The Business and Society Relationship

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BUSINESS SOCIETYEthics and Stakeholder
Management Carroll Buchholtz 6e
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Business and Society

Business and society interrelate in a
macroenvironment as stakeholders.
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Segments of the Macroenvironment

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Pluralistic Society

• Prevents concentration of power
• Maximizes freedom of expression and action
• Disperses individual allegiances
• Creates diversified set of loyalties
• Provides checks and balances

• Pursuit of self-interest
• Proliferates organizations and groups with
  overlapping goals
• Forces conflicts to center stage
• Promotes inefficiency

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Business and Stakeholder Relationships

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Special-Interest Society

• make life more complex for business
• number in the tens of thousands
• pursue their own limited agenda
• are more active, intense, diverse and focused
• attract a significant following
• often work at cross purposes, with no unified set
  of goals

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Social Environment, Business Criticism, and
Corporate Response

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Societys Expectations versusBusinesss Actual
Social Performance

Societys Expectations of Business Performance
Social Problem
Businesss Actual Social Performance
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Business Criticism Power

• Use and abuse of power
• Business power refers to the ability or capacity
  to produce an effect or to bring an influence to
  bear on a situation or people
• Iron Law of Responsibility
• In the long run, those who do not use power in a
  manner society considers responsible will tend to
  lose it

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Elements in the Social Contract