In the twentieth century money is not the most important element of a social and economical activity and people work not only for the wage but also to get the sense of the fulfillment. For example, the volunteer workers in non-profit organizations normally say that they are satisfied with working there because they feel they are contributing for their society. The public standard of judgment on the field of business will be shifted from the profits they make to whether they are trying to contribute for the society or not. Therefore, businesses should vigorously participate in social activities beyond their profits and it can be accomplished by practicing social responsibility. This essay will present why businesses should take social responsibility by applying several theories, and their examples. Firstly, I will introduce a few critics against social responsibility and the problems they point when it is employed. Then, I will discuss the reasons why people generally believe businessesdoes not have a moral character and businesses are limited to commercial transactions. And they do not have moral restraint and posit outside of political regulations and permissions. From the perspectives based on the principle of free market, some critics argue that to perform social responsibility for businesses is to maximize the profit. According to their argument, since the fundamental social responsibility of businesses is to produce and distribute goods or services which are necessary for society, businesses do not need to take its social responsibility. If they seek profit, it is regarded as the accomplishment of corporate responsibility in society. If businesses are interested in other relationship or duty in society except making profit, they might be regarded to neglect their original duty. Friedman argues that corporate social responsibility contravenes the duty for businesses to maximize profits for their stockholders. He (cited in Davey, 1985, p. 33) wrote as follow:Thery causing government control could bring about the inefficient market. Therefore, the critics believe that corporate social responsibility can create lower financial performance, the inefficiency and the destruction of market system resulted from government control.In contrast to the above mentioned arguments, more and more people have been considering the positive aspects of social responsibility of businesses. Firstly, a company’s decisions without considering social responsibility could cause public damages and losses, if they are focusing solely on creating profits with autonomy from a government. For instance, businesses without pollution control facilities can achieve higher profits than those concerning it. However, they bring about the disadvantageous consequences in all part of the society due to the increased level of pollution. Also, the price-fixing by companies disadvantages the customers in a monopolistic or an oligopolistic market. Secondly, a company which is positivelyety. A business has close relationship with society because its decisions and behaviours have an influence not only on a business itself but also on its whole society in many ways. Therefore, businesses have to actively contribute for the development and improvement of society. Many writers have asserted that businesses must operate with moral and ethical manner and they have to treat themselves as a social member. (Davey, 1985, p. 34) Additionally, Harman (cited in Spiller, 1999, P.1) argues in his thesis as follow:Business has become, in this last half century, the most power institution on the planet. The dominant institution in any society needs to take responsibility for the whole.Next, for the purpose of the sustainable development, businesses have to take the role in serving the necessity of the society which they belong to. To practice voluntary responsibility would lead businesses to create profits in the long-term such as reputation and customer loyalty. For this reason, theynimise the waste going to landfills as the one of the environmental activities. At the same time, the company has experienced less disposal cost and lower production cost. It is a good example of accomplishing both environment practices and the better financial performance of a business. (Holdsworth, 2000, p. 19) Recent ACNielsen research (Holdsworth, 2000, pp. 184-185) tells us that 62 percent of New Zealander over 15 years have purchased goods or services due to its relation with a charity or praiseworthy reason, 84 percent of people consider companies which perform many charities as superior and 94 percent of them feel that it is favorable for companies to practice charities. Previous researches had done before in other countries showed the similar results. It can be an evidence showing that the adoption of social responsibility will help businesses establishing high reputation and making the better profits as well.Each business can have a free choice between the pursuit of social r LEE
Today’s business environment is often defined as the infinite competition and the rapid change. Unlike in the past when business concentrated on profit maximisation in order to survive, managers now pay full attention to the establishing of an effective organization. However, since human asset, which has changed in many ways, is the most crucial component an effective organization can not be accomplished merely through personal management experiences and practices. The pattern of behaviour is hard to predict and the awareness on social phenomenon infinitely varies. Therefore, the ideal business organization, beyond simply making profit, can be attained through carefully selected rational theories and well-applied methods. In this essay, I will present concrete ideas on improving the effectiveness or efficiency of a travel company in Auckland applying two schools of management theory, human relations movement and bureaucratic theory. Firstly, I will briefly introduce the company and desions. Generally, the owner does not appreciate employees’ contribution. Additionally, each employee carries out various tasks totally irrelevant to their original jobs. For example, one staff member from the internet department also has to answer phone calls from customers, pick up mail, and sometimes even take on accounting tasks because the manager considers that he does not look as busy as others. Besides, there is no formalized operation process. Individual tasks are often interrupted by demands from other departments due to the lack of understanding of other working processes. That often causes conflict among the departments.The effectiveness or efficiency of any workplace will be evaluated from the human relations movement perspective. There are a number of things that can be done human relationships in any company. The development of a relationship between the owner-manager and the employees of the company is of invaluable significance. This relationship has to be established onive for managers to focus on workers’ satisfaction and show respect in order to improve productivity. Therefore, for a better and more profitable workplace, managers should establish a firm ‘fellowship’.The next point is the enhancement of employees’ participation and self-management in order to improve the level of their commitment. Employees encouraged to be involved in the making of important decision for the company will demonstrate a higher degree of motivation. This is a basic condition for the acceptance of a level of responsibility by the means of self-management. Consequently the employee’s performance will improve leading to an increased job satisfaction. In addition, participative decision making helps them to share their company’s goal. According to Fandt (cited in Thoms, Dose & Scott, 2002, p. 309), employees with accountability generally guarantee a higher level of productivity, accuracy and helpfulness towards their colleagues than employees without. In contrast, there and stressed. Moreover, employees’ behaviour caused by those feelings can negatively influence efficiency and effectiveness in the workplace. On the other hand, opponents argue that in small businesses, a formalization of the individual job may be useless and frequent unexpected requests unavoidable. However, by establishing a realistic job description, employees are able to concentrate on their original tasks and become more specialized in their job. That would also contribute to a greater job-satisfaction and as a result, the performance of individual workers would increase.Secondly, formalized operating procedures enable companies to avoid abrupt task requirements or changes of plans within departments and employees. For those officially written operation processes to play an important role in coordinating all parts of the business, they have to be well known to everybody in the workplace. That would lead to the elimination of a great deal of uncertainty and potential conflict. Moreoployees and their increasing accountability through self-management strongly relates to a high level of employees’ job satisfaction. At the same time, repeated inappropriate and sudden demands without any relation to the original job are a burden which can discourage employees’ motivation. The introduction of a formalized job description for each individual is therefore considered a good solution. Conflicts at the workplace which are caused by misunderstanding each others’ working processes and the lack of exchanging information about their working process can be solved by committing a written document for each individual job. It is certain that the above suggestions based on the human relations movement and the bureaucracy theory will be able to contribute to effective management and efficient operation, and improve the productivity in the workplace. Rieger (1995, p.57) states that ‘From Follett’s perspective, productivity depended on the development of an employee-centred philosophy
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