Premium Essay

Responsibility Project Greyston Bakery

In:

Submitted By milehigh1858
Words 848
Pages 4
A company has responsibilities to the shareholders, but some companies also think they have a responsibility to be ethical. The organization’s culture is important to how that organization fits in society and it is vital it operates by some ethical principles. The responsibility project video that I will be discussing will be on Greyston Bakery. Greyston Bakery was founded in 1982 and provides local products that can sustain the community. The bakery is also a benefit corporation. “A Benefit Corporation is a new class of business; a legal entity that is required by law to create a general benefit for society as well as for its shareholders” (http://greyston.com/). First I will go over the important issues discussed in the video, the external social pressures and how they are relevant to personal and organizational decisions. Also the relationship between legal and ethical issues talked about in the film. The Greyston Bakery is showing how an organization can be more than a profit driven company, by addressing some important issues. The bakery first takes on the issue of unemployment by having an open hiring process. This policy gives citizens in the local community an opportunity to get employment they might not get at other businesses. The unemployment by people with no skills, drug problems, and criminal background is a drain on society, so hiring them reduces the burden on society. The Greyston Bakery also addresses the issues of housing, healthcare, and childcare by offering these services to their employees. Providing good housing to the employees will help allow their employees have safe housing and the ability to save money for the future. Healthcare is always a problem in low income area, so providing good healthcare to their employees is helping them deal with a major issue in society. When employees can get to the doctor this, helps reduce future health

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Responsibility Project

...The Responsibility Project ETH 316 The Responsibility Project Searching the Responsibility Project website I found several videos of importance when it came down to ethical principles and organizational ethics. One video of an organization stood out from the rest. This video represented a company called Greyston Bakery. Greyston Bakery was founded in 1982 by a Zen Buddhist meditation group led by Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, a former aerospace engineer with an entrepreneurial spirit and a bold vision. The group borrowed money to open a storefront bakery in the Bronx, Their original goal- to produce quality, locally made products that would give the group sustainable, satisfying livelihood- soon inspired a socially responsible business extending opportunity to others. The where several key issues in this short film that caught my attention and ones I believe to be inspiring to any business. The first issue is Greyston Bakery has an open hiring mentality. Open hiring is about giving their local residents a second chance at life by hiring people who were or are down on their luck. These could be local residents that have had drug or criminal backgrounds and Greyston Bakery is an organization giving these people a second chance on their futures. By hiring these certain individual Greyston Bakery is giving back to the community in times when a community needs it the most. Greyston Bakery’s profits support their own foundation the Greyston Foundation this foundation is truly one...

Words: 807 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

The Responsibility Project

...The Responsibility Project Earlene Espy ETH 316 December 10, 2013 Donna Craft The Responsibility Project At the top of discussion in various arenas such as schools, work, church, and casual fellowship; is how ethical principles are being used to address organizational issues. Ethical principles can be applied in numerous ways that will establish a strong organizational structure that employees on all levels of hierarchy will appreciate and value. This paper will discuss the short film, “Greyston Bakery” and focus on why are the issues in the film important. As well as what role do external social pressures have in influencing organizational ethics? Wrapping up the paper, a look at how these issues are relevant to organizational and personal decisions along with the relationship between legal and ethical issues as shown in film (UOP, 2013). Film: Greyston Bakery The Greyston Bakery located in Yonkers New York is known for their gourmet sweets that populate restaurants to the White House but this organization started a social experiment over two decades ago (CBS News, 2010). Julius Walls Jr., President and CEO of Greyston Bakery, states “there is more substance to the organization besides the famous brownie recipe” (Liberty Mutual, 2010). The organization conducts business with the use of a balance between a double bottom-line model. The use of this model allows Greyston Bakery profits to support Greyston Foundation, an organization with ethical principles...

Words: 1069 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Eth 316 Week 3 Organizational Issues

...The Responsibility Project 1 RUNNING HEAD: The Responsibility Project The Responsibility Project ETH 316 January 27, 2014 Professor Mary Sortino The Responsibility Project 2 The Responsibility Project A short film was chosen to view on the Responsibility Project website. The film chosen was named Greyston Bakery. The film highlights some very important issues concerning business and their place within their community. The film explores how external social pressures influenced the organizational ethics of the bakery and its management. These issues have proven relevant to both personal and organizational decision making. The film also presents the viewer with information regarding the relationship between ethics and the law as they pertain to business operation. The short film is about Greyston Bakery which is famous for the brownies it makes and sells. Despite the success of the brownie Greyston CEO Julius Walls Jr wants people to be aware of what is happening behind the scenes at his company. He views the profits of his company as the means to supporting a mission. Walls Jr classifies Greyton as a social enterprise in which there are two bottom lines, one for profits and one for a social mission. The film presents the external social pressure of giving back to the community. Greyston Bakery focuses one of its social efforts on providing employment to people within its own community using an open hiring process. Open hiring allows an opportunity for employment to anyone...

Words: 890 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

The Rersponsibility Project

...The Responsibility Project Sharon Lewis ETH/316 May 21, 2012 Michael Mc Neal The Responsibility Project The issues in the film are important because ethical principles are what shape and define the values of any organization. The Responsibility Project is what Liberty Mutual has addressed to put together a program that helps those in need in the communities around them and to better themselves as well. This is one company that has gone above and beyond to help those within their community. The need and desire to improve and to make a better life for their children is what Greyston Bakery has in mind. They are a for-profit business that has a bottom line that they go by: “We don’t hire people to make brownies; we make brownies in order to hire people” (Greyston Bakery, 2011). They hire those people that might be considered “hard to employ”. They are part of a foundation that helps individuals get back on their feet and get their lives together as a way to succeed. This bakery is just one of the Foundation’s enterprises in which its program is capable of reaching 2,200 community members annually. The Greyston Bakery was founded in 1982 by a Zen Buddhist meditation group that was led by Bernard Tetsugen Glassman. Glassman who was a former aerospace engineer had an entrepreneurial spirit and a bold vision. He borrowed $300,000 and opened the small bakery in the Bronx. His original goal had been to produce quality, locally made products that would give...

Words: 755 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

The Responsibility Project

...The Responsibility Project The Responsibility Project ETH 316 The Responsibility Project A short film was chosen to view on the Responsibility Project website. The film chosen was named Greyston Bakery. The ethical principles in the film is used to address organizational issues. The two biggest issues located in the film is given. The importance of the issues located in the film is explained. The role of external social pressures occurred on Greyston Bakery show how social pressures effects the organizational ethics. Three reasons why the issues are relevant to the organization and personal decisions is given as well. The relationship between legal and ethical issues located in the film is produced along with explanation of how domains can conflict and possible solutions to end the conflict. The short film is about Greyston Bakery in which shows how the bakery supports the community. The bakery gives back to the community from profits of the bakery goods sold (Liberty Mutual, 2010). The biggest item sold is the brownie they have that is used in the social enterprise in direction to reach social and profit mission (Liberty Mutual, 2010). The biggest issues in the film is open hiring and community development. Open hiring allows the business to hire people within the community to provide a opportunity to allow people employment regardless of past history (Liberty Mutual, 2010). Community development is developed by using profits...

Words: 1126 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Ethics

...Week 3 Ethics In todays society businesses are under the impression that the community owes them for their establishment and for what they bring to the town or city. In the film, Greyston Brownies, I assessed, the film deals with the issues of the direction that Greyston Brownie business was building towards. These issues were very unique and unselfish when considering the state of the economy. While watching the clip of the CEO of Greyston talking about how their business is set up to serve the community; not for the community to serve the business ("Greyston bakery. the," 2009). He explained how over time the views of the world have changed from a religious perspective to a social perspective and how currently business has overtaken cities and towns. The major factor behind Greyston is that it has a split bottom line, which means that it has a social mission and a profit mission. Their social mission is to open their doors to struggling members of their community and the profit mission is to make sure that the profits from their business are invested towards growing the community development ("Greyston bakery. the," 2009). The film showed the community Greyston Brownies is located in it appears, is a struggling town for many. Some citizens want to work and others don’t show the ambition to support themselves or their families. In the current economy, many cities are fighting this problem. Even though it wasn’t proven during the clip it could have played a major role...

Words: 733 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Wk 3 Greyston Bakery

...Searching the Responsibility Project website I found several videos of importance when it came down to ethical principles and organizational ethics. One video of an organization stood out from the rest. This video represented a company called Greyston Bakery. Greyston Bakery was founded in 1982 by a Zen Buddhist meditation group led by Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, a former aerospace engineer with an entrepreneurial spirit and a bold vision. The group borrowed money to open a storefront bakery in the Bronx, Their original goal- to produce quality, locally made products that would give the group sustainable, satisfying livelihood- soon inspired a socially responsible business extending opportunity to others. The where several key issues in this short film that caught my attention and ones I believe to be inspiring to any business. The first issue is Greyston Bakery has an open hiring mentality. Open hiring is about giving their local residents a second chance at life by hiring people who were or are down on their luck. These could be local residents that have had drug or criminal backgrounds and Greyston Bakery is an organization giving these people a second chance on their futures. By hiring these certain individual Greyston Bakery is giving back to the community in times when a community needs it the most. Greyston Bakery’s profits support their own foundation the Greyston Foundation this foundation is truly one of a kind in itself. The foundation serves their community by offering...

Words: 781 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Greystone

...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...

Words: 811 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Training and Development

...internal and external recruiting. Distinguish among the major selection methods and use the most legally defensible of them. 121 Make staffing decisions that maximize the hiring and promotion of the best people. El Understand the legal constraints on the hiring process. Specialty Cabinets Company had rapidly expanded from a two-person operation to a small business with 28 employees. This thriving business catered to those who needed high-end cabinet work in custom-built homes or office buildings. Specialty had been able to attract highly trained carpenters; however, the company's president realized that Specialty needed to hire an additional manager. She gave George Zoran, a senior supervisor with strong interpersonal skills, the responsibility for hiring the new manager. George posted the opening on the company bulletin board and put an ad online and in the "Help Wanted" section of the local newspaper and soon received numerous applications. George was particularly impressed with one candidate, Tim Wells. Tim had never worked in carpentry, but George thought Tim seemed personable and had sufficient managerial experience 146 Chapter 5: Recruiting and Selecting Employees 147 and ambition to handle the job. Interestingly, George also learned that Tim was the son of an old school friend. He thoroughly enjoyed telling Tim about hunting trips he had taken with Tim's father. On the next round of interviews, George took Tim on a tour of the business operation and offered him...

Words: 20651 - Pages: 83

Premium Essay

Bren&Jerry Case Study

...FREEZING OUT BEN & JERRY: CORPORATE LAW AND THE SALE OF A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE ICON Antony Page* & Robert A. Katz**† INTRODUCTION The perfect duo. Ice cream and chunks. Business and social change. Ben and Jerry.1 Nobody wants to end up like Ben and Jerry’s, where soon after a multinational acquired it, key facets of its social mission were cut from the company.2 Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc. was once the darling of proponents of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship.3 It was a for-profit corporation that seemingly did not put profits first. Rather, it pursued, in the parlance, a “double bottom” line, seeking to advance progressive social goals, while still yielding an acceptable financial return for investors. It advanced its social mission in many ways, such as by committing 7.5% of its profits to a charitable foundation; conducting in-store voter registration; and buying ingredients from suppliers who employed disadvantaged populations.4 Ben & Jerry’s founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, held out their double bottom line approach (they called it the “double-dip”) as a model for others who wished to “Lead With [their] Values and Make Money, Too.”5 * Professor of Law at Indiana University School of Law—Indianapolis. ** Professor of Law at Indiana University School of Law—Indianapolis and Professor of Philanthropic Studies at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy. † Thanks to the organizers of the symposium “Corporate Creativity: The Vermont L3C & Other...

Words: 21309 - Pages: 86

Premium Essay

Corporate Social Responsibility

...Criteria for Ethical Decision Making Utilitarian Approach Individualism Approach Moral Rights Approach Justice Approach Factors Affecting Ethical Choices The Manager The Organization What Is Social Responsibility? Organizational Stakeholders The Ethic of Sustainability and the Natural Environment Evaluating Corporate Social Performance Economic Responsibilities Legal Responsibilities Ethical Responsibilities Discretionary Responsibilities Managing Company Ethics and Social Responsibility Ethical Individuals Ethical Leadership Organizational Structures and Systems Ethical Challenges in Turbulent Times Economic Performance Social Entrepreneurship Managerial Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Define ethics and explain how ethical behavior relates to behavior governed by law and free choice. Explain the utilitarian, individualism, moral rights, and justice approaches for evaluating ethical behavior. Describe how individual and organizational factors shape ethical decision making. Define corporate social responsibility and how to evaluate it along economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary criteria. Describe four organizational approaches to environmental responsibility, and explain the philosophy of sustainability. Discuss how ethical organizations are created through ethical leadership and organizational structures and systems. Identify important stakeholders for...

Words: 21252 - Pages: 86