Answer to Question #223379 in English for Zee

Question

QUESTION 1 (15 MARKS)

The key elements of a pluralistic society are decentralization and diversity of power. Using what you know about the South African society, do you consider it to be a pluralistic society? Why or why not?

QUESTION 2 (20 MARKS)

Choose a particular corporation and describe the power it wields in different spheres. During your discussion, make sure that you indicate the level of power which matches a specific sphere and lastly, highlight if this business abuses its power?

QUESTION 3 (15 MARKS)

Using the managerial approach deliberated in the textbook, discuss the topic of ecological damage and sustainability as they relate to business?

QUESTION 4 (10 MARKS)

Distinguish between the concepts of corporate social responsibility, corporate social responsiveness, corporate social performance, and corporate citizenship. How are these ideas different from each other? How are they similar?

Answer 1

QUESTION 1.

South Africa is a pluralistic society comprising different social groups and systems of personal law and cultural or religious beliefs, all of which are constitutionally protected against any form of unfair discrimination. A pluralistic society is a diverse one, where the people in it believe all kinds of different things and tolerate each other's beliefs even when they don't match their own. A pluralist democracy describes a political system where there is more than one center of power. Modern democracies are by definition pluralist as democracies allow freedom of association. In a democratic society, individuals achieve positions of formal political authority by forming successful electoral coalitions. Pluralism is defined as a society where multiple people, groups or entities share political power. An example of pluralism is a society where people with different cultural backgrounds keep their own tradition. An example of pluralism is where labor unions and employers share in meeting the needs of employees.

QUESTION 2.

In recent years, many organizations have embraced corporate social responsibility (CSR), a philosophy in which the company’s expected actions include not only producing a reliable product, charging a fair price with fair profit margins, and paying a fair wage to employees, but also caring for the environment and acting on other social concerns. Many corporations work on prosocial endeavors and share that information with their customers and the communities where they do business. CSR, when conducted in good faith, is beneficial to corporations and their stakeholders. This is especially true for stakeholders that have typically been given low priority and little voice, such as the natural environment and community members who live near corporate sites and manufacturing facilities.

CSR in its ideal form focuses managers on demonstrating the social good of their new products and endeavors. It can be framed as a response to the backlash corporations face for a long track record of harming environments and communities in their efforts to be more efficient and profitable. Pushback is not new. Charles Dickens wrote about the effects of the coal economy on nineteenth-century England and shaped the way we think about the early industrial revolution. The twentieth-century writer Chinua Achebe, among many others, wrote about colonization and its transformative and often painful effect on African cultures. Rachel Carson first brought public attention to corporation’s chemical poisoning of U.S. waterways in her 1962 book Silent Spring.

Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963) critiqued the way twentieth-century industrialization boxed women into traditional roles and limited their agency. Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening (1899) and the nineteenth-century novels of Jane Austen had already outlined how limited options were for women despite massive social and economic shifts in the industrializing West. Stakeholder communities left out of or directly harmed by the economic revolution have demanded that they be able to influence corporate and governmental economic practices to benefit more directly from corporate growth as well as entrepreneurship opportunities. The trend to adopt CSR may represent an opportunity for greater engagement and involvement by groups mostly ignored until now by the wave of corporate economic growth reshaping the industrialized world.

QUESTION 3.

In business, sustainability refers to doing business without negatively impacting the environment, community, or society as a whole.

Sustainability in business generally addresses two main categories:

• The effect business has on the environment
• The effect business has on society

The goal of a sustainable business strategy is to make a positive impact on at least one of those areas. When companies fail to assume responsibility, the opposite can happen, leading to issues like environmental degradation, inequality, and social injustice.

Sustainable businesses consider a wide array of environmental, economic, and social factors when making businesses decisions. These organizations monitor the impact of their operations to ensure that their short-term profits don’t turn into long-term liabilities.

Example of sustainability in business.

Many successful organizations participate in sustainable business practices, however, no two strategies are exactly the same.

Sustainable business strategies are unique to each organization as they tie into larger business goals and organizational values. Below are a few examples of what sustainability in business can look like.

• Using sustainable materials in the manufacturing process
• Optimizing supply chain to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Relying on renewable energy sources to power facilities
• Sponsoring education funds for youth in the local community

Why is sustainability important.

Beyond helping curb global challenges, sustainability can drive business success. Several investors today use environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics to analyze an organization’s ethical impact and sustainability practices. Investors look at factors such as a company’s carbon footprint, water usage, community development efforts, and board diversity.

QUESTION 4.

The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) concept focuses on economic, legal, ethical

and philanthropic responsibility. First of all, the main purpose of CSR is to maximize profits,

improve business performance and contribute to society. The second one is legal, which means

corporations are responsible for performing their work legally. Thirdly, the corporations need to

be ethical, which implies they should preserve and develop the company culture, and protect the rights of workers, anti-corruption and the environment. Finally, philanthropic responsibility

means they should provide some voluntary activities such as corporate giving, products or

services donations or partnerships with local government to improve the quality of life in society.

While the CSR emphasizes on obligation and accountability, the Corporate Social

Responsiveness just emphasizes on actions and activities. It simplifies the corporations or

organizations are responsible for each action that they do, so they need to determine their true

responsibilities before they take actions. Another concept is Corporate Social Performance

(CSP), which indicates the way the corporations face with the responsibility associated with

actions to achieve acceptable outcomes or results. The CSP model brings the responsibility and

responsiveness dimensions together into a framework that also clarifies categories of social or

stakeholder issues that must be considered.