Read: What Would You Do? page 71. ( Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/business-ethics/pages/1-introduction)

What Would You Do?

The Social Responsibility of Business

There are two opposing views about how businesses, and large publicly held corporations in particular, should approach ethics and social responsibility. One view holds that businesses should behave ethically within the marketplace but concern themselves only with serving shareholders and other investors. This view places economic considerations above all others. The other view is that stakeholders are not the means to the end (profit) but are ends in and of themselves as human beings (see our earlier discussion of deontological ethics in Ethics from Antiquity to the PresentLinks to an external site.). Thus, the social responsibility of business view is that being responsible to customers, employees, and a host of other stakeholders should be not only a corporate concern but central to a businesss mission. In essence, this view places a premium on the careful consideration of stakeholders. Consider what approach you might take if you were the CEO of a multinational corporation. (Think back on this weeks video The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos. What approach does Amazon take?).

Critical Thinking

• Would your business be driven primarily by a particular social mission or simply by economics?
• How do you think stakeholder relationships would influence your approach to business? Why?
• Think back to this week's video The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos. What approach does Amazon take?

DIRECTIONS

Instructions for all case studies:

Prepare a paper that is longer than one full page.

At a minimum discuss:

1. 1. The particulars of the case
   2. The critical issues
   3. The applicable points from the readings that apply
   4. Personal experience with similar issues
   5. Questions brought up in the exercises, and
   6. How you believe most people would act in a similar circumstance.