The Moral Responsibilities Within A Corporation

What is ethically responsible management? How can a corporation, given its economic mission, be managed with appropriate attention to ethical concerns? These are central questions in the field of business ethics. There are two approaches to answering such questions. The first one is Milton Friedman’s shareholder theory of management and the second one is Edwards Freeman’s “Stakeholder” theory of management, two different views about the purpose and aims of a business.

The fundamental ideologies of a capitalist corporation can vary from company to company, but typically all have the same underlying purpose – to make a profit. Often, a business’ ideologies are expressed in the form of an organisational vision or mission statement – a simple statement demonstrating to the public, and reminding the employees, the goal of the organisation. These vision or mission statements usually look at the ‘bigger picture’ of what an organisation wants to achieve. Examples being:

Common stockholders are the basic owners of a corporation, but few stockholders of large corporations take an active role in management. Instead, they elect the corporation’s board of directors to represent their interests. Board members seldom get involved in the day-to-day management of the company. They establish the basic mission and goals of the corporation and appoint

Analyze three of the punishments that corporations undergo when they have acted unethically (i.e., name them, define them, explain what they are). In addition, explain three threats to running an ethical corporation. Finally, from your own perspective, explain whether or not a corporation should have to function by the same codes of morality that individual people in society have to abide by or if they should be allowed to get away with certain actions that people in society cannot get away with.

Many believe that business entities should have an ethical duty to be socially responsible, to work towards increasing its positive effects on society while decreasing its negative effects. Many organizations look for opportunities to be socially responsible while also creating shareholder wealth.

Under this task I will explain the ethical issues that business needs to consider in its operating activities and how a business they could improve the ethical of their operations and also I will evaluate the influence of stakeholders exert in one company.

The corporate world has an unfavorable view of itself by being selfish, evil, and against the average American. Companies market themselves and their products in certain ways that makes them and their products appealing to everyone and if not everyone then a certain group of people. Every company has a mission to follow and values to go by, but some companies lack ethics and morals. In this paper I am going to talk about one company that engages in ethical behavior and another that doesn’t.

It is the board's responsibility to consider and authorize a suitable remuneration package for the company's chief executive officer (CEO), make recommendations with respect to the attractiveness of dividends and dividends pay out, approve stock splits, form the audit committees, approve the company's financial statements, oversee management’s involvement in the shareholders and other stakeholders long-term interests and recommend or discourage major decisions such as acquisitions and mergers.

There are many questions surrounding the moral responsibility of corporations, but how can a resolution be reached? Currently, the moral and ethical responsibilities at Timothy & Thomas North America are being characterized as reckless. One may question their sense of global values and ethical responsibility based on their actions to date. In the case study for Timothy & Thomas North America, three models of ethical standards will be explored. From the Stakeholders article, decision-making guidelines will need to be understood for Jonathan Stein, the new Vice President (VP) of International Contracts of Timothy & Thomas North America to have a clear vision of the company’s stakeholders’ values. Exemplified in the article, The Responsibilities of Corporations and Their Owners, Timothy & Thomas North America has an ethical duty to manage social problems, public welfare, and corporate responsibilities to strive for moral purity in Pakistan. Specified in the article, The Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, the leaders of Timothy & Thomas should consider using these guidelines to measure how well they treat each other and the

The primary responsibility of directors is to oversee the management of the Company and, in so doing, to exercise their business judgment to act in what they reasonably believe to be the best interests of the Company and its shareholders. In discharging their duty of oversight, directors should give careful attention to the selection of the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer and should monitor their performance and that of the Company. The Board should

Management of the companies is hired by the board of directors and shareholders assign board of directors. management has the fiduciary duty and ethical responsibility to the shareholders. If shareholders think that management is not doing the right thing, they could always advise the board of directors to replace management. That’s why the management’s best approach is to be conservative and disclose when the company has some going concern

1. Consequentialist moral theories see the moral rightness or wrongness of actions as a function of their results. If the consequences are sufficiently good, the action is right; if they are sufficiently bad, the action is wrong. However, nonconsequentialist theories see other factors as also relevant to the determination of right and wrong.

si fueris Rōmae, Rōmānō vīvitō mōre; si fueris alibī, vīvitō sicut ibi ‎(“if you should be in Rome, live in the Roman manner; if you should be elsewhere, live as they do there”) - St Ambrose

Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development can be applied to corporations. Corporations are made up of individuals, and the corporate culture can contribute to an individual’s moral decision making. Mintz tells us that “an individual’s moral development can be influenced by corporate culture, especially ethics training.” (p. 58) Since the corporate culture can so heavily influence individual ethical decision making, the stage of moral development of the corporation is important.

Traits associated to a psychopath include irresponsibility, manipulation, grandioseness, lack of empathy, asocial tendencies, inability to feel remorse, refusal to take responsibility for one's actions and superficial relations with others. Modern day corporations display every one of the previously listed characteristics. Is it right that an institution, whose power now rivals that of the State that once created it to seek the better welfare of its citizens, display the psychological traits of a dangerous personality disorder? Many say no: there is a rising discomfort with the corporation and its pervasion into every sphere of human life and it is this uneasiness that has prompted many academics to further study the corporation and its