Question
According to several religious and community leaders, companies can become more socially responsible by allowing homeless people to stay overnight in the office lobby. The
According to several religious and community leaders, companies can become more socially responsible by allowing homeless people to stay overnight in the office lobby. The need is particularly urgent when it is extremely cold outside. The companies are also urged to serve basic meals. Evaluate the merits and disadvantages of making office lobbies shelters for the homeless during extreme weather conditions.
Assume you are the newly-appointed Social Responsibility Advisor to the CEO of a large business firm. The company's headquarters, an entire high-rise office building in midtown Manhattan, includes a large ground-floor lobby. When employees leave the office during the winter, they pass many homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks and trying to keep warm under layers of cardboard. Several have died in past winters from exposure to the cold. Your CEO has asked you to answer the following questions:
- Do businesses, in general, have a social responsibility to the communities where they are located? If so, does their social responsibility extend to homeless individuals living near the firms' offices or factories? Explain your reasoning.
- Do you recommend (or not) to the CEO that your company open its ground-floor lobby to the homeless on winter nights when the temperature drops below freezing? Your answer must make a clear recommendation either for or against sheltering the homeless in the lobby ("maybe" is not acceptable). Include the impact of your recommendation on at least ONE of the company's internal stakeholder groups. Explain your reasoning.
- The CEO has asked you to recommend an alternative way that the firm could provide assistance to the homeless, other than sheltering them in its lobby. Propose the BEST alternative method your company should use. Include the advantages of your recommended method and the impact it would have on the homeless and at least ONE of your firm's internal stakeholder groups. Would your alternative be preferable (or not) to sheltering the homeless in the firm's lobby? Explain your reasoning.
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