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Essay / Can business ethics exist? - 1610
Niall Fitzgerald, said: “Corporate social responsibility is a difficult business decision. Not because it's a good thing to do or because people force us to do it... because it's good for our business. (as cited in Elliot, 2003, para. 14) What is social responsibility? Peter F. Drucker (1981) suggests that it is today's business ethics as defined by the values of society's constantly evolving, values based on the functioning of people as a group . Milton Friedman's (1970) view of social responsibilities is that of individual ethics. Drucker and Friedman use these terms interchangeably; ethics and social responsibility, in their case, their opinions on the subject. Business ethics and social responsibility are like fraternal twins, born from a womb of moral imperatives and, as such, share a basic genetic blueprint in terms of scope and ideology. In the cases presented by Peter F. Drucker and Milton Friedman, what ethics and social responsibility are varies between individual and corporate vision. Friedman (1970) is very clear on the boundary between individual and corporate ethics. An individual acts on his own accord based on his personal moral code. He takes on responsibilities that are unique to him, such as marriage. However, a company is a set of reasonings resulting from group thinking defined by a social convention. He is soulless since societal pressures dictate the ethical code. However, individual responsibilities are assigned to him because he adopts his own code of ethics and his own consequences. When the individual works as an executive, he or she must balance the needs of the company's shareholders and owners while producing profits. Its individual ethical tendencies, whether consensual or conflicting, are in the middle of the article......_interest/detail/what is business ethicsElliot, L. (July 4, 2003). CleanerInterview Niall FitzGerald, Co-Chairman and Managing Director of Unilever. the guard. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2003/jul/05/unilever1?INTCMP=SRCHFriedman, M. (September 13, 1970). The social responsibility of businesses is to increase their profits. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10F11FB3E5810718EDDAA0994D1405B808BF1D3&scp=2&sq=The%20Social%20Responsibility%20of%20Business%20is%20to%20Increase%20its%20Profits&st = Bank of quotes from Josephson Institute cse. (nd). Retrieved from http://josephsoninstitute.org/quotes/quotations.php?q=EducationMackey, J. (October 2005). Rethinking corporate social responsibility. raison.com. Retrieved from http://reason.com/archives/2005/10/01/rethinking-the-social-responsi/3