Business Ethics Paper

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to give new knowledge on business, their stakeholders and the power they may have over society. There are multiple decisions made by stakeholders and the methods and interests they use for the benefit of their respective organization. I will cover the majority of these topics while also giving you an inside look at the controversial decisions made by Disneyland to gain revenue while disregarding their employees personal interests. I will also go over three organizations related to the corporation and its stakeholders, designed to give a better understanding of the ideas in this chapters. In conclusion, there will be some very important themes I would like to discuss in relation to The Walt Disney Company. Sounds like a great plan!

Part 1: Definitions

a) Business, to me, is any type of organization with the attempt to make profits and or successful endeavors in the market place. Business can vary in size, strength and profits. According to the textbook, Business and Society, the term business refers to any organization that is engaged in making a product or providing a service for a profit (2014). This textbook definition seems to be extracted directly from Milton Friedman’s New York Times article, The Social Responsibility of Business it to Increase its Profits (1970). Friedman states that there is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game (1970). This controversial take by Friedman still translates today as both my personal definition and the book definition have shown.

b) Society can include anything from the culture around you to the community of the individuals who shape the way we do things in today’s business world. According to our textbook, Business and Society, society is used to refer to the segments of human kind, such as members of a particular community, nation or interest group (2014). Per Oxford Dictionary, society is the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community (2015). The consensus of these definitions leads us to believe the people combined with their community help shape the way we may conduct business and opportunity in the workplace.

c) Stakeholder, in my opinion, is someone who owns a stake in part of a company or organization. Our textbook, Business and Society, has a more definitive way of explaining stakeholder; the term stakeholder refers to the person and groups that affect, or are affected by an organization’s decisions, policies and operations (2014). According to Wikipedia, the term was defined as those groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist