The Role of Activists in Achieving Social and Environmental Sustainability - Assignment Example

Business and Society Insert Name Tutor Date Reflective Journal The first entry: The role of activists in achieving social and environmental sustainability Over the last few decades, I have seen corporations engaging in activities that show their concern for the environment. There has been positive social change where the corporations are taking initiatives towards improving the well being of people living around them especially on environmental issues. However, this has not been the issues before and corporations only used to think of their economic advancement. The only way corporation could think of communities around them is only in improving their economic status by offering them employment. However, this could only benefit a few who get the change for that employment. But I have seen changes in the current trend where corporations are taking the responsibility for the environment due to the communities that surround them. This has however been successful due to many activist groups that have risen to point some mistakes that corporations are making. Some corporations had been aware of their impact to the environment while others have not been aware. It is therefore until some activists have brought into attention of communities living around some corporations how some undertakings may affect their environmental sustainability. The United Nations is one body that has taken this position. For example the launch of the United Nation’s Global Compact in 1999 involved various corporations from the world in working towards advancing ten principles that address human rights and the environment among other issues (Sandhu, 2010). Other activist groups are just formed by people who are knowledgeable among the members of the community who inform others on some injustices that are being done on them. Industries have for a long time polluted the environment without being asked even by the governments. I think that governments have also realized that economic stability alone is not enough. They may have realized that they cannot be economically stable in dirty environments. That is why when communities forward complains on environmental degradations by some corporations, they are at least given a listening ear. Some of the cases where I consider great efforts by activists in ensuring environmental sustainability is where activists brought to the attention of Timberland’s CEO, a company that makes leather shoes their impact on the forests. These people didn’t seem to have even the slightest idea on how their work is connected to the forests until when they were taken back by Greenpeace activist group that they buy leather which comes out of cattle kept by ranchers who clear-cut the Amazon rain forests to obtain pasture for these cattle. A shoe maker may even not think of this connection unless it is brought to his or her attention by some other people. However, when it was brought to the attention of Timberland, the CEO saw logic in the allegations and he decided to discuss with his supplier in Brazil to ensure that their wok will not affect the environment. So he finally appreciated the concern of the Greenpeace over the environment (Swartz, 2010). In the book silent spring written by Carson, quoted in Sandhu, (2010), Carson has talked oh how human beings are being subjected to pesticides which are also causing loss of biodiversity. This author played the role of an activist in bringing this issue to attention and a decade after the book was published, a bill was passed by the American Congress that required member of public to be protected as well as their environment by the pesticide industry. In other words I can refer to Carson as an activist who played a role in bringing to attention of the Congress the harm that pesticide industry was causing to the environment and the people. Others followed Carson’s work such as Club of Rome in 1972 with the book The Limits to Growth and Elkington in 1997. From the works of these people, the concept of Corporate Environmentalism came to be adopted. This made corporations and the people to realize the impact of industrialization to the environment. The other concept of Sustainable Development and Environmental sustainability also became concerns for many organizations and also the consumers who decided to turn into the greener products (Sandhu, 2010). This is an entire process where activists through writing books brought into attention the idea of environmental sustainability until it came to be implemented all over the world. Am however happy that corporations have come to appreciate the fact that it is their social responsibility to consider the environment in all their undertakings. The second entry :Why it is important to think about career planning in your first year at university Failure to plan for a career has made many people leave the university confused and not knowing what they can do with what they have learnt. They therefore end up in jobs that they are not comfortable with because they failed to define who they want to become during their first year in the university. Many people however fail to plan because it is their parents who facilitate their going to the university and some take courses that they don’t have adequate information on them. So these students just start learning without first defining what career they intend to pursue. I have seen cases where after completing the university and getting the certificate, some people just give to their parents to look for them jobs since they don’t know what they can do. Some of the reasons why it is important for one to plan his or her career during the first year at university include taking a course that has relevance to one’s future. When one is taking a course that he or she is linking to the intended career, one will find it interesting and all through the course, he or she will relate the course concepts to the intended career. Most people who fail to pass in their university studies are those who do not have careers in their mind. These are people who are in class just to learn but they have nothing to achieve. I also feel that one should plan about the career immediately when one lands to the university. This is because one can consider changing the course that is called to pursue or think what other training one can take on top of the course. Basically one is able to plan all the learning towards a specific career. One will also know the skills that she or he is required to acquire during the course that are linked to the defined career (Dance, 2008). Some people who do not perform well in their duties are those who did not define what they want to do early enough. Such people therefore failed to grasp the important concepts that are linked to their career. They were in class just to learn. People who graduate while they still don’t have a clue on what they want to do ends up earning very little in the jobs that they do and are always dissatisfied. Early planning helps one to have s table future since one is able to set dreams and intentions. Therefore such a person will always know what to go for. These are people who keep changing jobs aimlessly because they are never satisfied with what they do because they never planned for it (Gillie & Gillie, 2003). I think that when one plans for his or her career while in the first year, he or she is able to gather all the information that relates to that career during his or her course. Since one knows what is awaiting him or her at the end of the course, one is able to equip him/herself with all the information that may be useful for that career. Such a person will be able to handle the job well since he or she is already Early planning helps to make learning easy because one concentrates on what is needful and what is relevant to one’s career. I have seen many people waste a lot of time in learning things that may never help them. I have met people who know a lot of things but they are not doing well in their careers. This is because they concentrated on too much due to lack of a well defined career line. They just read all what came their way. But most of those who planned for their careers while in the first year in the university are doing well paying jobs and are also performing those jobs well. Third Entry: Relevance of ethics in my future professional life I have always considered ethics in challenging situations for example where a sound decision making is required. Ethics helps in discerning what is right or wrong in regard to a particular situation. Sometimes people wonder why one responds to certain issues without considering personal benefits. For example sharing certain information that may benefit me and leave people wondering how I got to that. However, when I consider my personal ethics, I just disclose something which could have benefited me more if I kept to myself. I also need this ethics to guide me in my future professional life. Every profession has its own ethics that defines what is considered acceptable or not acceptable. However, I uphold morality in my life so that I can be able to observe ethics in my professional life. Morality enables me adopt the attitude, character trains and the conduct of those I may be working with in order to promote harmony. There are three ethical reflections that may enable me to maintain ethics in my profession. These are recognition, reasoning and resolution. Recognition means being aware of the makers of morality, that is, attitude, character and conduct within my professional context and everyday activities. Reasoning involves looking at conflicts that may make an ethical issue a conflict while resolution involves evaluating and searching for potential solutions to ethical conflicts (Purtilo, 2009). I believe that ethical behavior will help me face various situations with courage. This will guide me in acting if am required to and not acting in situations that may compromise my morality. Always speaking the truth to those in power and enabling them act truthfully is part of ethics which is translated to courage. This courage will always make me follow what is ethical even if everyone does not believe so. This can enhance my leadership skills and I may become a leader in my profession. I also believe that ethics can help me survive in a multicultural work environment where people have different values. With the diversity that is taking place in the work environments in the past decades; most organizations have a culturally diverse workforce. Working in such an environment requires sound judgment to prevent conflicts that may arise due to unequal treatment of different cultures. Ethical conduct will therefore enable me to just do what is right regardless of the cultural background of whom am doing it for (Somerville, 2009). Therefore, acting ethically in my professional life will make me enjoy the life’s goodness and also enable the same for those I will be working with. It may eliminate conflicts with people I come across and this makes life easier for everyone. This will eventually give us hope and will enable us to see potential in the every undertaking. Hurting other people may make them loss hope in future and may also make me lose passion for my job. This is due to tension that is created by conflicts. To avoid this, I therefore consider it very important to act ethically in my professional life. Bibliography Purtilo, R., 2009, The ethical life of Rural Health Care Professionals, in Nelson, W., Handbook for Rural Health Care Ethics: A practical Guide for Professionals, Trustees of Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. Gillie, S., and Gillie, M., 2003, The Educational, Social, and Economic Value of Informed and Considered Career Decisions, America’s Career Resource Network Association. Swartz, J 2010, 'Timberland's CEO on standing up to 65,000 angry activists', Harvard Business Review, vol. 88, no. 9, pp. 39-43. Sandhu, S 2010, 'Shifting paradigms in corporate environmentalism: From poachers to gamekeepers', Business and Society Review, vol. 115, no. 3, pp. 285-310. Somerville, M., 2009 ‘Past virtues for a future world: Holding our humanness on trust’, chapter 3 in The Ethical Imagination: Journeys of the human spirit, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal.  Dance, S., 2008, The importance of Career Planning, Retrieved on 28th May 2012 from http://www.articlesbase.com/recruitment-articles/the-importance-of-career-planning-443824.html Read More