Social Responsibility

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the differences between social responsibility of an organization and of an individual. It begins with the allegory of two prehistoric men hunting for their families and the social responsibility that is required of them. The paper then discusses a corporation's responsibilities to its shareholders and to society and looks at the signs of competitive market situations.

From the Paper:

"A capitalistic society that provides open and free competition did not bring about Enron and similar debacles. It was the second part of Friedman's statement: "without deception or fraud" that led to such situations. It was the greed of several individuals who misreported their profits to get a larger part of the pot. Unfortunately, there will always be individuals like this--it is human nature. That does not make the whole system corrupt. One can say that the competition inherent in the capitalistic enterprise encourages such behavior. Hoarding by one of the cave dwellers would never work. The hope is that lessons are learned from situations such as these--that nothing works perfectly."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Boatright, J.R. 1994. Fiduciary duties and the shareholder-management relation: or, what's so special about shareholders? Business Ethics Quarterly 4:393-407
• Friedman, M. The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits. The New York Times Magazine. September 13, 1970. <http://www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1976/>/
• Hasnas, J. 1998 The normative theories of business ethics: a guide for the perplexed. Business Ethics Quarterly. 8:19-42
• Hetwick, R.E.. Ethics of Capitalism. Journal of Business Leadership. 2001-2002 http://www.anbhf.org/pdf/hattwick.pdf

More papers on Social Responsibility:

• Dissertation or Thesis # 147393 : "Social Responsibility in the Financial Market"
• Article Review # 140161 : "The Social Responsibility and Increasing Profits"
• Term Paper # 93112 : "Corporate Social Responsibility"
• Analytical Essay # 143882 : "Corporate Social Responsibility"

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