Beyond Making A Profit

Overview: 

Social responsibility means that individuals and companies have a duty to act in the best interests of their environments and society.  Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, argued that businesses should focus on increased profits to best fulfill their social responsibilities to society.  Howard Shultz argued that profit is essential to a business’s well-being and continued existence, but profit should not entirely define the business’s purpose.  In the book Pour Your Hearth Into It, Shultz describes how Starbucks forfeited a $5 million savings each year by not switching to polystyrene cups because the cups were impractical to recycle.

Directions: 

Please respond to all the following items in your initial post by Sunday.  In addition, engage with your classmates by making comments and/or asking questions that build upon your peer’s posts.

• Beyond making a profit, what responsibilities do businesses have toward society in general?
• How would you justify Starbucks decision to not save money in the case of the polystyrene cups?
• In your opinion, what percentage of an organization’s efforts (time, money, manpower, etc.) should be used toward developing socially responsible policies and practices? Explain.

Each week, you will be asked to respond to the prompt or prompts in the discussion forum. Your initial post should be 75-150 words in length, and is due on Sunday. By Tuesday, you should respond to two additional posts from your peers.

Click here to see your discussion rubric.