Tuesday, May 5, 2020

A Critical Corporate Social Responsibility - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the A Critical Corporate Social Responsibility. Answer: Ethical Issue Various ethical issues related to garment industry in Indian have been discussed in the documentary Blood, Sweat T-shirt. The ethical issues are associated with the worst condition of the Indian garment industry. The miserable condition is everywhere, starting from the working environment of the garment industry, the behavior of the management of the top class garment industry in Delhi, cheapest labor and poor wages and illegal child employment (Shibboleth Authentication Request, 2017). These are the common problem in the Indian garment industry; especially the poor wages of the workers and sometimes it is seen that in some of the factories, children below the age of 18 are working, which is illegal in Indian subcontinent. A group of high street fashion victims starts to explore the Indian garment industry. They want to know the cloths that they wear, how is it made and who made that? They come to India and visit some of the garment factories in India. They start to live and earn li ke a garment labor of India. While they visited the top class garment factory in New Delhi, they have faced poor wages of the workers and miserable and non-friendly attitude of the management. After that, they came to a backstreet workshop in West Delhi where many migrant tailors work. Here the main ethical issues that were discussed are poor working condition of the labor and very basic payment. Here the workers can work up to 15 hours a day; however, they earn as little as 15 pence per garment (Shibboleth Authentication Request, 2017). Poor wage and cheap labor were the similar problem in the cotton firm of Hariyana. The major ethical issue faced by this six people was child labor, which was shown when this group visit Dharivi situated in the Business city Mumbai and the largest slum in Asia. Broad View of Corporate Social Responsibility The Broad view of the CSR is involved with taking responsibilities towards the community and society apart from fulfilling tier primary objective, which is profit maximization in business (Carroll, 2015). Every corporate should be obliged to fulfill its duty for the society, community and environment. Broad view of Corporate Social Responsibility captures the effort of the corporate to make the condition of the society better. In this broad view, the corporate want to address the negative side of the society and eradicate the problem by their business practices. This view opposes the classical view of the CSR and incorporates the socio-economic perspective of the business. This view also considers that the business organization is part of our society. Therefore, it should fulfill its responsibilities by performing the duties towards the society apart from the profit maximization (Crane, Matten Spence, 2013). Financial aspect of the business or the profit maximization does not necess arily fulfill the responsibilities and liabilities of towards the society. Narrow View of Corporate Social Responsibility Narrow view of the CSR considers the only goal of the business organizations and entities is to maximize their profit. This is the classical view regarding the social liabilities in businesses. According to this view, the companies are the business entities and economic organization, which want to make profit (Schwartz Saiia, 2012). They consider their goal towards the society is to provide the best possible services and necessary goods and in return, they will create the maximum amount of profit, which should e provided to the shareholders. According to the Noble Prize Winner and Economist Milton Friedman, the unique responsibility of the managers of the firms is to operate the business operation in such a way that satisfies the shareholders interest (Carroll Buchholtz, 2014). The maximization of the profit should coincide with satisfaction of the shareholders. The clothing retailers who buy goods from the Indian factory incorporate a narrow view of Corporate Social Responsibility. They buy cloths in exchange of money. The retailers only show their profits and maximize their profit in any way. They never consider the social responsibilities and well-being of the workers of the Indian factory. They consider themselves as the economic organization and engage in business to create maximum amount of profit, which would be distributed among the shareholders of the business. Argument that justifies the Narrow View One of the arguments that are used to justify taking the narrow view of the corporate social responsibility is the invisible hand argument. In this argument, Adam Smith has discussed that in the free market, business organization should promote their profit-based self-interest where economy leads a major role (Hack, Kenyon Wood, 2014). According to him, in acting like this, the business organization is guided by an invisible-hand (Schwartz Saiia, 2012). The corporations are made to fulfill the business of their own and that is the greatest responsibility of them. However, forcing the corporation about fulfilling their CSR duty will reduce their capability to produce the material requirement of the society and in an evitable result; they will fail to fulfill our well-being, as their essential responsibility is to satisfy the material needs of the society. The corporations have their economic goals and fulfilling that goal will help them to satisfy their social duty. They do not need to satisfy their moral goal. By fulfilling the economic goal the organization, promote the general good and well-being of the society in anyway. Thus, the organizations are performing the social responsibility. Argument that justifies the Broad View Argument that justifies the broad view of the CSR is that with great power it is expected from an organization to perform grate responsibilities towards society. Organizations in the todays world are large and powerful, influential entities. They have huge economic power. With the power, the organizations are bound to behave ethically as responsibilities should come with huge power (Carroll Buchholtz, 2014). The ethical behavior includes making social well-being and doing welfare for the society. The broad view of the CSR encompasses the social responsibility of the corporate organization. The narrow view of the CSR could be applied in the documentary Blood Sweat T-shirt in a way that the shareholders or managers of the Indian garment factories are more concerned about making their own profit. However, the invisible hand theory could best be applied in the free market economy and in this case; India is a mixed market economy. The business organizations of the garment industry of India are more interested to fulfill their own profit-based business interest where economy leads a major role. As the actions and roles of the private garment industry owners of India are only concerned to make their own profit by minimizing the wages of the workers and providing poor working environment, thus the theory of the Adam Smith could be applied in these factors of the documentary. In this case, the invisible hand is related to create a garment business chain in Indian free market economy where the business holders are export their goods internationally and in this way the invisible hand help them to make their own profit. These organizations of India are doing well-being in the society by fulfilling their own economic goals according to the theory of Adam Smith. The broad view of the CSR could be applied in the documentary Blood Sweat and T-shirt in a way that individual is acting like an economic organization and contributing towards the well-being of the society. In the documentary, no national or international corporate organizations take the initiatives to help the poor child labor of Indian factory. The employment of the child labor is seen in Dharivi, which is the largest slum of Asia and many workers including some children work in the garment factories located in Dharivi. Amrita and Stacy in this documentary have acted like an organization and started to collect money to help in the education and well-being of the poor children in India who worked as the labors in the garment industry. The broad view of the CSR discussed in this paper encompasses the responsibilities of the business organizations towards the well-being of the society. In the documentary, Stacy and Amrita who live in the developed country sell some products and make m oney to help the children of India, which takes the broad view of the CSR. Ethics of Care The Ethics of Care is part of the normative ethical theory, which states that interpersonal relationships and benevolence is the centre of moral action. Some of the beliefs in this theory are interpersonal dependence of the human being in society (Crane Matten, 2016). The broad view of the CSR discussed in this paper could be related to the ethics of care as the broad view encompasses the interpersonal relationship between Amrita and Stacy with the poor children in India who would work as child labor in the garment factories in India. In the documentary, all the six members have felt about the poor labor condition of the garment industry. Among them, especially Amrita and Stacy have tried to organize some money that could be helpful for the education of the Indian child labor. The interpersonal relationship and the moral action of benevolence in the members of the foreign group and their contribution towards the Indian society in the documentary correlate the ethics of care and the broad view of the CSR. Professional Moral Obligations The business professional should have some responsibilities and duties towards the society and well-being of the Individual according to the broad view of the CSR (Hack, Kenyon Wood, 2014). These responsibilities are their professional moral obligation. The moral obligations of the professionals could make a difference to the lives of the Indian workers. If the business professionals employ money towards the development of the basic life style or in the education of the workers that would be helpful for them to grow and lead a comfortable life. The working condition and the wages of the Indian workers are very bad. The business professionals who are the part of the society and could behave like the economic organization should be obliged to fulfill some of the moral responsibilities towards the well-being of the society. the Indian workers are also the part of the society and they do not have money for leading their basic life style. The business professionals in this scenario could provide their help towards the welfare of the workers. As a professional business person I could influence the changes of the Indian workers and I would feel that it is my responsibility to help others. References Carroll, A. B. (2015). Corporate social responsibility.Organizational dynamics,44(2), 87-96. Carroll, A., Buchholtz, A. (2014).Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education. Crane, A., Matten, D. (2016).Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press. Crane, A., Matten, D., Spence, L. J. (2013). Corporate social responsibility in a global context. Hack, L., Kenyon, A. J., Wood, E. H. (2014). A Critical Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Timeline: how should it be understood now.International Journal of Management Cases,16(4), 46-55. Schwartz, M. S., Saiia, D. (2012). Should firms go beyond profits? Milton Friedman versus broad CSR.Business and Society Review,117(1), 1-31. Shibboleth Authentication Request. (2017).Edutv-informit-com-au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au. Retrieved 17 December 2017, from https://edutv-informit-com-au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/watch-screen.php?videoID=30312

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