TOYOTA

Building Cleaner, Greener Cars

1. How does Toyota’s approach to social responsibility relate to the three concepts of social responsibility described in the text (profit responsibility, stakeholder responsibility, and societal responsibility)?

In the past, it was believed that companies simply had to serve shareholders by generating profits without any concern for other societal responsibilities. However, today's world expects companies to be concerned with more than profits; instead, companies must consider all stakeholders-the community and the environment in addition to capitalism focused solely on profit responsibility. Toyota has efficiently blended profit responsibility, stakeholder responsibility, and social responsibility in order to create a highly competitive, socially conscious, and profitable company. In terms of serving the organizations shareholders, Toyota has attended profit responsibility by becoming the worlds largest automotive manufacturer and the tenth largest corporation in the world. Profit responsibility entails making the right strategic and ethical move to produce larger profits. Toyota uses diversification like the Lexus line; memorable marketing campaigns, and new vehicle developments like Scion and the Prius to encourage sales that lead to greater profits. The company regularly produces vehicles that sell as the best in their class, leading to profits that are passed on to Toyota's shareholders. However, shareholders are not the only stakeholder group that Toyota focuses on serving and improving. A key aspect of Toyota's missions statement is to “respect people,” (both internally and externally) which the company uses as its guiding principle. Toyota feels that employees are a key stakeholder group, who need to be happy in order to achieve organizational goals. Therefore, employees are encouraged to