Social Responsibility of Business

Social Responsibility of
Business

Contents
Essay topic.......................................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Main body........................................................................................................................................1
Critically discussing the statement using contrasting theories....................................................1
Critically discussing the statement using extended example that illustrates Socially
Responsible behaviour.................................................................................................................4
Evaluate the ethical and sustainability standing of a range of organisations..............................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6

Essay topic
“The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits” (Friedman, 1970). Critically
discuss this statement using contrasting theories and an extended example that illustrates Socially
Responsible behaviour”.
Introduction
Social responsibility is both a theory and an activity which is performed by an organisation
in order to ensure welfare of the society from their operations. According to Friedman, the most
significant social responsibility of an organisation is increase its profits (Brammer, Jackson and
Matten, 2012). This statement analysing social responsibility has various layers to understand. In
order to fulfil this aim, in this essay, various contrasting theories of social responsibility has been
analysed. Later in this essay, extended examples will be evaluated to analyse the organisation’s
Social Responsibility and their sustainability strategy at the operational level.
Main body
Critically discussing the statement using contrasting theories
Social responsibility refers to the responsibilities and duties of an organisation that they are
required to fulfil in order to welfare people who are related with their organisations. There are
several arguments which analyse this topic of social responsibility. The theories of social
responsibility will help in analysing the statement that whether or not profit is the only social
responsibility of an organisation. For this the theories of shareholders and stakeholders will also
be compared below as shareholder theory focuses on earning profit and stakeholder theory
focuses on earning profit and maintaining sustainability. The arguments relating to social
responsibility are diverse due to which few theories of social responsibility are critically
discussed below:
Friedman v Freeman
Friedman’s shareholder theory
Milton Friedman was an Economist who believed that it is important for a nation to have a
free market system and no government intervention in the operations of an organisation.
Friedman developed a doctrine according to which, they only social responsibility of an
organisation is to increase its profits for their shareholders. This theory of Friedman shaped the
corporate culture of 20th century where capitalism and freedom were the agendas of business
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