Exam 2: Fundamentals of Management
1. When responding to social responsibility demands a company’s reaction will be classified into one of four categories, which will then disclose how involved and respectable the company is to society. First and worst is to take a reactive approach. Reactive shows inconsideration and negligence by your company with no intentions of taking initiative to make things right. Next, the defensive strategy seems to be the one you see oil and gas companies carry out most commonly. Where once an oil spill or other contamination occurs the news is covered with information of the guilty party, publicizing there negligence so widely they are practically forced to take part in damage control. While they will take part in a cleanup attempt it is rarely fully recovered, or even done out of the company’s desire to make things right. The third and second best strategy for company image is an accommodating strategy. In this case the company admits to wrong doings or problems in society which it has full intentions of correcting. They will take the initiative and go out of the way to make sure all is done that could be expected by them. Lastly is a proactive strategy where a company is reaching out and going above and beyond. This strategy even more so than accommodative can simply be charitable work giving back to society.
2. When making decisions in a corporate structure ethical consideration is hugely important because it can affect so many people, potentially across the globe. Therefore a model is used to check against any potential wrongdoings and make sure there is no visible conflict that could become a problem if the strategy is put into play.
Long-term Self-interest
Personal Virtue
Religious Injunctions
Government Requirements
Utilitarian Benefits
Individual Rights
Distributive Justice
Long-term self-interest is a great start for this decision making process because it insures you have a goal, or maybe a light at the end of the tunnel that you are motivated to reach. Plus when making long-term goals they are rarely negative, most people want good things from life. Therefore my distant goal of becoming a CPA takes away my idle mind (which is the devil’s workshop) and promotes productivity in my life.
Personal virtue is probably the largest and strongest of these aspects to check with for me. Personally in my decision making I’m very quick to stop and think what my parents would think about the choices being made. If they saw me right now, does it look like I appreciate all the opportunities they’ve given me? Am I taking advantage of my chance to get an education, or just wasting their money and efforts to give me every head start.
Religious Injunctions say you shouldn’t make any decisions that would separate or do anything other than unite a community. This sounds simple but the thing is all decisions benefit someone more than another, this emphasizes one party isn’t hurt in the benefit of another. This concept is to bring everyone together and accomplish something as a team and make everyone apart of the successes.
Government Requirements would just be abiding by legal expectations in your decision making. However in my mind I feel this one could somewhat be looked over because if you follow the other steps in this process you should greatly surpass the expectations of the government. Especially when doing business in foreign countries or having production overseas the government bar can be set so low for people’s quality of life. I think this is a great place to take a proactive stance and see the government’s expectation for its people and take it one step further. Whether you make this difference in working conditions, wages, expected hours, or even room and board.
Utilitarian benefits seem like the strongest check point to me in theory. Simply make decisions that do the most good for the most people and be a positive influence in your community. This kind of goes back to the religious