Business Ethics Synthesis: Is it a Social Contract.
Why should social responsibility exist? Is not the main role of the corporation to serve its stockholders Is not the main role of a sole proprietor to turn a profit? Not according to Milton Friedman, who maintains that the main focus of corporate operations and business is to increase its profits but according to the American public and some corporate leaders there is a clear command for corporate responsibility to society and, in fact, there are many who believe that social responsibility is good for business and may be the key to business success in the future.
Many people wonder how such a narrow-minded question could even come about; should business be socially responsible? The main reason is that many people in the United States, not in business themselves have demanded that companies respond to problems that may or may not have anything to do with their daily operations or business goals. To insist that corporations single-handedly solve the problem of racism in America is unreasonable and unfair. Of course, however, the citizen can reasonably demand that the corporation does not contribute to or further the problem of racism. Corporations are legal inventions aimed at doing business, producing products and services, employing lots of people and marshaling together resources for further investment and material progress. To expect anything else of them, it can be argued is unreasonable and unfair.
Why would anyone have such unreasonable expectations? It is not hard, however, to see why many Americans expect nothing less than miracles from our large corporations--public services at the lowest imaginable prices, solutions to social problems that have escaped even the most imaginative and generous government programs. It is ironic that these exaggerated social expectations, are the natural product of the enormous success of business in our society in providing cheap public services and solving social problems.