Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics in The Corporation Documentary

This essay discusses the significance of corporate social responsibility and business ethics in the documentary The Corporation. It explores the relation between corporate behavior and corporate responsibilities and how they impact the image of the business, its shareholders, society, and the entire economy.

BUSINESSES LAWS AND
ETHICS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Corporate Social Responsibility .......................................................................................3
Business Ethics..................................................................................................................3
Discussion of statement.....................................................................................................4
The Corporation.................................................................................................................4
Corporate Behaviour..........................................................................................................5
Relation between Corporate Behaviour and Corporate Responsibilities.........................5
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Corporate social responsibility refers to making policies and regulations keeping in view
environmental care and public interests so that maximum value can be delivered to customers. It
represents the behaviour of the company or shows the activities that lead by organisation to
protect natural environment, resources in order to retain strong brand image in external
environment. “The Corporation” is a documentary movie based on the challenges of business
ethics and responsibility that are face firm towards its shareholders and the outer world.
Following essay will discuss the corporate social responsibilities, corporate behaviour
individually and the relation between social responsibility/irresponsibility and corporate
behaviour as showed in the documentary “ The corporation”.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) can be defined as accountability of the business
towards its stockholders, itself and the people. Business have to manage its goodwill to survive
in the corporate world (Tamvada, 2020). Socially Responsible companies have regulations that
benefits the society and environment. These responsibilities have positive impact on the outer
world. People are more likely to buy shares and products or services of social responsible
companies that lead in increasing profitability of the business. Making corporate Social
responsibilities as a part of Company took a lot of efforts which include reducing waste, saving
or conserving water, providing employees a good healthy environment, obtaining organic
resources, Saving Electricity and other practices that are beneficial socially and environmentally.
Concept of social responsibilities has different terms i.e. social accounting, corporate
citizenship, corporate responsibility, sustainable business and corporate social performances
(Gheraia, Saadaoui and Abdelli, 2021). Corporate Social Responsibilities are divided into three
parts economic, legal and ethical responsibilities.
Business Ethics
Business Ethics are the values and principle of the firm on which actions of company are
based (Ferrell, and et.al, 2019). It deals with internal values of the firm which also include social
responsibilities. In a business, ethics refers to the code of conduct that make a business socially
responsible. It helps in evaluating what is good or bad for the business in the decision-making.
Consideration of ethics is how an individual should behave morally while the values refer to
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how an individual actually behave. In companies, strategies are made on the basis of ethics as
well as the moral values that are used by firm while performing its different task or activities.
Discussion of statement
In order to discuss the significance of the given statement, corporate social
responsibilities is not just about being good for the society or environment. It is investment
undertaken by company with an aim to enjoy returns such as engaged employees, loyal
customers, positive public attention. A socially and economically responsible company, draw the
attention of the consumer towards it, thereby helps in keeping workers motivated. Being social
responsible contribute in influence others as well workplace, marketplace supply chain and the
public policy. Good environment of the company is key to smoothly and continuous progress of
work. The firm that are socially and economically responsible are getting good response because
if someone is doing good then people want to be part of organization for meeting their respective
expectancy.. Transparency is also a major part of being socially responsible as it let know
customer about the manner in which company is contributing toward creating value in society.
Thus, it puts a great impact on the image of the company so organizations know the benefits of
responsibility. They are doing more and more for the society in the race of being more active
and to seek attention of customers in order to get more profit.
The Corporation
The Corporation is a documentary film that shows the transformation of business and
challenges, since the corporation has been given the rights of a legal person to the present day
and future estimates. It begins with the 14th amendment which states that under constitutional
law, corporations are seen as individual person. This documentary aimed to archive economic
goals. Its philosophical issues were ethics and corporate responsibilities. The film is focused on
how modern business firms are in greed to gain more and more profit without knowing how it is
affecting the interest of workers, society and environment. The role of a business in a society
and its responsibilities towards the people, the government, environment and how modern
companies are dealing with such challenges. “The corporation” covers some major topics of the
corporate world. Some of them leave a question of Corporation –Individual or Institution ? And
others are related to Advertising and Marketing, The Corporation as Government, Responsibility
of production, product use.
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Corporate Behaviour
Corporate behaviour refers to the activities of the firm which impact the image of the
business, its shareholders, society and entire economy (McKenna, 2020). It involves Corporate
social responsibilities, legal rules and ethical code of conduct. There are seven Principles of
corporate behaviour that many firms follow in addition to create a good image of the company
(Principles Of Corporate Behavior, 2021). Principles of corporate behaviour include pursuing
customer satisfaction, fostering diverse values and team work, ensuring effective governance
and compliance. It also includes key activities such as the preserving the natural environment,
creating a healthy and fair work environment. Likewise, it ensure in which human rights are
represented and ensuring the security of the people, assets and information.
Behaviour of any organization towards its employees or society has a huge impact on the
profit and shareholders of the firm. “ The Corporation” movie shows the behaviour of the
business as an individual which only focuses on the profit that had bad impact on the image of
the firm. Modern corporates have caused damage in many ways including child labour, low
wages, manipulative advertising, unhealthy food and environmental damage.
Relation between Corporate Behaviour and Corporate Responsibilities
Corporate responsibilities of a company shows the accountability of that firm towards
any area majorly socially and corporate Behaviour refers to the legal rules, ethics of the business
that shows business goals or interest. When a firm takes a responsibility to change something it
has to bring change in its behaviour first (Sroka, and Szántó, 2018). CSR and Corporate
Behaviour are directly connected to each other. According to the statement social responsibility
represents the value and future returns to the corporate. Movie “ the corporation” guide us to the
present situation of the corporate world and how every firm has been fell into the well of greed.
Part of a Documentary address harmful product and product use such as Monsanto, is an product
created by company which it knew that they were harmful for humans and animals.
Furthermore, the statement says that being responsible means being good or respecting
the ethics of the company that results in building customer loyalty, retaining good employees,
creating positive work environment and avoid legal problems(Amor-Esteban, García-Sánchez,
and Galindo-Villardón, 2018). In context of the film “the corporation” being socially responsible
helps a lot to everyone inside and outside of the business firm. Movie shows the affect of not
being social responsible. The causes of being socially irresponsible by the scene where chemical
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pills were given to cows for increase the productivity of the milk that had a great side effect on
the consumer. It showed that every corporate should take a social responsibility because that is
the only way to make world a better place. The behaviour of business is a core to its success
because behaviour of the business makes the workers motivated and it also helps in the goodwill
of the company.
Inspired from the book of Joel Bakan, the film state that since the company has been
declared as individual person and has given rights of a legal person. It has made lot of profits but
caused too much harm to the society. Firms nowadays are in a manner that earn from taking
social corporate responsibility as mentioned in the given statement. The ethics of company in the
film was devastating, as it was just aiming to increase its shareholder and profits. They
manipulated children by advertisement, used chemical in products. The irresponsibility and the
negative image of corporate firms are discussed in the documentary. Corporate behaviour and
corporate social responsibility are directly proportionate to each other. If business has a Social
responsibility towards the shareholders, and the society it will result in a good behaviour of that
firm. Ethics of the corporation is the root of both social behaviour and social responsibility. A
business need to be responsible in respect of having a good reputation in the market. Action
towards making better environment for workplace, use of organic products and contributing in
social welfare is the key to a success for organization in competitive environment. “ The
Corporation” also suggest the companies should be responsible to take a step towards use of
chemical free products and stop manipulating customers to increase the sale of the product. If a
corporate firm is legal person, be a good one.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it can be concluded that social and environmental responsibilities are
necessary to follow in order to keep shareholders connected. The behaviour of the corporate has
always been image of the firm. In the context of the given movie it was confirmed that the role
of a business in a society and its responsibilities towards the people, the government, and
environment are being collapsed in the greed of earning profit. The relation between the
corporate social responsibility and the corporate behaviour create good opportunities for the
business thus it is vice versa presented in the documentary.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Advantage, C., 2020. Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR and Socially Responsible Investing
Strategies in Transitioning and Emerging Economies. 65.
Amor-Esteban, V., García-Sánchez, I.M. and Galindo-Villardón, M.P., 2018. Analysing the
effect of legal system on corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the country level,
from a multivariate perspective. Social Indicators Research. 140(1). pp.435-452.
Ferrell, O.C., and et.al, 2019. Business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and brand
attitudes: An exploratory study. Journal of Business Research. 95. pp.491-501.
McKenna, E., 2020. Business psychology and organizational behaviour. Routledge.
Sroka, W. and Szántó, R., 2018. Corporate social responsibility and business ethics in
controversial sectors: Analysis of research results. Journal of Entrepreneurship,
Management and Innovation. 14(3). pp.111-126.
Tamvada, M., 2020. Corporate social responsibility and accountability: a new theoretical
foundation for regulating CSR. International Journal of Corporate Social
Responsibility. 5(1). pp.1-14.
Online
Gheraia, Z., Saadaoui, S., and Abdelli, H., 2021. [Online]. Available through :
<https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=95926>
Principles Of Corporate Behavior, 2021. [Online]. Available through :
<https://global.epson.com/company/epson_way/principle/>
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