Of the three views I believe Mackey’s view of corporate responsibility is the most compelling. Mackey’s view is the most compelling for two major reason. First, his view provides a philosophy which balances profitability and social responsibility, while valuing all members of the corporation’s constituencies equally. “The enlightened corporation should try to create value for all…constituencies…At Whole Foods…success [is measured] by [the] value…create[d] for all six of our most important stakeholders: customers, (employees), investors, vendors, communities, and the environment” (Mackey, 2005, p. 147). Second, Mackey’s view demonstrates that business hold a higher purpose than solely maximizing and perpetuating profits. “Business …show more content…
153). Second, the entrepreneurs or founders - not its investors - of the company have the right to define the companies purpose. This a defend of Mackey’s stakeholder view of corporate responsibility since the status and motive behind social responsibility are based on the founding value of the organization. For example, “Whole Foods Market was not created solely to maximize profits for its investors, but to create value for all of its stakeholders” (Mackey, 2005, p. 152). Third, profit is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The finally goal for organizations - with founding values - should be the perpetuation of those values as the core of their corporate responsibility. “Making high profits is the means to the end of fulfilling Whole Foods’ core business mission [of] improv[ing] the health and well-being of everyone…through higher-quality foods and better nutrition, and we can’t fulfill this mission unless we are highly profitable” (Mackey, 2005, p. 153). Fourth, defense discusses the marketability of Friedman’s and Mackey’s statements about social responsibility. If Friedman’s and Mackey’s statements about social responsibility are equivalent than Mackey’s statement about social responsibility is more marketable. The marketability of Mackey’s statement is a tremendous defense as Friedman’s statement that - ‘the social responsibility of business [is] to increase its profits’ - is becoming very unfavorable within modern society. For example, “Both capitalism and corporations are misunderstood, mistrusted, and disliked around the world because of statements like Friedman’s [profit driven] social responsibility. His comment [conjures images of] greedy, selfish, and uncaring [corporations]” (Mackey, 2005, p. 153). For Mackey’s fifth defense he denounces all of the negative claims made by Rodgers through a statements of facts about Whole Foods and a comparison between his and Rodger’s
...esponsibly towards all its stakeholders. We believe that creating value for all our stakeholders is the only sustainable way for us to thrive as an independent, family-owned company. In our new framework and strategy for sustainability and responsibility we aim to integrate this mindset even further into the core operating model of the company (Welcome).”
Lantos, GP, 2001, ‘The boundaries of strategic corporate social responsibility’, The Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 18, no. 7, pp. 595-639.
This essay is an ethnographic study of Whole Foods Market which is located in Kensington, London. Whole Foods Market is a niche supermarket that sells high quality organic and natural products at high prices. In this essay, I will provide a brief orientation of ethics with regards to the concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility - macroethics and Business Ethics - microethics and the theoretical frameworks of consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics. I will be using deontology framework in ethics devised by Immanuel Kant to assess if the marketing strategy and the products sold at Whole Foods Market support their principle of ‘organic and natural’.
John Mackey has a core belief in “Conscious Capitalism” and uses McGregor’s Theory Y to get the most out of his employees. He thinks that if the employees are in charge of their own careers that they will work that much harder. He believes that someone who wants to be at work will positively impact all customer relations which helps the brand maintain its high level of customer satisfaction. The core belief is that happier people doing their jobs will lead to a much higher degree of service for the customers. Happy customers tend to have repeat business and helps the brand grow or maintain their level of business. Mackey also wants employees that have a high degree of ingenuity and creativity. The next great idea will not come from a board meeting but often come from those that work directly in the field. Essentially he wants to make use of eve...
Founder John Mackey strongly believed in Whole Foods’ mission to be very selective about store inventory, sticking to the company’s core values and ensuring that customers had an enjoyable and interactive shopping experience, while keeping with planned strategies that have set them apart from their competitors.
But then here is the question that we might ask, is profit the only element that should be considered when making business decisions? In my point of view, the answer is no as I will try to demonstrate throughout this paper. One quick alternative to what should be the first top priority of a business is creating a customer, Dr. Peter Drucker said. According to him “The customer is the foundation of a business and keeps it in existence”. He alone gives us employment.
When a company decides to execute a strategic decision, the decision will concern its stakeholders, either through the making of the decision itself or through implementation of the decision. Although strategic decisions are generally made "to attain superior performance" (Hill, Charles) improving the welfare of the internal stakeholders, the attainment of this goal may cause the entity to disregard their notion of right and wrong moral principles in order to achieve that goal.
Ciulla, J. B., Martin, C. W., & Solomon, R. C. (2007). Is "The Social Responsibility of Business... to Increase Its Profits"? Social Responsibility and Stakeholder Theory. Honest work: a business ethics reader (pp. 217-253). New York: Oxford University Press.
McDonalds’ corporation is a leader in the fast food industry. Nonetheless, the corporation website has some drawbacks I terms of detailing the company’s social responsibility statements. As opposed to Starbucks, which delineates in a more precise manner its social responsibility statements, McDonald’s does not show its commitment in a clear way. Here are some of the aspects that were impressive when analyzing Starbucks business ethics and compliance standards of business conduct booklet.
The corporate social responsibility is a commitment by a business to contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life for employees and their families’ as-well as contributing to the society. Walmart is a well-known company that offers customers the items they want and need at a low cost, with nearly 4,000 stores in the United States. According to the Fortune 500, Walmart was ranked number 1 in 2015. Just like any other superstore Walmart needs to continue the use of social responsibility by recreating a relationship between business and the community especially if they want to dominate the competition in 2016. The use of sustainability, strategic philanthropy, causing market, shared values, stakeholders and global perspective will help readers understand the purpose of social responsibilities in the corporate world.
Small business owners of fortune 500 companies, democrats, republicans, men and women all have ethical responsibilities that should always be considered. Mc Donald’s is a well-known restaurant around the world. Some people enjoy this fast food restaurant and also have made Mc Donald’s one of the leading fast food companies. Although, Mc Donald may have some tasty food, there are still many critics that think Mc Donald’s may have a lot of ethical issues and company violations. Some consider being ethical is simply defined as knowing the difference between what is considered good and evil. However, ethics is defined as moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior, and the practices that violate them. The practices of unethical behaviors, by various fast food corporations, like McDonalds have become of great concern to our society.
Dahl(1972: 18) “every large corporation should be thought of as a social enterprise: that is an entity whose existence and decisions can be justified insofar as they serve public or social
This is where a firm is more about making money, than it shows concern for the people affected buy their actions and decisions. Whither an employee, the manufacture, or the people in the community they serve. Walmart is a vivid example of this very thing. It is also an example of a firm with a large economic wealth and a low CSR reputation. Even though Walmart operates over 11,000 retail units under 65 banners in 28 countries and employ 2.2 million associates around the world –1.3 million in the United States lone. (Our Locations,
The problem that was investigated consisted of a question that Milton Friedman posed in one of his articles, which was featured in The New York Times Magazine in 1970. The question was, “What does it mean to say that “business” has responsibilities” (Friedman, 2007, p. 173)? Friedman (1970) elaborated on how businesses cannot have assigned responsibilities. Furthermore, he described how groups or individuals should be the only ones that can hold responsibilities, not businesses. He stated that associating responsibilities with the word business is too ambiguous. I will examine three discussion questions and three compare and contrast questions which Jennings (2009) posed in a case study that is related to Friedman’s (1970) article “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits”.
What do people seek in life? Happiness! Everyone is looking to be happy in life. But how does one obtain happiness in business? It is a journey some people seek their whole life. Business is not just a place to go work, but it’s a place to enjoy and put one’s talents to good use. Morrison uses the insights and of Aristotle to bring light in philosophical teachings on business. In the book, If Aristotle ran General Motors, it stated there are four dimensions of human excellence that help one obtain happiness and it is truth, beauty, goodness, and unity (Morris, 1998). Businesses ought to embody these four dimensions of human excellence to sustain business excellence.