Should Maximizing Profit Be The Only Social Responsibility Of Corporations

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.

There are conflicting expectations of the nature of a company’s responsibilities to society. However, those companies that undertake what may be termed ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ must decide; what are the actual social responsibilities of these companies? I will present a possible paradigm. Also, I will look at the benefit to the business that employs proper management as compared the business with poor management. This research paper describes my view of corporate social responsibility and compares the social responsibilities of Delta Air Lines and Spirit

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.

Drawing from these debates, Archie Carroll has developed “the Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility”, one of the most significant concepts of CSR. There are four kinds of social responsibilities that contribute total CSR, he suggested, Economic, Legal, Ethical, and Philanthropic (1991). Therefore being socially responsible does not mean forgetting the fundamental aspect of business, to make profit. The obligation of Law restricts business activities and they are the rules of the game which businesses have to obey. Being ethical is to perform actions that are fair, morally good, and of stakeholders’ interests, even outside the boundary of law. Considering corporate citizenship, philanthropic responsibilities are responses to the rising society’s expectations to business (Carroll, 1991). The notion of discretionary and voluntary distinguishes philanthropic responsibilities to ethical responsibilities. A good CSR firm should “strive to make a profit, obey the law, be ethical, and be a good corporate citizen” (Carroll, 1991, p.43) and without simultaneous fulfillment of the four responsibilities, the business should not be characterized as operating within CSR.

Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician and writer, who had a massive impact on the research agenda of the economics profession. His famous words “the only responsibility of business is to increase its profits” (Friedman, Milton. 1970) led to many controversial debates on whether businesses should have ethics or if profit should be their main goal. Corporate social responsibility has many definitions, as its interpretation is quite loose, so I have chosen one that relates the most to this essay, given by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, in 2000: “Corporate social

Corporate social responsibility has been one the key business buzz words of the 21st century. Consumers' discontent with the corporation has forced it to try and rectify its negative image by associating its name with good deeds. Social responsibility has become one of the corporation's most pressing issues, each company striving to outdo the next with its philanthropic image. People feel that the corporation has done great harm to both the environment and to society and that with all of its wealth and power, it should be leading the fight to save the Earth, to combat poverty and illness and etc. "Corporations are now expected to deliver the good, not just the goods; to pursue

A combination of recent changed to the world scene and pressures from public opinion now requires corporations to take on a new role, social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility is a corporation’s initiative to monitor and ensure compliance with the law, ethical standards, and norms. It can also be defined as corporation’s actions that further social good and go beyond the interests of the firm in order to make the world a better place. Essentially a corporation should embrace the idea of corporate citizenship, the idea that businesses are socially responsible for meeting legal, as well as ethical and economic responsibilities placed on them by shareholders. Although this is an alluring concept, it is also a flawed one. It

Social responsibility is an idea that has been of concern to mankind for many years. Over the last two decades, however, it has become of increasing concern to the business world. This has resulted in growing interaction between governments, businesses and society as a whole. In the past, businesses primarily concerned themselves with the economic results of their decisions. “Today, however, businesses must also reflect on the legal, ethical, moral and social consequences of their decisions” (Anderson 15). This paper will discuss the concept of corporate social responsibility. It will give the definition of the phrase, and identify some of the global factors that necessitate corporate social responsibility. It will discuss the importance of corporations setting up corporate social responsibility projects, and the impact these have on society. Social corporate responsibility and the maintenance of high ethical standards is not an option but an obligation for all business.

It is obvious that people have become more conscious of the ethical and social responsibilities of business over recent decades, suggesting that the modern businesspeople should not only consider about profitability but also extent to what they can contribute to the whole society. A quote by Anita Roddick generally demonstrates the spirit of being ethically and socially responsible: “The business of business should not be about money. It should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed.” With the increasing significance of the harmonization of society, the view about whether businesses should be responsible for both ethics and society has been sparked off a heated discussion. From some people’s perspective,

Notably, the ideals which Friedman (1962) clearly stressed: ‘Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible’ (p.133). He argued the desideratum of any other social responsibility for businessmen other than that of making maximum profits for their stockholders to exist. He reasoned the unavailability of determinant factors of such social responsibilities, taking into account that it is neither efficient nor reliable to enforce nebulous social responsibilities on corporations. Consequently, they opine that the concept of CSR is inimical to sound business practices and strays away from the basics of wealth creation (Clement-Jones, 2005; Murray, 2005; Jamli and Sidani, 2008). These academics feel businesses should involve in CSR “only to the

It is widely believed that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the most important tasks in the twenty century. Some people may consider that companies have always been the profit organizations, and social affairs are in charge by the government, which is a common sense that there are no directly relationships between each other. However, CSR is considered one of the key elements to sustain companies to vary their original operation levels. In this essay, I attempt to outline the different definitions of Corporate Social Responsibility and evaluate the reasons why CSR became a prominent part of the business world by actual

The concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been evolving for decades. At the very beginning, it was argued that corporation’s sole responsibility was to provide maximum financial returns to shareholders. However, it became quickly apparent to everyone that this pursuit of financial gain had to take place within the boundary of the legal system (Carroll, 1979;1991). Bowen’s 1953 publication of ‘Social Responsibility of Businessman’ was considered by many scholar to be the first definitive book, to explain the idea behind CSR. Following Bowen’s book, a number of works played a vital role in developing the social responsibility concept (Cheit, 1964; David & Blomstrom, 1966; Carroll, 1979;1991).

Some people believe that the major duty which a company has is making profits and satisfying shareholder’s need. However, companies rely on the contribution of stakeholders rather than shareholders, they have responsibility to render not only shareholders but also stakeholders. In addition, companies are powerful social actors, some corporate activities could make great impacts on society (Crane and Matten, 2004). Furthermore, companies cause some social and environment problems (e.g. air pollution), they have duty to solve those

Long before H.R Bowen, in his book ‘Social Responsibilities of the Businessman’ propounded Corporate Social Responsibility as a desirable directive for prosperous companies; it has been long practised as a mode of charity and philanthropy as advocated by various religious and family values. The concept of CSR since then have been intricately connected with the values of good governance which aims to usher a socially inclusive positive society which focuses on addressing cultural impediments, social issues and environmental sustainability. As proposed by the United Nations Environment Programme, companies should be ethically responsible and should strive

The classic origin of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) came from the principle that the purpose of the corporation is to make profits for the stockholders. This view of Milton Friedman came to be referred to later as the classical theory of CSR (Bowie, 1991). Tom Donaldson argued that this theory derived from the concept of the social contract between the corporation and the society where it operates. This perspective, however, faced criticism over its inherently opportunistic and exploitative viewpoint. A corporate vision aimed only at upholding the shareholder’s right to profit for their investment logically will have to qualm of exploiting stakeholders to serve the end game of profit. It will have no qualms at paying