assignment 2 Essay

assignment 2 Essay assignment 2 Essay Recent movements in the corporate world have raised questions in respect to the part of corporate in society and as a result have demanded for greater corporate social responsibility and attention to business ethics. It is evident that Intent, efforts and communication will vary from corporate to corporate, where in some corporations, corporate social responsibility is considered as a priority that is managed closely, comparable to HR issues or public relations, while in other corporations its kept to a bare minimum. Ethics (lack of) In the case study, Becton Dickinson, the world’s largest manufacturer of medical supplies did not have clear corporate social responsibility strategy with a long term view, and instead chose not to change the design of its needles and syringes, despite the growing risk of injuries reported. The focus of corporation clearly echoed Milton Friedman’s view, where the primary duty of corporation was to maximize its profit to benefit its shareholder, in this instance by minimizing capital outlay. To make point clear, it is sensible to agree that the main duty of a business is to maximize its profit to benefit its shareholder. Having said that, this is not enough. Business needs to assume ‘social concern’, especially in this case study where ethics are non-existent. This is evident by purchasing an exclusive license to produce safety-lok syringe, but chose to market only one model and not the whole range as this would compete with its flagship product, despite market and consumer needs. Short term view of the corporation has led to number of court cases and settlements for undisclosed sums of money, but this did not change their policy towards corporate social responsibility. Short term view of protection profits and having monopoly as a largest manufacturer has ended in federal court alleging that they violated antitrust laws and harmed consumers and health care workers by using GPO to monopolies the safety needle market, resulting in numerous out of court settlements Later in 2009, jury found Becton Dickinson guilty of copying Retractables design and selling it as their own, prompting lack of ethics and social obligation, in this case overlooked or ignored. Business like people, can become set in their ways, become unresponsive to the demands of the market, where unresponsive business generally goes out of the business. The outcome for Becton Dickinson could have been very different if they had corporate social responsibility strategy with a long term views. Good examples of socially responsible capitalism are WalMart, VISA, Coca Cola and Volkswagen, where at the same time businesses are maximizing profits to its shareholders, while addressing society’s issues Social Responsibility WalMart opened in-house Money Centers in its stores across the USA, targeting people without traditional bank accounts. This is great move by WalMart, that can have a great social impacts in the long run with economically less advantaged customers who likely to be young, low-income, and relatively less educated members of either African-American or Hispanic/Latino communities. Although the motives are not yet clear, WalMart has made a step in the right direction as their have a long term strategy and understanding that their existence and profitability depends on the state of society. Similar to WalMart, VISA has built partnerships with local governments and non-profits focusing on financial inclusions, which is having a great impact in developing countries by giving people a way to pay though electronic payment systems, allowing them to use VISA Debit Cards to weather impact to their finances by using funds they have instead of owing money to the banks. Coca Cola on the other hand, started program to empower young woman entrepreneurs, aimed at bringing 5 million in the developing countries into its business by 2020 as a local bottler and distributor of Coca Cola products. To make a strong statement, they proudy Assignment 2 Essay Assignment 2 Essay Elizabeth Lieber Section 4 Option #2: Substituting Facebook Messaging for Texting Daily Log: Wednesday, October 22, 2014: Today was the first day that I chose to eliminate texting from my daily routine and use Facebook messaging. Initially, due to force of habit I would automatically check the text message. After an hour it finally registered that I would not be using my phone for the next two days. I felt anxious and did not know what to expect. Thursday, October 23, 2014: The second day without text messaging was easier than this first. I was more conscious of charging my laptop versus my cell phone because I knew that it would be my main form of communication for the day. There were longer periods of time without communication with a friend because taking out my computer was not always appropriate in certain social contexts. Friday, October 24, 2014: This day was the most difficult. Personally, Friday is the most social day of the week, and while making plans I felt isolated because I wasn’t able to contribute to a group text message. I was inclined to individually message my friends online. It was particularly difficult at a party; I constantly had to make sure I was with one of my friends because if I lost one of them it would be more difficult to get in touch with them. Contemporarily, we live in a society where individuals use technology as a medium of communication. These modes are called communication technologies and have become crucial while constructing relationships. Our idioms of practice, and media ideologies both affect what we consider appropriate social uses of technology. For my experiment, I used Facebook messaging as a substitution for texting. While both forms are considered to be quasi-synchronous, there are certain dimensions, which juxtapose the two. For example, †Å"texting was ever-present and too informal, while instant messaging could offer a textual representation of spoken conversation.† (Gershon, 2010, p. 29) Instant messaging is seen more as face-to-face conversations because it allows for conversational turn taking and how people respond to each other in person. Which is a concept theorized by Don Zimmerman that refers to the process in which people in a conversation decide who should speak next. People turn to texting as a less personal, divided conversation in certain contexts because it does not resemble as much as an in-person conversation. Due to my own ideologies, texting is less personal than instant messaging because it is less rapid and enables time for your reply. My media ideologies on texting were developed through idioms of practice, which have helped me differentiate the appropriate social uses of technology. I selected instant messaging as an alternative for texting because it was more similar than calling or using email. Many of my friends have the Facebook application on their cell phones, so it was as accessible to them as texting is. I initially predicted that I would be missing out on plans, or wouldn’t be able to keep in touch with my friends as much as I could with my cell phone. However, I found myself calling them more often if it was urgent, where I would normally just text a friend if I needed something. Initially, the change in communication media seemed impossible. It often felt like I was breaking a societal norm by refusing to answer a text message. I was unsure how my friends were going to react to this deviation generated by my alternative use of instant messaging. I felt nostalgic because instant messaging is a medium that I used before I had a cell phone and seemed like a more outdated technology. Since language is always changing, it is inevitable that their will always be a changing new media landscape. This relates to remediation, and how my media ideologies and uses of texting connect to the history of the usage of instant messaging. My personal experience on how instant messaging intertwines with the feeling of nostalgia may