Essay on Social Business
In this paper we are going to study the issues of social responsibility, related to USA companies and corporations. We will try to give precise answers to the questions, whether business leaders should be concerned of the local and international social problems, and if their approach to solving these problems should be rather professional or personal.
The general definition of the notion social responsibility is usually given like follows: “an ethical or ideological theory that an entity whether it is a government, corporation, organization or individual has a responsibility to society” (Friend, 12). Very often mostly activist groups and other communities are associated with social responsibility, but in fact business groups can also pay attention to it.
Social responsibility is not identified by laws, it is a free-will responsibility. The responsibility for the customers is not a new idea in the business ethics. Long ago it was proved, that the way of treating a customer with attention and politeness has direct impact upon the results of sales or other commercial activities. The question whether business in general and business in the United States can be socially responsible seems to be rather important at the moment. In case it can – there should be special criteria worked out for estimating this. All types of business, however, have different aims and thus the measures of social responsibility would be various.
On the other hand there is a number of social problems, which should be taken into consideration by all business leaders. Speaking about local social problems, it is important to start from the workers of the company itself; this means, that their social rights for appropriate health care, workplace safety, family –friendly policies and so on should be developed and guaranteed. There are other local problems, related not directly to the company and its workers and not only non-government organizations can provide support for weak sides of the social sphere. According to the U.S. Council for International Business U.S. companies and corporations show nowadays more interest in the issues of social responsibilities (Roddick, 13). Around 89 % of the companies in America are working out the plans for management of their corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Speaking about international processes, it is necessary to mention, that within the last decades the flow of goods and services between different countries is growing. Globalization can serve as an important source for new economic and cultural opportunities, on the other hand however it demands a kind of interference of business leaders of one country into the social sides of business of other countries. The government in America worked out a number of policies and programs with the major goal of better recognition of worker rights in all countries. “For example, U.S. laws governing the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) include provisions promoting worker rights” (Montgomery, 25).
This seems difficult to demand from the business leaders to play personal role in addressing and copying with social problems, this would be already great if all of them could follow such problems professionally, as already their professional effort would be enough to bring positive results for workers, for society and certainly for the development of their business.
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