Business and Society - Assignment Example

ID Business and society Assessment #3 Topic one Social sustainability is very much important for any business. According to me any business is part of some society. Society is an important stake holder for any business. I believe that a successful business must take care of all the stake holders related with the business. Businesses may be large or small can contribute to social sustainability by improving social conditions of workers and their families it maybe globally or locally. There are certain social barrier and challenges like unemployment, inequity, poverty, problems related to safety, working circumstances and health issues can cause the down fall of business directly or indirectly so all these social aspects are need to be taken care of for achieving social sustainability. If a business house creates jobs it would certainly reduce some poverty of the society. When a business house is hiring a diverse workforce where people from different cast, creed, race and culture will be there would eliminate inequity from the society. When a company would provide a very good working environment for its work force it would be able to keep them fit and healthy which would create a fit, healthy and strong society free from different diseases. According to me Different corporate social responsibilities can contribute immensely for the betterment of society. As business is a part of the society so any business cannot avoid social sustainability. Social sustainability is very much interrelated with the business growth. It is an important stakeholder for growing business. Social sustainability has a direct relation with business. If the social sustainability hampers then it would have a negative cascading effect on business. All the above information and concepts are showing that business should be concern about social sustainability. Sustainability has become new a buzzword in the annual report of most of the multinational companies where the managements put high focus or respect the environment and the society where the company operates. The argument on whether a business should or should not concern about social sustainability have become a debate topic but there should not be any contradiction of the fact that not only a business but also a individual needs to be concern on the society and environment where both of them born, brought up and living by the using the resources from the environment and society. It is evident that the social sustainability of large business has provided so many social as well as environmental initiatives beneficial for people as well as environment. The size and outcomes of these initiatives are larger according to the profit motive and profit making capabilities of the businesses. Therefore, the businesses that are highly socially sustainable enjoy high brand image from their stakeholders. Many empirical studies and practical sustainable cases of business indicate that the social and environmental initiatives and activities help to enhance business indirectly and have a high contribution on company’s sustainable growth. For example a socially sustainable business has to face comparatively lower extent of political, legal and governmental obligations for starting any new project involving social and environmental resources or might the project has a negative return to the society o environment. Therefore, it is very clear that social sustainability helps a business in a different way. I believe the businesses especially the start-up and small business needs to include expenses for the social and environment initiatives in their annual budget and develop and implement creative environmental campaigns to deliver at least some extent to the society and environment in their way to achieve sustainable business goals (Freeman, 2005). Therefore, the mission statement of a business must contain a strong approach of sustainable growth but not profit motive growth. Therefore, to maintain a sustainable growth, a business needs to incorporate sustainability principles in each of its business strategies, needs to market environmental friendly services and products, green working environment and finally a greener competition than profit motive competition by not discounted sales approach but through value added product and services with standard pricing. According to my experience once Union Carbide India Ltd. in 1984 overlooked social sustainability. The incident resulted in huge disaster in Bhopal a city of India. Lots of poisonous gases were leaked due to the negligence of the company and took away many lives. Even now the atmosphere of the place is not completely free from poisonous gas. Due to that disaster the company had to stop its business in India. Topic Two Lack of cultural understanding will impact me immensely in my professional career and the impact would a negative one. Cultural understanding is very much important irrespective of place and organization I am related with. It is very important for me to understand the culture of the place or the organization where I am working in. If I will work in a foreign company I must understand the culture of that country otherwise I would not be able to work in that country for the long time. Every country and organization is having their own cultures. It is not a hidden secret that the moral values or the etiquettes of every culture are different. Although one can find out some similarities among them but careful analysis will reveal the cultural differences. The concept of immigration can be taken as the example. Lack of jobs in one country forces an employee to move into another one and they have to get accustomed with the new culture. It is difficult for the immigrant to cope up with the cultural differences in the first place and have to face hurdles (Benedict, 1993). Since he is accustomed with the culture of his home country cultural differences can act as the barrier towards his healthy living in the foreign country. This affects on the way of his lifestyle and I think that it would have significant impact upon his thought process as well. The cultural differences can shed its effects upon the performance of the immigrants. A new place means a new beginning. The immigrant has to make himself comfortable in the new environment before he can adopt himself on the new air. Here comes the importance of communication. The immigrant can eliminate the hurdles he is currently facing through logical communication with the neighbours and colleagues. It can also be stated that proper understanding and knowledge of the foreign country must be known beforehand. According to the theory of cultural relativism, we believe in all things to be existing to what we witness may not be correct. Therefore following the theory it can be stated that the immigrant will have to fasten his seat belt and be ready to face any type of cultural differences. It is the capability of the immigrant to get him accustomed with the new culture as early as possible in the new foreign country. Looking above at the above analysis I firmly believe that it is important to adapt to new cultures if there is zeal to grow globally. One must have the capability and the techniques to adapt in different cultures where good and efficient communication will lay the foundation stone. Every culture is more or less different from other culture so it is very important to understand the culture is so important. My Lack of cultural understanding can be a reason for my down fall which is very dangerous for my future career. My Lack of cultural understanding would prevent me to communicate properly. If I fail to communicate properly with the new culture it would bring my downfall. Lack of cultural understanding is going to give me lot of problem to work with different people which would make me a poor team member. Lack of cultural understanding can be a reason for my career failure. Lack of cultural understanding will resist me to come across different new people and team and will make my future career options very narrow. Lack of cultural understandings will make me less adaptive in nature. I will not be able to get out of my comfort zone as far as my future career is concern. Lack of cultural understanding would prevent from the international assignments which would have a very negative impact on my future career. I went to Russia in 2001. Russian language was not known to me. I felt lots of problem over there in Moscow. I was facing huge communication problem. I was not able to communicate properly with my Russian team members. It was very dismal experience for me. It has impacted my career badly. Topic Three Talents can be shown when you have a pathfinder. It does not mean that my pathfinder will hold my hand and lead me to my path but will help me to find out the right path. In the workplace it is often seen that associates are kept under stringent vision of their managers. This will not only kill the talents of the associates but they will also get dependent upon the decision of the managers (Molinsky, 2012). They might lose their confidence in the work place and will have to call for manager’s help may be on small issues. I value independent way of working most in a career. It would give me the freedom to work according to my way. According to me if I am given the freedom to work in my style with very less supervision from anyone else would be best for me. I would be able to perform best in that scenario. It would make me more and more innovative and creative in nature. It would increase the sense of responsibility with in me. Independent way of working would enable me to perform me very well. Independent way of working with very minimal supervision would make me more versatile in my career. It would help me to more to focus on my work. It would reduce possibilities of conflict with my superiors. I value independent way of working most because it can make me more comfortable to perform any task. It would not create any unnecessary mental pressure on me. Too much supervision is very much irritating for me and would show doubt in my accountability towards my work. I always want to give my best performance in my work. Independent way of working always brings best out of me. I am a person with the opinion of the natural light of the diamond can only be seen in darkness. So I believe that in order to make myself efficient I must have an independent workplace where I would have the luxury to work freely and would not have to depend on anyone for solving minor problems. A problem can be solved in a variety of ways. I may be comfortable with one, while my supervisor may be comfortable in another. If the workplace restricts me to work freely I would not have the option to choose my optimal solution and would be forced to follow the solution as laid by my superior. I may not like that situation and continuous forcing from their part may have negative effects upon my performance as well. Independent way of working brings out the best in a man since he is well known that only he will have to face the contradictions if any. It must be accepted that problems will creep up in the initial stages but in the long run it will only reap benefits. Independent thoughts may lead to new innovations or inventions. It may lead to new paths and as discussed the role of the pathfinder cannot be disregarded here. Once in my previous company I worked under two supervisors. One supervisor was very less authoritative and gave lots of freedom related to work. I performed very well and my performance got reward for my work. It was possible because less supervision was there and no extra pressure was there. On the other hand with the other supervisor my work was below average. The supervisor was very authoritative. It did not provide me the freedom of my working. I felt unnecessary pressure and that affect my work adversely. In that project conflict was there between me and with my supervisor in terms of way of working. Works Cited Benedict, R. 1993. The Challenge of Cultural Relativism. New York: McGraw-Hill. Freeman, E. 2005. A stakeholder theory of the Modern Corporation. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Molinsky, A. 2012. Code Switching between cultures. Harvard business review. Vol. 90, (1). Read More