Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business Essay Example

that we all face.

Finally there is the Integrative Model were a business fully integrates economic and social goals at the core of their business models. All the participants had an opinion on which model or type of responsibility a corporation or business would have when it came to CSR. First off I would like to say that I agree mostly with John Mackey and his thinking that he generally wants to help better the community and the world. He has put together a mixture of both the Social Web Model and the Integrative Model in his own business model for Whole Foods.

Mackey has put both economic and social goals at the core of his business and at the same time is considering all of the stakeholders that his decisions will affect. In the reading John Mackey said “we measure our success by how much value we can create for all six of our most important stakeholders: customers, team members, investors, vendors, communities, and the environment. ” (pg. 232) It is easy for me to relate to Mackey because if I owned a business I believe I would have a similar thinking process.

Also a bonus to being socially responsible is the fact that it increases the business’s image and brings in more customers. This is where Friedman and Mackey have similar ideas. They both believe that being socially responsible will in effect generate more revenue and profit in the long run, but the difference is that Friedman is only interested in pouring the money back to the investors. Because of this I would have to say that Friedman is following

a Philanthropic model of CSR.

Friedman thinks with an economic model of CSR driving his motivation, but he will also do anything to create profit; even if that means using social responsibility as a means to an end. Friedman probably uses reputation management to build his image as a company solely because he thinks it is a good business decision and not because he genuinely cares about what he is doing for the community. As for T. J. Rodgers I didn’t care much for what he had to say. He basically got really defensive and started taking stabs at Mackey. The reason for Rodgers defensiveness is the fact that he runs his business in the exact opposite from Mackey.

Rodgers opinion on running a successful business is to continuously seek profits and sees little reason for being socially responsible except to attract new employees and build good P. R. for the company. The way I see it; Rodgers uses very little Philanthropy and is more or less a follower of the economic model of CSR. Its funny how in the last 23 years Rodgers Semiconductor business has recorded more loss than profit with negative retained earnings of over $408 million. It just goes to show that corporate social responsibility is worth it.