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Instructions

In a conference held in Toronto, to consider the issue of social responsibility of business managers, some of the statements made were the following: By a leader of a consumer group: The trouble with business managers is that they talk a lot about social responsibility but they do little or nothing about it. Look at the problem of air-polluting smog caused by automobiles that our manufacturers have produced. Look at the problem of energy shortages caused by businesses with their manufacture and sale of energy-eating air conditioners, electrical appliances, and automobiles. Look at the unwillingness of our oil companies to find more oil and gas, on the excuse that they can not afford to do so, especially when the government tightly limits the prices of oil and gas. Look at the problems of poverty and unemployment caused by the unwillingness of business to pay higher wages and hire more people. I could mention more things, but they all add up to an unwillingness of business managers to meet their social responsibilities. By a prominent economist: There is one and only one social responsibility of business to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits, so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition, without deception or fraud. Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their shareholders as possible. By a Company Chairman: We speak constantly of the social responsibility of business. Why not speak also of the social responsibility of our governments, our hospitals, our universities, and our other organisations? Our Central, State, and Local Governments spend around 40 percent of our nations entire spendable income; are they socially responsible in taking so much from all of us and then often spending even more than they take in? Many of our cities with poor sewage disposal systems are polluting our oceans, lakes, and rivers. Our hospitals are charging, for a little room, from Rs. 300 to Rs. 1000 per day for their portion of health care; is this being socially responsible? Our universities continue to increase the costs of education every year and show no signs of increasing their productivity; is this being socially responsible? And so on. No, ladies and gentlemen, social responsibility is not only a business managers problem. It is far more. Questions What do you see to be the social responsibility of business managers? 10 marks How does this problem fit into the need for managers in nonbusiness as well as business enterprises to take into account their total external environment? 10 marks How should managers meet their social responsibilities? 10 marks Dear Students, Please read the case and answer the questions. The word limit for each answer is around 300 words.