COMM101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Quid Pro Quo, Business Intelligence, Invisible Hand
Week 5
Comm101 - Principles of Responsible Business
Corporate Approaches to Responsible Business
Lecture Outline
-Corporate responsibility
-Stockholder vs stakeholder approach
-Arguments for the narrow (stockholder) approach
-Responsible commerce in a capitalist system?
External stakeholders and corporate responsibilities
-customers/consumers —> think about J&J
Why do good companies do bad things?
-ethical or social issues as matters for somebody else to resolve
-leaders talk to the same circle of people and information sources all the time and
avoid people or organisations who disagree with them or criticise them
-they discourage employees from thinking about their work as whole people, from
using their moral and social intelligence as well as their business intelligence
-they focus exclusively on financial measures of performance
Social Contract
-a set of rules and assumptions about behaviour patterns among the various elements
of society
-Often involves a quid pro quo (something for something) exchange
-often based on implicit as well as explicit agreements between a corporation and it’s
stakeholders
Corporate Moral Agency
-corporations are legal agents but are they moral agents?
-‘They neither have a soul to lose; nor a body to kick”
-Corporations enjoy the same status and functions as human beings. They can…
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Document Summary
Ethical or social issues as matters for somebody else to resolve. Leaders talk to the same circle of people and information sources all the time and avoid people or organisations who disagree with them or criticise them. They discourage employees from thinking about their work as whole people, from using their moral and social intelligence as well as their business intelligence. They focus exclusively on nancial measures of performance. A set of rules and assumptions about behaviour patterns among the various elements of society. Often involves a quid pro quo (something for something) exchange. Often based on implicit as well as explicit agreements between a corporation and it"s stakeholders. They neither have a soul to lose; nor a body to kick . Corporations enjoy the same status and functions as human beings. Week 5: own property, enter into contracts, make decisions.
