I am starting to work on my OB Essay: “What is the role of the firm in society?”
Do I believe that the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits? Our Finance professor has argued that the focus on maximizing shareholder’s value, achieved by selected projects and ventures generating the highest positive Net Present Value does two things
- it maximizes the wealth at societal level, by minimizing waste of resources
- it coordinates the efforts of million of firms scattered around the globe with no links between each other, into one unique direction.
Can I not find situation in which such pursuit would directly conflict with my religious, moral and spiritual values?
What role did banks selling Argentinean bonds as the most secure investment to clients play in the fall of Argentina in 2001? What kind of sane system can play with the life and savings of millions of individuals in the hope of creating short term profits?
Does this portray correctly the weight of companies on an economical national balance, the power it confers to the country in question, the negotiating power of big firms over small government and the responsibility that come with it. Does this illustrate enough the interlinks between society at large (its health system, its environmental rules, its education choices, its tax contexts, its dependence on firms’ production, its financial institutions) and firms (its employment level, its reach in the value chain, its financial choices, its contribution to the GDP…)

Is this a living example of the definition of nascent intellectual capacity: the ability to hold two conflicting ideas in one single mind, and not go mad?
I just feel overwhelmed.