are established to profit and shareholders invest money with expectations of a greater return, managers cannot be given a directive to be “socially responsible” without providing specific criteria of checks and balances to which needs to adhere. Therefore, it is imperative to the success of a corporation for managers to not act solely but rather to act within the policies of the shareholders.

Many believe that business entities should have an ethical duty to be socially responsible, to work towards increasing its positive effects on society while decreasing its negative effects. Many organizations look for opportunities to be socially responsible while also creating shareholder wealth.

In 1970, Milton Friedman published an essay in which he argued that corporations’ only social responsibility ought to be making a profit for its shareholders as long as it is engaged in open and free competition without deception or fraud (Brusseau, 2012. page. 676). Moreover, Mr. Friedman also argued that only people can have social responsibilities because they control their actions and corporations don’t. However, we see that corporations are engaged in businesses such as making loans, signing contracts, acquiring licenses, creating jobs and services. They act as persons. If corporations had no responsibilities people would not invest in them; for that reason, I believe corporations should have legal and ethical responsibilities.

Business corporations are a dog eat world. Business is made up of many aspects from political, social, and environmental responsibilities to those of ethics and responsibility. Every business and major corporation has to deal with these in a much different way. For example, small business’s need more of the social responsibility in order to have more trade and an increased profit. For the major corporations the focus is on what is going on in politics, social, and environmental due to the economy or the state of their countries.

What is the responsibility of a business or corporation? Is it to meet stakeholder expectations and follow legal guidelines, or is there a higher responsibility? While Milton Friedman asserted in his famous essay that “the social responsibility of a business is to increase profits,” it can be argued that companies also have higher moral responsibilities. The question in each ethical dilemma is, “To whom do we have a moral responsibility?”

Corporate responsibility is ultimately about the reasons and ways in which a company sets its values, moral standards, ethical considerations and states an organizational purpose that is based in greater societal good. After this course, I believe the “best practice” of corporate responsibility in a high tech global economy leverages several course methodologies but ultimately 1) the tenets of Gilligan’s Ethics of Care model which balances care for self (or corporation) and care for others, 2) takes triple bottom approach to running a company considering financial performance, social practices and environmental impact and 3) ultimately one defined by Porter and Kramer’s Corporate Shared Value (“CSV”) where economic success is based on a model where societies’ needs are addressed and improved. CSV allows the self-interest necessary for a company to thrive in a competitive and fast changing environment. At the same time, CSV considers that the end game is about creating shared value. Altogether, my definition of the “best practice” of corporate responsibility happens when the company’s bottom line and society’s bottom line are simultaneously served because the societal needs are also at the center of the company’s profit driven goals.

Advocates of social welfare argue that firms are obliged to act in a socially responsible manner. Dodd (xxx?) also argued that businesses must engage in social services, even at the expense of profits, in order to serve the best interests of employees, creditors, customers, and other stakeholders, as it appears that there exists a positive relationship between social and financial performance (xxx?), and socially responsible business practices affect all aspects of business operations and contribute significantly to corporate productivity and profitability (Website of Business for Social Responsibility). In other words, a corporation should engage with social interests in order to fulfil its social responsibility and to maximise long-run profits.

Corporations’ measured success by financial means only undermines the global impact companies can have on society. With the evolution of business into a global market, society requires corporations to emphasize social welfare beyond simple philanthropic contributions. A new initiative called Corporate Social Responsibility blends philanthropy, social initiatives, corporate responsibility, and corporate policy for the overall benefits to various facets of society, including but not limited to investors, employees, and local communities.

Corporations, an indispensable part of society, has existed for a long time. In order to better the long-term development and be competitive, having a deep understanding of corporate social responsibility is key to the survival of a particular corporation. Over the past few decades, the social responsibility of corporations has been considered as a controversial issue among experts. Friedman (1970), a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics and Sciences, claimed that the only social responsibility of business is to increase its profit. However, still others disagree with this point of view. By contrast, they argue that if corporations consider increasing as their only social responsibility, it will not only harm the right of employees, but also trigger social problems. This essay aims to explore what should be the social responsibilities of corporations, and to analyze whether the only responsibility of corporations should be increasing its profit. In order to solve the problem, firstly, it is necessary to expound what corporate social responsibility is. Then, it is indispensable to clarify Friedman’s view regarding the only social responsibility of the business. Subsequently, different social responsibilities of corporations, such as ethical responsibilities, philanthropic responsibilities and legal responsibilities, raised by Carroll also need to be evaluated. Finally, another

Saying that a corporation has no social or moral responsibility to engage in, is untrue. A company should be looking at its host nation laws and regulations, the laws and regulations of its market countries, and its desired Code of Ethics of both its employees and leadership. By implicating that a company’s responsibility has borders or boundaries is a true statement because there may not be reciprocity between nation’s regulations. This does not mean that it exonerates the company from honoring the host nation laws.

Socially responsible corporations exist because they manage their business processes to produce a positive impact on society. The demand for easing societies problems, such as homelessness, gun violence, child abuse and human rights has

Since its implementation in 1989 there has been some amendments done to it to make it more effective these include; involvement of enforcement authorities and have come up with new settlement tools, another change is that they have over time advocated for more permanent solutions and innovative technologies in combating hazardous waste, they have also put other states and federal environmental laws consideration into superfund actions, the act also as recently included an

Business is generally known as an organisation, either as an individual or society that involved in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. As a whole, a business is doing commercially viable and profitable work. The business world has moral that to survive in the industry to make money and gain a face value and thus increase their share value or profit. To do this many companies are working towards it. In order to gain continuous respect in the business world, corporations take on a responsibility to assure the people of a country that this particular company not just sells several products but also does something for the nation in return. This corporate self-regulation is known as the Corporate Social

According to Cohen (2009), the concept of social responsibility entail that “every organization must assume the full responsibility for its impact on employees, the environment, customers, and whomever and whatever it touches” (p. 31). On the other hand, Murphy (2009) explains that social responsibility “pertains to an entity’s ability to respond to a person, situation or issue in a certain way” (p. 245). Comparatively, Carroll & Buchholtz (2003) revealed that the concept of social responsibility means that “organizations have moral, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn fair return for investors and comply with the law” (p. 36). This means that the society will look for major organizations where profits and nonprofit could be derived to take care of some of the ills in the society.

Corporate social responsibility is a management concept, whereby an organisation activities are geared towards the compliance of strict ethical codes. These codes are then extrapolated to the organisation business activities in attempt to reduce the number of negative externatlies which may be conceived through malpractice. “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”(Henry-ford-News Journal-[Mansfield-Ohio]-3 August-1965). Therefore, corporate responsibility will play a substantial part in organisational behaviour, due to an increase in public awareness of social responsibility. Organisations will now feel obligated to adopt a utilitarian thought process when carrying out day to day activities. [Richard L. Daft, p149]“Corporate Social Responsibility is a hard-edged business decision. Not because it is a nice thing to do or because people are forcing us to do it because it is good for our business” –Niall Fitzerald-Former-CEO-Unilever.