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Should an Organization Always Adopt a Broad Stance on Social Responsibility?

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Submitted By sharoneliza
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Unit 4 Question 11-
An organization should always adopt a broad stance on social responsibility. There are arguments for, and against how much an organization should be socially responsible for, but I feel that they should be as responsible as possible without causing too much conflict with the stakeholders. Milton Friedman held the view that the primary responsibility of a business is to make a profit (Friedman, 1970); it is not incumbent on them to be concerned about social problems. CEO’s and their employees may live in the same community as their friends and relatives, so they all have a stake in the success of the organizations. Some of those same people may also be stakeholders in the organization, thus the business must then walk a fine line between supporting a cause, and doing what is best for the stakeholders. The head of the organization, however, is a person in that community, too. He has a family, for whom he is responsible, he goes to church, and has other feelings of responsibility to other things, perhaps a specific charity. The Coca-Cola Company finds itself socially responsible for the people in other parts of the world (The Coca-Cola Company, 2012). They contribute to the community in which the workers live, helping the children get an adequate education, and assisting in improving infrastructures
Organizations take from the community in many ways also. They may, in the process of conducting business, pollute the water; it is then their responsibility to have measures to make the water clean. That is being publicly responsible, and socially responsible. The idea that stakeholders have ultimate control of where profits go is absurd. The CEO has to protect the company, absolutely, but it is also his responsibility to contribute something to society-regardless of whether the stakeholders like it or not. Perhaps to make

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