Companies should be socially responsible and have strong ethical principles in order to contribute to the local and global community. In order to educate and inform other the public of socially responsible companies, Liberty Mutual Responsibility Project compiled videos of socially responsible and companies that have strong ethical principles. One of the companies show cased was Greyston Bakery, which is a “social entrepreneurship”. The difference between social entrepreneurs and a business entrepreneurs is business entrrp create and transform whole industries and social entrepreneurs seek to change society, improve systems, find solutions for problems in society and generate social value. Every business or company should adopt a social entrepreneurship model like Greyston Bakery because it would be a great benefit for society.
Greyston has a double bottom line in that it has a social mission and a profit mission. On the company website, Greyston states that “the Bakery is a for-profit business which has a double bottom line, meaning that we measure our success based on creating positive social impact as well as by generating a profit” showing that the organization takes its social responsibility seriously. This rare ethical principle that Greystone Bakery has implemented is to not only ensure that it makes a profit but that it also gives back to the community. A company should be social responsible because it enables the company and for the local community succeed along with the company. This is important because companies should not only be concerned with people contributing to the company but the company contributing to the community. If a company doesn’t contribute to the community they will most likely be faced with external social pressures that will force them to change.
There are many external social pressures that could influence organizational ethics such as the treatment of workers, the environment, customers, product and work safety and the local economy. If a company doesn’t adhere to these social pressures they will have most likely acquire a tarnished reputation and lose public approval. Yet, organizations may be influenced to revamp their hiring policies, work conditions, redesign their product and decide to help the local economy. If companies give in to social pressure and implement ethical principles then these companies will have a good reputation and satisfied employees. Organizations may even decide to improve their employee relations by following Greyston’s outstanding hiring system and employee benefit package.
Greystone uses what is called “open hiring” which means that all employees come from the local community and given a chance. The operators at Greyston Bakery believe that everyone, especially locals have the opportunity to work and succeed. In fact, the Greyston Foundation was “created to help individuals forge a path to self-sufficiency” thus every employee has a chance to become independent. The company also helps downtrodden individuals since “Greyston provides job-training and supportive services to several different “hard-to-employ” populations”. This is significant since “The goal of workforce development is to provide individuals with transferable skills to further their goals towards living productive and satisfying lives” these individuals are given more opportunities. Due to the Greyston Foundation these individuals are given a second chance, a chance to overcome obstacles.
The company also furthers the community development by sharing it’s proceeds with the community. The organization gives back to the community in many ways by providing the Greystone Daycare, providing daycare services to community citizens, providing affordable housing, providing “a combination of conventional and alternative health care to persons living with HIV/AIDS” and many other numerous causes. Most importantly the Greyston Foundation “offers a nationally accredited Child Care Center and after-school programs” this is important because communities should provide children a safe place to learn. Every child everywhere should have access to a proper education and become enlightened.
There is no real relationship between the legal and ethical issues at Greystone Bakery. The open hiring policy complies with the equal opportunity employment law in that everyone has a chance to be hired. Yet they do tend to hire only local residents and this could be an issue if they only hired locals. However, it appears that Greyston will give anyone who applies a fair chance to work which is adheres to the law.
The organizational decisions made by the operators of Greyston shows that they have also made the personal decision to put the community needs above their own. Rather than pocket the profits they share it with their employees and the community. They use the profits to contribute to the community and thus improve the lives of everyone in that community. This is truly inspiring and remarkable. If more companies followed Greyston Bakery ethical principles then not only would employee satisfaction but the economy nationwide would increase. Most importantly, if companies where more socially responsible like Greyston, it would enrich society and humanity.

http://www.greystonbakery.com/the-foundation/