Interrelationship of Business and Society

Running head: INTERRELATIONSHIP OF BUSINESS AND SOCIETY
INTERRELATIONSHIP OF BUSINESS AND SOCIETY
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INTERRELATIONSHIP OF BUSINESS AND SOCIETY1
Part A: Stakeholders and Interrelationships
Answer 1:
Business and society are interrelated to each other. It is important for businesses to keep
in mind the effects of their actions on the environment (Muratovski 2015). In the case of Coca
Cola’s “water neutrality initiative”, the company was accused of using excessive water resources
to prepare their beverages and as result of which the underground water was being depleted.
People expected that the world’s largest company would provide them with safe and secure
drinks however; they were also accused of contaminating their drinks with pesticides. This
created a performance expectation gap. In the wake of the situation, TCCC decided to take
certain necessary steps. It shut the bottling plant in Kerala and the company too decided to invest
in water conservation projects to include usage of rainwater to facilitate the irrigation process. In
another case, women in rural areas have been using wood and cow dungs for cooking. This
causes a lot of smoke that affects their health and causes harm to their eyes that can lead to
blindness. The government is planning to introduce clean gas stoves for cooking. The United
Nations had joined hands with the authorities and planned to provide 100 million gas stoves by
2020.
Workplace diversity has also become an important area of concern. Businesses should
consider people from all races and colour as it helps in getting to know people from all cultures
and increases mutual respect (Martin 2014). It also helps in promoting business. People from
different backgrounds bring in different skilled abilities that can help in promoting the products
and increase their financial power. It is also important for the companies develop ethical
standards. For example, a locally paramilitary group threatened a Cincinnati based food company

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Chiquita to pay them monthly protection payments otherwise; they would harm their banana
workers.
Answer 2:
Businesses can face many problems while facing the needs and the conflicts of the
stakeholders. The stakeholders may be resistant to face changes in the organisation and to share
information with the partners (Oni-Ojo et al. 2014). The stakeholders may show their interest in
attending the meetings and the workshops held by the employees of the organisation however,
they might not share the information and it can become an extremely difficult job to get the
information out from them. There are various reasons as to why the stakeholders become so
resistant to share information. The first reason can be their resistance to change, as they may
prefer their own working process instead of changing. There can be a problem of office politics
of which the business analyst might be unaware. They might also not share information as they
may feel the fear of being replaced. Another challenge in resolving the demands and needs of the
stakeholders can be held by the fact that they might not disclose their real needs. If the needs of
the stakeholders are not met accordingly and there is any kind of mistranslation then there can be
a fear of the projects failing. This can happen in many ways. Firstly, the stakeholders instead of
providing the real requirements of the project may describe their wish list. They may provide the
requirements on those areas in which they do not hold any kind of expertise. Another problem
that the businesses face is that the stakeholders may either accept or decline the requirements if
another stakeholder holds different views from him (Prajogo 2016). For example, when a
company hires an unauthorized immigrant in the organisation, it creates a problem for many
stakeholders in the company. The stakeholders that are majorly hurt by this employment are the
native employees. They lose their chance in getting the job and as result; they may become

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aggressive and hostile. The stakeholders who are benefitted by the hiring of these employees are
the owners of the company, the investors and the shareholders. This is because this reduces the
financial expenses of the company as the immigrants agree to work for minimum wages and also
minimizes human labour. Therefore, from the perspective of the owners, it is beneficial for the
company to hire unauthorized immigrant workers.
Answer 3:
For the proper functioning of any business organisation, there should be a proper
interaction between the stakeholders and all the people who are affected by the business. This
interaction between the stakeholders and all the people involved with the business is referred to
as the “circles of reflection”. This representation exemplifies the influence that every stakeholder
has on the organisation (Bourne 2015). The first circle or the innermost circle is the individual or
the family itself and their perspectives that of the problem at hand. The next immediate circle is
the perspective of the company on the issue. The company and the individual form the innermost
part of the circle. As one moves towards the outer and external parts of the circle, the
perspectives and the impact of the issue becomes a much broader concept and the people do no
give much importance to them until and unless they affect them in a more direct way. For
example, the natural calamity creating havoc in Asia would not be much of a global problem, as
it will not have any effect on the individuals and the family living in another country. There is a
great importance of the circle of reflection in any business organisation as it determines how the
power would be distributed among the numerous stakeholders of the company. The circle has
different intersections that include a problem definition, the planning process, the
implementation of the plans and the evaluation. All these intersection points represent the
various stakeholders of the company. An individual or the company can change their perspective