Pedagogy

Module 1

Trade and commerce does not exist in a vacuum. Among the most critical relationships that businesses or enterprises have is with the government and society. Businesses, the government and society as a whole depend on and gain from their interaction with each other. Though the main objective of business is profit, it is important to also recognize and even accommodate the interest of the government and society. Consider the recent Global Financial Crisis when financial markets declined, it resulted to the unemployment and the need for government bailouts as well as financial reforms. In general, businesses consider the governments function is to be primarily for the purpose of regulation. In a similar manner, the crash itself was considered by many as a failure of the government to institute sufficient regulation to prevent the collapse and
In the case of society, it serves as business main market and at the same time, a primary resource. Without someone to sell to or provide services for, businesses will not be able to realize profit from its operations. On the simplest level, consumers rely on business for employment. At the same time, the social capacity directly correlates to the quality of manpower and productive capacity. The level of skill, education and training of members of the society, essentially social capital, essentially is also representative of what a business human resource capital would be. At the same the social conditions can impact business conditions, affecting interest rates, investments and peace and order among others. When society is in crisis, trade and commerce is one of the key indicators of the degree of crisis. In a similar manner, when industries, trade and commerce is in decline, social conditions deteriorate closely. On a more positive side, successful businesses means jobs, financing for public institutions and social services as well as growth and development. In all of these instances, the government serves to manage these relationships while at the same time interacting independently with society and business itself. Governments, regardless of their form or structure, are concerned with developing public order and safety. In line with this objective, the government aims to maintain competitive and fair trade practices and protect the public from fraudulent business activities. At the same time, the government serves to mediate conflicts between and with businesses ensuring the rule of law and the equitable compensation in the case of damages or liabilities.

Module 2

In the previous discussion, it was pointed out that businesses have a very intimate relationship in the society they operate in. This should not be surprising since a study of the development of society and civilization would easily reveal that many of them can be associated with trade guilds or to support industries and commercial activities. With the rise of literature emphasizing the potential of business to impact society, more and more organization are being challenged to actively participate in to improve local community conditions. For many members of an organization who most likely would be part of the said communities this is not considered to be an effort directed to external stakeholders. In contemporary research and practices, this perspective has been extended to a global scale due to international commerce. Indeed, some of worlds biggest companies have access to more resources than most developing countries. Because companies utilize social and economic resources, some view that they are profiting from what society itself. These perspectives gave rise to the call for business to develop social responsibility. Despite popular recognition of these perspectives, the concern and participation in social development or corporate social responsibility (CSR) in general remains to be relative.

CSR initiatives became first evident as safety and welfare programs for company workers. The initiatives would eventually motivate the institution of labor law legislation and allowed for the CSR to be extended other areas of interest. By the 1970s, CSR interests had already widely recognized the impact of industries to the local community and vice, companies have realized how much they can affected by the conditions in their local communities. This prompted the development of protection laws for the establishment as well as the withdrawal of business operations. In more contemporary contexts, the issue of CSR has culminated in global initiatives to ensure not only fair trade practices but also equitable development. Though there are legal and regulatory reasons for the institution of CSR programs, there has also been recognition that it has significant public relations benefits. And considering how much the power of public opinion is being magnified by advancements in information technology, companies are acknowledging how much CSR can impact them.


Module 4

There are a wide variety of business interactions. One way of classifying these is based on whether they occur within or outside the organization. For the purpose of the discussion in this module, let us first delineate what are internal and external environments. The basic distinction between the two is that the former is used to refer to activities and conditions of stakeholders that only involve the organization members. On the other hand, external environments refer to the environments that are not under the control of the organization.  As previously discussed in other modules, businesses need to ensure not only that their business activities are thriving but also that its external stakeholders benefit from their operations.  In both cases, particular strategies may be needed to achieve common objectives. For example, CSR initiatives for internal stakeholders could come in providing quality housing support for employees and similar efforts for external stakeholders could be in the form of providing endowments to independent educational institutions.

In each case, the business or organizations are motivating to improve the environments of either stakeholder. The rationale is that improving conditions in either improves productive capacity, the advantage of the business to lobby for support for its objectives and allows for better management of factors that can impact the sustainability of operations. This has culminated in the development of sustainable business practices. Similar to CSR, the practices are motivated to respond to the call for business to be more responsible for the impact that their business operations can have. However, unlike CSR, SBP suggests that these initiatives are actually essential to long-term operational success. One of the best ways of illustrating this is in contemporary logging operations assuming the absence of protective environmental laws, a company that opts to completely denude a forest would eventually have no trees to harvest but if it employs rotation of logging areas and plant new trees, then it will better be able to ensure that supply of timber. Advocates point out that business success depends on the maintenance of market and industry conditions and these in turn depend on the maintenance of social, economic and political conditions that best suit it.


Module 5

Without a doubt, environmental concerns are among the most highly contested issues. In the previous section, it was mentioned that business can employ strategies that will allow it to manage effectively even operations such as logging. However, as sadly has been seen globally, this is not a common scenario. Environmental responsibility is considered both a component of CSR and SBP initiatives. Currently, one of key issue that businesses are dealing with in relation to the environmental protection and management is due to its impact to climate change. However, despite the evidence of the catastrophic costs for the global community, there has been much debate on how pollution, particularly emissions, can be reduced. For example, the failure of the Kyoto Protocol has been attributed to the concerns that provisions will deter growth in developing countries, reserving advantage over them by more developed countries. The Kyoto Protocol also represents an effort to create social and political inducement imperatives for compliance on a global scale.

However, it is only when business interests can be balanced with environmental concern can compliance to effective environmental protection be developed. In a number of states, licensing requirements are not requiring that companies institute measures to ensure that all operational by-products can be safely reintegrated to the ecology. Aside from legislative and regulatory policies, businesses themselves can initiate its own efforts for environmental protection. Environmental protection advocates have worked with a number of businesses on how to change operations to go green by citing economic incentives. At the same time, external parties are exerting pressure on businesses to manage environmental policy and quality by making use of advocacy and public pressure. Many companies have adopted such policies is at first to increase efficiency or access to recyclable materials. For example, a number of industrial steel production companies have sponsored the institution of recycling centers to gain access to used metals than can be used for the production of new raw steel. This proves that though combative approaches can oblige businesses to comply with environmental protection policies, better compliance and results can be made through collaborative partnerships.


Module 6

Concern and response to environmental concerns is a good illustration of how environmental forces can significantly impact corporate strategies. Considering the universal impact of environmental issues, it can be further argued that compliance to such statutes have a moral and ethical value. The rise of industrialization in the US in the early 19th century had earlier emphasized utilitarianism and productivity. Among the resources that have critical in the development of these early industries were mining, industrial agriculture and logging among others which generally have had detrimental impacts the environment. However, little concern was raised due to the prevailing perception that doing so was simply utilizing natural resources. The concern for environmental issues rose significantly in the 1960s and is the primary reason for the institution of the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The agency is primarily tasked with environmental monitoring, management and research. The formation of the agency also raised the issue of environmental protection to a federal level which in turn became the means by which violations could be punished by federal courts.

However, there should also be a recognition that many times, exacting compliance and pursuing violators has often ended up as legal wrangling. Thus, there is an argument that the real compliance to environmental protection and management policies can only be realized when companies recognize the ethical value of doing so. This involves not only the recognition of the value of the issue and appropriating adequate response, but also ratification by ethical decision making process. Though there are a number of business ethic approaches like utilitarian, rights, fairness, common good and virtue approaches, they all basically follow the same decision processes. These processes include recognition of the ethical issue, acquiring or developing research, evaluation of alternatives, developing a response and finally, implementation and reflection on the decision made. These processes emphasize that ethical decisions are not just based on prevailing perceptions of what is right or wrong. Ethical decisions, even for a global concern such as environmental protection, are always multidimensional and relative since value systems and assessment systems may differ. It should also be noted that for businesses, the issue is even made more challenging because of the need to balance economic interests with external issues that may not be readily recognized as important or critical.