With the previous post note (feel free to add to that million dollar question.....) take a stab at this one - what is the importance of corporate social responsibility and sustainability to our understanding of international perspectives in management. Does it matter or is it a consideration in making that jump from exporting to joint ventures or greenfield operations? Otherwise, it is just a claim that stakeholders would make as part of their perspective on business?
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
February 8th, 2012
Wow! You all are doing a wonderful job with this communication pattern and most people have gone well beyond the assignment. Good job! That certainly scores a great deal toward intellection participation and attachment to the material, which is something I wanted to accomplish through this venue.
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Well Milton Friedman would say that the corporation has no social responsibility and that the corporations only responsibility is to return capital to its shareholders and the shareholders can then take care of the environment and society. He might also say that when the shareholder pays taxes that should fund the government and the government is truly who should be enforcing social and environmental safety and security. I think that Milton has some very good points but that every person and entity should be held accountable for the sustainability of our society and environment. Sorry Milton...
ReplyDeleteI also agreed that every business should hold responsible and accountable on every decision. From the video we watched in class, it is very disturbing how some of our medicines are made in such poor environment. It is actually irritates me on future medicine I will take. We as the consumer put our trust into manufacture and believes they will hold up to the standard. I do understand that in terms of their process it is up to standard but they have to know where are the ingredients made and came from. If in reason that they have no control of how the ingredients were created, then they should consider purchase from other vendor that has a better quality control by the FDA. I guess at the end it is all about cheap labor.....
DeleteSocial responsibility is very important in the international context. Many times the abuses of firms in other countries with lower accountability or controls have gone unnoticed. But with increasing use of social media and the world being connected more with the internet the world is becoming more and more aware of problems that are happening or that could happen. This can affect brands very negatively and impact companies plans on expansion, etc.
ReplyDeleteKris Steadman & Stan Olson
My view is that wherever companies decide to do business the requirement should be a commitment to the communities where they do business. The commitment should include things like providing career opportunities (good working conditions, opportunities for growth) for the people and supporting community improvements – like education and natural resource preservation. Doing business internationally isn’t just a joint venture with a foreign company – your business is entering into and affecting a society for better or for worse. Foreign partners should be sought that have these same commitments.
ReplyDeleteI thought this article on KSL today was relevant to some of our class discussion.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ksl.com/?sid=19240695&nid=151&title=risky-business-the-impact-of-an-unstable-global-economy&s_cid=queue-12
In the child labor topic, I found this article http://www.ncfh.org/docs/fs-Child%20Labor.pdf and it states that 134 millions boy and girl worldwide between the age of 5 - 14 years old who work in the agriculture which is about 70% of all child labor. I am amazed with this number and most of them are working under extreme heat and hazardous condition. What is actually the root of this problem ? Problems that I could think of are poor living standard where families can't support their education cost, family income is too low to support the family forcing child to work and bring additional income, and the government enforce child to work. No matter what root causes of child labor, I personally think it is just not right. They should be in the developing stage and receive proper education. Although we know for fact that child labor still exist in some countries, how could we possibly help. Don't buy any crop related products that is from those countries doesn't resolve the problem. I like the Ikea approach to find the problem of child labor and understand why there is a need in child labor. Help them and fix the problem is the way to go.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above comments that social responsibility and community development has to be a part of any companies global expansion policy. What I find very interesting is the argument that it is better to have a child working than to have him in starvation. Although I do think that no child should be forced to work and that parents have a large portion of responsibility for forcing their children to work, their is a fine line between helping these communities out by investing in the infrastructure to manufacture and basically hiring a slave labor force. I think there is a fine line when talking about international business and ethics. The corporation is exporting its production to find cheaper labor for production and the people willing to work to provide for their families. Many interesting questions that are very difficult to answer and can almost be taken on a case by case basis.
DeleteI agree with many of the comments stated above. From the TED video we watched in class I believe that in the long run it is in best interests of all to act socially responsible. I remember hearing a quote from Gandhi saying something to the effect of over time with each passing generation inequality and discrimination slowly start to erode away. In equality and discrimination have always been apart of human history but collectively we are becoming more away of the consequences of acting irresponsibly.
ReplyDeleteI think that this applies to businesses operating in the global context. Those corporations that act socially responsible may give up short term profits and returns, but will benefit in the long run. The problem is that in today's myopic society and market, not everyone cares about the long run. I believe that over time more and more emphasis will be placed on corporations and governments to act more responsibly