Topic:
Some people believe that corporations have a responsibility to promote the well-being of the societies and environments in which they operate. Others believe that the only responsibility of corporations, provided they operate within the law, is to make as much money as possible



Response:
While it would undoubtedly be benign on the the part of corporations to promote the well-being of the society, there is definitely no obligation for them to do so. In fact, in balance, I believe that it would actually be more beneficial for the organisation, as a whole, if it kept it's focus on it's primary goal, which is profit.

Fundamentally, promoting the welfare and well-being of the society is usually an expensive endeavour. This expense for the cooperation can be in the form of finance, time or labour. And with the channeling of such resources away from the actual company goals a cooperation would have to make significant compromises in it's function. For instance, if a certain company were to contribute some part of it's profit for the cleaning of a street then the company would have to necessarily cut down on the salary that it offers to it's employees or it would have to cut down some other resources like raw materials to make up for the contribution. This in turn would inhibit the company from reaching the efficiency that it's intrinsically capable of reaching.

Additionally, it should also be kept in mind that pursuits as such offer no materialistic benifits for the cooperation whatsoever. Perhaps the cooperation might earn a good reputation for it's acts of benevolence. But even so, unless the company is willing to shell out millions, the investment wouldn't be as effective as other forms of publicity like advertisements. There are absolutely no moral or ethical obligations for a cooperation to take up the responsibility of promoting the well-being of the society in most cases. And the cooperation shouldn't run behind such endeavours when more pressing issues like expanding the company or taking care of it's workers, is at stake.

However, one could say that cooperation taking up the resposibility of the well-being of the society would be a way to show it's gratitude. It would be safe to assume that most cooperation grew because of several other factors aside from it's own, like customers, resource availability, geographic location and market. When these factors have contributed a lot to the growth of the company it would be genourous of the company if it were to share it's reapings to contributors. It would necessarily be in my opinion a polite way of saying 'Thank you' for the cooperation's success.

In sum, we can possitively assert that there is no such obligation for a cooperation to take up the resposibility for the promotion of social well-being. Indulgence in such endeavours should only be done after properly considering the cost it could have on the cooperation as a whole.