Entine and Jennings vs Friedman and Freeman

Social responsibility is another level of ethics showing responsibility of the organization to its community. According to the Business Dictionary, social responsibility is “the obligation of an organization’s management towards the welfare and interests of the society in which it operates” (2015,para.1).What does it mean that the business has the responsibility? Looking at Entine and Jennings point of view in contrast to Friedman and Freeman perspective reveals some range of perception of social responsibility.

Friedman argues that a business have no responsibilities. “Only people can have responsibilities. A corporation is an artificial person and in this sense many have artificial responsibilities, but “business” as a whole cannot be said to have responsibilities” (Jennings, 2012, p.91). He also believes that the only social responsibility a business has is to be connected in activities that will increase profits as long as it stays free of deception and fraud (Jennings, p.95). Freeman also believes that social responsibility is not in the business.  Freeman also believes that the social responsibility cannot be linked to business. He is known for a Stakeholder Theory. His approach is toward organizational management. He argues that individual interest rest with the manager and stakeholder. Business relationship may be better understood if managerial capitalism is seen as managers having a fiduciary duty to stakeholders (Jennings, 2012, p.96). According to him stakeholders are those individuals that have a claim in the firm.

On the other hand, Entine and Jennings concept is different than Friedman and Freeman concept of social responsibility. Entine and Jennings argue that business ethics is more complicated than breeziness of social responsibility.  They believe that no company is perfect and just because Brand Name Company took a stand of being responsible does not mean that employee, clients, and stakeholders can trust company without examining company’s day to day operations. Moreover, they state that companies soul is more complicated and complex than those of the individual. They believe in order to examine corporate social responsibility (CSR) the company’s soul needs to be determined. In order to achieve that they used eight question approach (Jennings, 2012. p.104).

                                                                    References

Business Dictionary. (2015). Social responsibility. Retrieved on March 9, 2015 from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/social-responsibility.html

Jennings, M. (2012). Business ethics: Case studies and selected readings. 7th ed. Mason, OH South-Western Cengage Learning.