A Study on the Company’s Responsibilities to Stakeholders in Society

關于社會上公司對于利益相關者的責任的研究

 

1.0 Introduction
1.0引言
 

Nowadays, the stakeholder’s responsibility is consistent with the corporation’s benefits, so that the process of creating values is a whole confederative course all over the world (James, 2009). Therefore, the development of the corporations around the world is closed related to the stakeholder’s responsibilities; as a result of it is good for the development of the society and environment. This relationship is reflected on the corporate social responsibilities of the company, which asks for the corporations around the world must exceed the traditional opinion which is the make profits is the exclusive objective, and emphasize the attentions on the value of the production and the contribution to the society. The classical economic view for the corporation is to maximize the profits for the business, while the socioeconomic economic view mentions that the companies should take on two aspects’ responsibilities for the society and itself (Michael & Michael, 2009).

如今，利益相關者的責任是與公司的利益保持一致，從而使創造價值的過程是全世界整體聯合的過程（詹姆斯，2009）。因此，世界各地的公司的發展與相關的利益相關者的責任很近，因為它的結果是良好的社會和環境的發展。這種關系是在公司，它要求世界各地的企業都必須超越傳統，企業社會責任的體現是賺錢這個獨家的目標，并強調重視對生產的價值和貢獻社會。為公司的古典經濟的看法是最大限度地為企業創造利潤，而社會經濟的經濟觀點中指出，公司應該承擔兩方面的責任，為社會和自身（邁克爾 - 邁克爾，2009）。 
 

For the global companies, the managerial legitimacy means the stakeholder’s responsibilities are more important than the government. The social responsibility of the company can be implanted to a wide range of stakeholders in society; as a result of these stakeholders are groups or individuals who can affect the achievement of the organization’s objective. Heather & Robert (2009) found out that the stakeholders can be divided into two parts, which are the environmental stakeholders and the process stakeholders. The environmental stakeholders contain the customers, owners and the community, while the process stakeholders include the employees and suppliers of the company.

對于全球性公司，管理的合法性是指利益相關者的責任比政府更重要。公司的社會責任可以被植入到一個廣泛的利益相關者中，這些利益相關者的結果是團體或個人可以影響實現組織的目標。希瑟和羅伯特（2009）發現，利益相關者可以分為兩個部分，分別是環境利益相關者和利益相關者的過程。環境利益相關者包括客戶，業主和社會，而這個過程的利益相關者包括該公司的員工和供應商。 #p#分頁標題#e#
 

Until now, some companies have already accepted the opinion which is they have the responsibilities to a wide range of stakeholders in society; because of there is closed relationship between the corporation’s responsibilities and the stakeholders. However, there is another point of view thought that the objective of the company is only making profit and the firm’s responsibilities don’t have meaning on achieving objective, so that these companies don’t agree with that. In my opinion, the preceding opinion is suit for the development of the society and environment. For proving the relationship between the company’s responsibilities and the stakeholders is interactional and closed related with each other, this paper will be discussed from four aspects which depend on four different kinds of responsibilities on stakeholder’s responsibilities, for proving that all the companies around the world should accept that taking stakeholder’s responsibilities is good for the company and society’s development.

 

2.0 Main Body
2.0主體
 

According to the Carroll’s pyramid model, the social responsibilities of the company can be divided into four stages from bottom to top are: the economic responsibilities, the legal responsibilities, the ethical responsibilities and the philanthropic responsibilities (Stephanie, 2008). There are many advantages on the stakeholder’s responsibilities for the business. First of all, fulfilling the corporate social responsibility is good for increasing the profitability of the company, because o fit can help the business build up the well visualization for achieving the long-term objective (Acquier, et al, 2008). In addition, it is good for the continuable development of environment and resources. Therefore, it shows that there is a strong relationship between the companies’ responsibilities and the wide range of stakeholders in society nowadays.

 

First of all, the economic responsibility of the company is the foundation upon which all other levels rest in corporate society responsibilities, based on the Carroll’s pyramid model. The firms should consider the social responsibility under the condition of the company can keep a good development itself, unless other responsibility will be the burden for the business. John (2006) has shown the economic responsibility for the shareholders can enrich the stakeholder or society, as a result of it can help the national economic have a rapid and steady development. The Michael E. Porter theory mentions that the corporate economic objective and the society responsibility can be compatible in the modern society (David, 2007). Based on the view of Nigel & Nikala (2009), some managers of the company consists that supplying some extra responsibility will decrease the retained profits, as a result of it could add extra costs on the process of production and extending. But actually, the economic responsibility to the stakeholder has some strongpoint to the companies. Take the SONY Company as an example; it used the economic responsibility to absorb many customers’ attentions. For reducing the costs of products, SONY company is trying t make the production and used information more clarity so that decrease the customer’s risks when they bought the SONY company’s technical products. The Sony Company used some alloy steel instead of the traditional steel for making the façade of the equipment, which is the representation of economic responsibility. Compared with other technological companies all over the world, the SONY Company utilized the economic stakeholders’ responsibility maintaining the strong competitive position in the serious competition environment. Due to the tenet of implementing economic responsibility is to make business as profitable as possible; the transaction cost theory emphasizes that the phenomenon of professional work divided result by the operation of the economic system and the market pricing mechanism. Thus, the economic responsibility can reduce the transaction costs for the business, which can make the rational consumers prefer these companies. On the other side, the cost of using the market pricing mechanism is a little higher, so that it forms the corporate mechanism. Hereby, the companies should use the economic responsibility to the customers which is also the stakeholder in society for keeping the steady social mechanism. The investments on the economic responsibility of the corporation can endow the product with the property of society responsibility which can be seen as a differentiation strategy. There are many researches on the economic responsibility for corporations. Based on the analysis of the relationship between the corporate society responsibility and the short-term profits, Nigel & Nikala (2009) has shown that it has some correlation between the produce costs and the level of implementing corporate society responsibility in the UK. The result is if the relationship has the positive correlation, there is obvious differentiation between the value of the products which fulfilling the economic responsibility and the rest. In addition, Nigel & Nikala (2009) also pointed out the productive costs of the public companies with high reputation are always lower; as a result of the good reputation is result by the implementing economic responsibility. From above, it shows that the economic responsibility of the company can reduce the productive costs for maximizing the profits, so that it is not only good for the owners of the company, but also good for the customers.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Secondly, Davide (2007) stressed the legal responsibility asks the company obey all the rule and regulations, as a result of the law is the society’s codification of right and wrong. Doing the legal responsibility can help and keep the society becoming the monocracy society for the stakeholders. The companies around the world must do everything under the law and play by the rules, for example, the environment protection law, the consumer rights and interests’ law, the labor protection law, and so forth. From above, the Carroll’s model has shown that the companies should provide goods and services to the customers that at least the minimal legal requirements (Davide, 2007). Developing the working activities under the existing national and global legal frameworks is the basic requirement for the companies around the world. If all the companies around the world don’t follow the laws and regulations, the serious competitive environment will become quite unfair which full of issues and problems. However, there still have some companies get the homologous punish by without following the rules all over the world. In 2008, the Chinese Sanlu milk powder Company absorbed many people’s attention, as a result of there are some heavy metal existing in the products of the company (Gary, 2008). The aftereffect of this event is the company have to be bankrupt and suffer from the chastisement of the laws, as a result of the unqualified milk powder made lots of Chinese children got the nephric lithiasis, even death. The event of Sanlu Company is representative examples for the companies which did not obey the legal rules, which are lack of corporate social responsibility. Therefore, the companies must obey the legal national and supra-national laws and regulations for keeping the excellent competitive environment, unless it will suffer from the chastisement of the laws. That means the legal responsibility of the company is related to the company’s own development and the customers’ safe and benefits. Due to the closed relationship between the employees and the corporation, the legal responsibility is so necessary for both of them because the laws and regulations can protect the rights of labors and also can reduce the loss of the company if something happened. It can be represented by three aspects. Firstly, companies with legal responsibility can reduce the issues of the labor contract and trade entanglement with the stakeholders. In the actual life, there are lots of problems existing in the labor contract between the firm and employees. Therefore, legal responsibility can supervise this system for ensuring the labor’s legitimate rights. And, the conflict between the employee and employer has become more and more obvious because of the polarization of benefits. In the UK, there are about 847,000 cases about the labor disputed in 2004, while the number has increased to 1,260,000 in 2006, which shows the average increased percentage is about 10.44% (Rajat & Eric, 2007). Moreover, the legal responsibility can protect the employee and employer’s safe problems. In order to saving some costs, Gary (2008) also pointed out that some employees work in the execrable environment so that they don’t have the guarantee on the safe and health, especially in the colliery industry. Hereby, it shows that company with social responsibility can protect the rights of the employees, and also can motivate employee to work better and find out more capable methods on operating, such as, the supply chain management.#p#分頁標題#e#