6.3 Read the introduction to an essay with the title To what extent should large international more different than alike", companies make acting in a socially responsible manner more of a prioritu

Question

Introduction

health care and educational facilities for workers and their families.

Large international companies play an increasing role in the everyday lives of people across the world. It is perhaps in developing countries, however, that they have most impact. In countries where governments do not have the resources to provide social support for all of their citizens international companies may be the only organisations able to maintain and improve quality of life. Some would say that the priority of international companies is to make profits and, therefore, provide income to their owners and shareholders. However, I will argue in this essa that their first duty is in fact to support the communities in the developing countries in which they are based, by providing good working conditions, a safe and clean local environment, an

Argument that profits should come before social responsibility -

• without first making profit, there is no money to help poor (Roberts, 2007)

• company's first duty is to its shareholders (Klein, 2000) • motives of some companies which have implemented social responsibility

programmes have been questioned: do they only do it as a public relations exercise? (Roberts, 2007; example of Conco in Botswana)

Arguments that social responsibility should come before profits - (i) ethical argument -

- basic human rights of all people should be respected; international companies should recognise this in their dealings with employees (Howarth, 2005) (i) economic arguments -

• provision of good working and living conditions for employees can increase

levels of productivity, and therefore profits to companies (Howarth, 2005; example from Bangladesh)

• focus on profits can lead to involvement in corruption scandals and environmental accidents; can severely damage reputation of a company (Smith,

2008; example from India)

4 a Look at the work you did to prepare for writing the essay in 1.2 with the title 'Do we, as individuals, behave in a certain way because we were "born that way" [...]". Now write a conclusion to the essay of about 100 words.

b in pairs, read and evaluate your partner's conclusion.

Answer 1

Hi Kakarla, if I follow what you put here correctly, this is the introduction to your essay:

Large international companies play an increasing role in the everyday lives of people across the world. It is perhaps in developing countries, however, that they have most impact. In countries where governments do not have the resources to provide social support for all of their citizens international companies may be the only organisations able to maintain and improve quality of life. Some would say that the priority of international companies is to make profits and, therefore, provide income to their owners and shareholders. However, I will argue in this essay that their first duty is in fact to support the communities in the developing countries in which they are based, by providing good working conditions, a safe and clean local environment, and health care and educational facilities for workers and their families.

And you need to write a 100-word conclusion for the essay.

Conclusions usually do a a few things: Restate the main argument or idea and state the implications of that argument.

So, for your conclusion, you would use a formula like this:

Restate your main idea: Large international companies in developing countries should prioritize their social responsibility to the communities in which they are located over profit. Not only should they demonstrate this within their facilities, by providing good working conditions, but they should also consider the safety and cleanliness of the surrounding environment and invest in healthcare and educational resources for workers and their families.

State the implications (make someone think something they wouldn't have thought about this topic unless they considered your reasoning): In fact, by investing in the long term health of the people and communities of developing countries, international companies would be able to create lasting success overtime and long term profit gains. Further, the company's brand image worldwide would be boosted because they would avoid the liabilities that come from being a purely profit-driven corporation (association with corruption or contribution to global warming or human rights abuse) and instead align themselves with meaningful policies around corporate social responsibility.

Hope this helps!