7. How do you see corporations fulfilling their social responsibility? Do corporations have a social responsibility or do they exist solely to maximize shareholder value? Explain.
I for one don’t think that corporations are doing a good job with their social responsibility. Most corporations will sale you pretty pictures and sob stories only to say yes, we are in the fight to stop ocean pollution, but are they really? This video from YouTube explained it well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YBtspm8j8M (Dissolve, 2014) in just how well they are doing to portray how committed they are. This expanded view is exactly how we should think of “corporate social responsibility.” If a company says they are against racism in their TV ads, but their ad budgets continue to flow to sites spreading hate, their CSR programs are no more than lip service (Fou, 2020). Again, in my opinion the corporations exist to maximize share holder value. As such, for both economic and legal reasons, shareholders are recognized as the owners of the corporation and managers have a primary legal obligation to act in the best interest of the shareholders. So, maximizing shareholder value is therefore the primary mission of U.S. corporations (Budd, 2017). The book explains it there in plain text, corporations want to look good to the public and want you to feel as though they are on your side. Once we the consumer has that warm and fuzzy then the company have done its job for the shareholder. We like your product because it will help to save baby ducks that just so happen to be in the last big oil spill. In turn they buy more of the product and the shareholder reaps the benefits.
References Budd, J. (2017). Labor Relations: Striking a Balance, 5th Edition. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Dissolve. (2014, March 21). This Is a Generic Brand Video, by Dissolve. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YBtspm8j8M Fou, D. A. (2020, June 25). Corporations Need To Step Up To Real Social Responsibility. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/augustinefou/2020/06/25/corporations-need-to-step-up-to-real-social-responsibility/#4841a5cc584e
