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Milton Friedman argued that the only responsibility of business is to maximise profits within the law and the rules of the game. He goes on to ask, ?If businessmen [sic] do have a social responsibility other than making maximum profits for stockholders, how are they to know what it is??
Using a wide range of readings from the literature, critically evaluate Friedman?s arguments for his views on the responsibilities of business to society and discuss the arguments others have put forward to address how we can determine that business does have social responsibilities beyond profit maximisation and how we can identify what those responsibilities are for individual companies and for business generally. Your discussion should include application to current business practices. Finally, what can you conclude about the key issues, debates and practices in corporate responsibility for the coming decade?
It is suggested that you start your assignment preparation by:
Reading Friedman?s (1970) classic essay, The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits New York Times Magazine, Sept 13 (see Companion for internet access)
Reading Simon, Powers and Gunnemann?s (1972) piece, The Responsibilities of Corporations and Their Owners (in The Ethical Investor: Universities and Corporate Responsibility ? see Companion for internet access).
Reviewing corporate websites as well as the academic literature for examples of how and why corporations operationalise social responsibilities. Please note, this involves considerably more application and reflection than simply describing what companies do (little more than cutting and pasting from websites). It requires analysis, e.g. if you are discussing Simon et al?s claim that business has affirmative duties to prevent harm (limited by the Kew Garden Principles), you might consider the tailored practices companies undertake to prevent harm which is particularly problematic for their industry. Additionally, if you are considering whether business has further responsibilities to assist society (within the KGP), you might consider how and why a particular corporate-sponsored activity is ethically required.
There are numerous corporate websites you can visit. Some that you might consider include,
http://www.bhp.com.au/bb/aboutUs/codeOfBusinessConduct.jsp
http://www.unilever.com/ (navigate through this site, eg the lifebuoy soap campaign, sustainability, your country specific site, etc).
http://kcprofessional.com.au/news/csr.asp
http://www.ferrero.com/social-responsibility/2008-2009/
http://www.starbucks.com.au/Global-Social-Responsibility-Report-2010.php
http://www.gecitizenship.com/
http://www.nikebiz.com/responsibility/workers_and_factories.html
http://www.pfizer.com/responsibility/
http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/csr/index2.shtml
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