Government, Business, and Society Relationships - Essay Example

Business activities conducted within the society. The various components of the society thus become the environmental aspects of business ventures. This business environment is composed of the market and non-market components which both have effects on the business environment. As such, the business ventures also have a responsibility towards the environment that it exists on; the market and non-market components. This includes society, government, the world, and the community (Peter, 1997: p.112). The foremost purpose of the development of a business is not to attest to these responsibilities but is the responsibility to itself; making profits. Other aspects of the market and non-market components also affect the business and are also in turn affected by the business. Issues such as the population, government regulations, environmental conservation and social health responsibility are in effect of this.

NGOs are entities created by individuals or groups within the society to deal with certain issues in society through advocating, lobbying, electoral support, judicial action and coalition building. To deal with such issues, they may even sometimes conform to public and private politics. This is for the business to correct its issues and for consumers to attain their rights. Such NGOs act as watchdogs for the external components of business such as the environment and people. Through such ways as discussed above, they can ascertain the fulfilment of the responsibilities that the business has. The conduction of this also acts as a check on the government's effects on the business environment that in turn affect the people. This is through actions such as harsh regulations and taxes. As such, they develop ample space between governments and profit organizations, enable social change and experimentation, and enable society's self-organization (Ahmed, 2002: p. 36).

Taking a case study of the CSR sustainability ratings organization, many organizations within society have to oblige to safe behaviour. This is through a review by CSR where the organizations rated on their level of incorporation of sustainability measures. This includes such aspects as discussed above on environmental, societal, regulatory and employee considerations. This has culminated in the advent of altruistic behaviour in organizations fearing tainting their image, lobbyism against them and lawsuits. It can be concluded that NGOs do play a particularly crucial role in ensuring adherence to responsibilities by corporations and organizations thus positive behavioural actions (Keck, 1998: p.56).

Multinational corporations are currently extremely emerging in the economies of the world. This has brought about the development of superpowers, and this superiority over other nation’s economies has had adverse effects. Issues such as employment creation, improved living conditions, and industrialization are some of the benefits of such international trade. On the other hand, there are adverse effects such as the killing of local industries, social dumping, tax evasion and illegalities within the corporations that may occur (Tarrow, 2005: p.86). As a result of these various effects, it is of the suggestion that the human resource management activities of multinational corporations should be checked through the introduction of minimum labour standards into the international free trade agreements.

Through the application of such minimum labour standards, some of the multinational corporations that consider themselves key investors in foreign economies are kept at bay. As, such they lack the opportunity to threaten such economies with the right to shift or close their operations in those regions with the intent to get their way with everything. The inclusion of such labour regulations in the free trade agreement makes it no longer a country-to-country issue, but a global issue concerning all countries in the agreement. Through this, issues of misconduct get easily dealt with. This means that they cannot use this fact to implement harsh, unregulatory and unfair conditions in the market. Such labour standards will attest to fairness in the labour agreements between the firms, government and the labourers. It attests to issues such as the offer of failed labour wages for work done, a limit on the age requirement for employment and the labour conditions that the labourer experiences at the workplace. This also includes the development of proper employment packages for the laborers such as the inclusion of insurance and medical coverage packages where applicable.

Taking a case study of the UK, in 2009 the city Lord Myners proposed a law where the identities and pay of the top 20 high-profile employees of foreign, British companies should be disclosed (Witt, 2010: p.76). This was to raise activism towards the development of low-profile local employees by bridging the comparison between the two. As such, it can be concluded that there is undoubtedly a need to develop minimum labour regulations within the free trade agreements to guard against the rights of the hosts. This is to mean that it will ensure adherence to the laws and regulations of a country on labour and the operation of business enterprises without exploitation.