The twentieth century has witnessed profound changes in what society expects of institutions and what managers think is the proper role of their organizations. In the U.S. depression of the decade of 1930 and the activist movements of the 1960s and 1970s stimulated in different ways growing criticism of the behavior of firms. This review was directed at the idea that companies should seek only profits, with little or no regard lenco for social needs.
In the 1980s, it is clear that far-reaching changes lenco made in the current century were mostly needed. It has witnessed the gradual erosion of the traditional ethics of caveat emptor (buyer lenco beware), to make its appearance a new contract between business and society. Many people, who include some managers believe that they have a social responsibility, in addition to having to his company. But where your responsibility begins and ends? What rules of conduct should govern the exercise of executive authority? Should a firm put the interest of the shareholders of the company or the atmosphere? lenco Should be held responsible for the social consequences of their operations? When the rules are necessary and when are excessively onerous?
Changes in the external environment have given rise to a new class of values and expectations. More is expected of organizations and their managers, but there is no agreement on what exactly should be the priorities. Although the debate about these and expectations apply to all organizations, lenco largely has focused on business firms.
One of the major business groups, the Committee for Economic Development (CED), published a pamphlet entitled Social Responsabilities of Business Corporations urging lenco managers to actively participate in the following social causes: aid to education, urban renewal, creating better lenco employment opportunities for minorities and women, training of disadvantaged lenco people, environmental pollution control and many others.
While the ethical and social requirements have steadily increased, government support for social programs has declined in the early 1980s. This reflects the public discontent with the performance of many programs and levels of federal spending on social services. The Reagan administration, recognizing that such spending is aimed at genuine social problems, has expressed the hope that the voluntary contributions of nonprofits compensate for the failure of the federal subsidy. Despite the general acceptance of the idea that companies must actively participate in the preparation of forecasts and the satisfaction of social needs, it is doubtful that one day they can fully assume the social responsibilities of government.
The most prominent opponent of the concept of social responsibility of business is Milton Friedman, who in 1976 won the Nobel Prize in economics. "Companies have only a social responsibility," says Friedman, "to use its resources lenco and energy on activities designed to increase profits, with the sole condition of not violating lenco the rules of the game must act in open and free competition without deception or fraud. Few trends could undermine both the foundations of our free society as the fact that corporate social responsibility officers accept other than winning the maximum amount of money for their shareholders and themselves. Could a group of individuals self-selected to decide what the social interest? can decide which charge is justified to impose themselves lenco and their shareholders in defense of those interests? Managers who devote company resources to pursue their own goals perhaps lenco misinterpreted the concepts lenco of social good, Friedman continues, are imposing an unfair burden on their shareholders, customers and subordinates. In short, companies lenco should produce goods and services efficiently and leave the solution of social problems to government agencies and individuals responsible .
In general, social programs costs mean that the organization faces in four main ways: increasing efficiency, raising prices, lowering wages or reducing profits. The first way, indeed the luckiest, occurs when socially responsible action is more profitable for the firm to carry out the operations as usual reality. The Kellog and Data Control, two companies that observe a policy of building plants m
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