Socially Responsible Investing And Morally Responsible Investing Management Essay

Socially Responsible Investing And Morally Responsible Investing Management Essay Introduction The last decades a bid debate is going on about the responsibility of business. The most known debate is the one that started with the book of Milton Friedman (1962) Capitalism and Freedom. Then at 1970 Friedman published an article at the New York Times Magazine, repeating his views on corporate responsibilities and he supported them further. After that publication many responses where published from many scholars (ex. Mulligan 1986, Shaw 1988, Nunan 1988) each one arguing for or against Friedmans views. One of the well-promoted debates is the one between Friedman and Freeman who is a major supporter of the stakeholder theory. This last debate ended with the death of Friedman and the essay of Freeman (2008) that he is ending the debate. The main argument between the scholars is focused in the following phrase of Friedman (1962, 1970): there is one and only one social responsibility of business-to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.. In this essay I will try to focus on these rules of the game in now days, the demands of the global market and some arguments that confirm a change in the rules or at least a movement toward a fundamental change. The New Rules of the Game In short time after Friedmans publications, Davis (1973) presented a very prophetically article. He tried to illustrate argument for and against social responsibility, presenting very accurate the issues that led to the CSR development and spreading. Among others he spotted the benefits of CSR towards the public image of a company, the long-run self-interest, the implications from government regulation, social norms and the increasing stockholder interest toward responsible behavior. Cooper suggests that Friedman was right, since the rules of the game are now changed, and have nothing to do with the rules in 1970 that extended only to the basic free market principles. He argues that now the societys expectations of business are including also environmental concern, consumer safety, ethical governance and other. A modern company has to deal with multiple stakeholders that are increasing because of the rising interest and also because of the globalization of the markets. NGOs, trade un ions, consumers organizations, all are trying to influence with the companys activities and support their interests. So now CSR has to go beyond corporate philanthropy and charity work. Row (2006) argues that now there is greater awareness that CSR encompasses not only what companies do with their profits, but also how they make them. For better understanding of the changes of the rules I will present some of those that had change and what is required, from a company, to deal with now. Public Image Vivien and Thompson (2005) in their essay commented the study of FTSE 100 that found that, in UK, around 60 percent of the firms market value was not reflected in the balance sheet. That means that the value of a firm is coming also from other non-financial assets. Deephouse (2000) proposed that reputation is the most competitive advantage that companies can have. With the development of the media and the technology, it is crucial for a company to have a good public image. It is now very easy to spread out a problem that occurred in a company, something that in the past was more difficult due lack of means. Now with the internet almost anybody in the world can express an opinion and be read (or heard) by anyone in the world. So a minor problem can easily take global dimension and publicity. Also with the rising number of multinationals millions of people are becoming stakeholders and are interested in the activities of these companies. Fombrun (1996) stated that reputation is based o n stories various stakeholders tell about the organization. Now with millions of stakeholders, there are millions of stories to be told and the technology provides the means to do it. Fombrun (1998) also lists six criteria that effect reputation of a company in the public eye: financial performance, product quality, employee treatment, community involvement, environmental performance and organizational issues. It is easy to see that many of these criteria are connected with CSR strategies. So CSR can assist a company to create or preserve a good public image, something that in the past was not essential for the business. Rowe (2006) argues that the growing numbers of NGOs, campaigning groups and activist organizations can strongly affect the image of a company. Some years before the numbers of these stakeholders and their power were far smaller. Friedman, driven by the political status of cold war, was facing any critic on the system as a socialist or communistic approach. Now, in a globalized market, these stakeholders have an important role and influent consumers, shareholders and more or less even nations. People in different countries have different values but the structure of human value system is universal (Schwartz, 1994, 1999). That is why a bad image can affect the stakeholders around the world, even if they have different values. But we should not forget that reputation also affects shareholders behavior. When having substance, favorable reputation attracts stakeholders as well as shareholders and investors for usually creating refection of investments security and trustworthy treading partner (Dowling, 2004; Gregory, 1991). Government Regulation Some years ago the balance of power shifted away from government in favor of corporations. Under globalization, deregulation, privatization and technological innovation accelerated that phenomenon (Rowe, 2006). But now, in the post-Enron world and in the middle of a global economic crisis, voices raising and asking for more regulation. Greenfield (2006) argues that the law governing corporations need to be more protective of corporations. Lydenberg and Sinclair (2009) argue that there may be battles between corporations, government and NGOs over the appropriate circumstances for regulation and the degree of that regulation, but the ground rules will have changed only when corporations are seen fighting for, not against, such oversight. CSR, for now, is a voluntary initiative that corporations are taking beyond their legal requirements. Reporting CSR initiatives was part of the communication strategy of each company. Now governments and regulators increasingly expect, and are beginnin g to require, CSR reporting (Lydenberg and Sinclair, 2009). Governments, especially in Europe, ask from public traded companies to include social and environmental indicators in their reports to shareholders (Lydenberg and Sinclair, 2009). National pension funds are required to adopt social and environmental guidelines for their investments. Also raising economies and markets, such as China, are requiring from the state-owned companies to report their CSR initiatives (Ethical Performance, 2008). We see that, starting from reporting, CSR starts to be regulated. For now reporting of public companies and public interests investments are required to report and consider social and environmental issues. For sure that will expand to the private sector, maybe through contracting from public companies. Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and Morally Responsible Investing (MRI) Calvert Investments states that SRI funds aim to integrate personal, social and environmental concerns with financial considerations, their objective is to increase investors wealth while ensuring that the selected companies have a positive impact on people and the Planet.. SRI funds are also known as Green Funds or Ethical Funds (Ghoul and Karam, 2007). Lydenberg and Sinclair (2009) argue that systematic corporate disclosure on social and environmental issues is increasingly demanded by responsible investors and consumers. SRI Funds are going a step further. SRI Funds demand their investments to be in an ethical way and in ethical sectors of economy. Usually SRI Mutual Funds are not involved with alcohol, gambling, tobacco and weapons production or distribution. Beyond that they pursue to have good performance is areas of welfare, board diversity, community relations, corporate governance, environment, human rights, indigenous peoples right, product safety and impact, and workplace practices (Lydenberg and Sinclair, 2009). Baue and Cook (2008) note there has been a changing behavior of mutual fund voting on climate change issues. Also public pension and investment funds have moved significantly on their transparency with respect to proxy voting (Global proxy Watch, 2008). Moreover in 2006 the United Nations Global Compact and the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative lunched, at the New York Stock Exchange, the Principles for Responsible Investment, an initiative that aim to connect pension funds and money managers from around the world to commit to principles of responsible investment. As we see there is a turning to the way that investments are done. Beaver (2001) argues that institutional investors have been taking large and long-term positions in firms while playing more dominant role in corporate affairs. Also Warren (2002) notes that over 60% of shares are held by financial institutions, which seek the best returns on behalf of their investors [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] however, there is now a growing sector of the investment market that is guided by ethical criteria in the selection of its investment portfolio. At last Hendry et al. (2007) argue that the activism of public pension funds, and more recently of trade unions pension funds, has had greater effect on company-shareholder relationship. [..] Public pension funds, have taken the view that the pensioners of the future have an interest not only in financial returns but also in such things as environmental sustainability and ethically and socially responsible capitalism.. A different kind of responsible investment is the so-called Morally Responsible Investing (MRI). These are faith-based funds that invest in companies whose products and policies are consistent with the investors religious (usually moral) beliefs (Ghoul and Karam, 2007). There are basically two types of MRI funds, the Islamic Mutual Funds and the Christian Funds. Both are based on the religion and their investment is more focused on ethical (each in its own perception) field of investing and less on social or environmental contribution (Ghoul and Karam, 2007). That is the major difference with the common SRI funds. Conclusions When Milton Friedman was writing his famous book and essay couldnt predict these changes in the world. He was actually right when he argued that companies should act within rules of the game. Those rules have change. Cooper supports that companies of the 21st century have as an essential component of success a balanced approach of CSR issues. As we saw many of the rules are changed and keep changing. The image of a company is now more important than ever before. CSR makes the corporate image better. Also the way of investing had changed. Personal values of the investors or sustainability strategies of Mutual Funds are affecting the investors portfolio towards ethical and responsible investing. Regulatory systems are changing and moving towards more ethical accountability. The corporate scandals and the financial crisis triggered a reaction of multiple stakeholders that now demand a more regulatory system. Companies also start to support that, since they see that the bad actions of so me targeted whole industries (ex. Bonuses of bankers). Risk and sustainability strategies are becoming a mainstream in the business world. Those cant work if they are not connected with CSR strategies and responsible behaviors. Klein and Dawar (2004) propose that CSR has value to the firm as a form of insurance policy against negative events. There is still to see if these rules are going to change more and how are they going to interact with the market and companies behavior. Googins et al. (2007) argue that the rules of the game are to change, however this redefinition will need to encompass shifts that are legal, regulatory, theoretical and cultural.

The Craft Era

The first major era is now referred to as ‘craft’ manufacturing and service ‘shop’ delivery. This system was European in origin and linked to the way in which skills were developed: the apprentice–journeyman– master progression, which led to the creation of guilds of skilled people who sought to control the supply of their speciality, and the consolidation of skill within a subsector of society (as, for example, skills were passed on from father to son). This was noted for low-volume, high-variety products, where workers tended to be highly skilled and quality was built into the very process of operations. It was also appropriate for largely national markets, supplied internally with minimal imports and exports. Some craft manufacturing still remains today, in markets where exotic products and services can control demands through some unique feature or high level of desirability. For instance, some house building, furniture making, clock and watch making are still carried out by skilled craftsmen/women working on a single or few items of output at a time. While the processes and techniques used by these craftsmen/women are highly inefficient, the unique quality of their products commands a premium price, as illustrated by the secondhand value of products such as a Daniels pocket watch or a Morgan car. In the case of Morgan, however, it is a mistake to conclude that the passenger car industry might still be able to employ craft production. Morgan is unashamedly part of a sector that is closer to specialist toys than that concerned with personal transportation. It is also the end of a very thin tail, other parts of which (AC, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, etc. have already been absorbed by volume producers, keen to operate in exotic niches for purposes that are closer to corporate advertising than to income generation. In the clothing industry, one significant sector of the industry – haute couture – is based on the craft production approach. In services, the craft era has also continued – perhaps even more so than in manufacturing. The slower pace of change within services derives from the extent to which customer processing operations can adopt new technologies and new systems. Only services that require little skill at the operating level (such as FMCG or petrol retailing) or processing large amounts of information (such as financial services) are significantly different now from what they were like even 30 years ago. Many services such as hotels, schools, hospitals, hairdressers, vehicle repair and transportation have changed very little, despite new technologies. The mass production era The second major era is known as mass production, although once again its principles were by no means restricted to manufacturing. This system grew in North America to accommodate three principal requirements of the developing giant: the need to export, the need to provide employment for a massive, largely unskilled workforce, and the need to establish itself as a world player, which meant infiltrating other regions with ideas clearly associated with the USA. In short, the Americans could not play by the European rules, so they reinvented the game: innovating by destroying the competitive position of craft production. The system was massively successful and changed the working and buying practices of the world in the first three decades of the twentieth century. In order to sell the standardized products made by standardized operations practices, mass production had to standardize the market requirements too. Fortunately, the market was immature and would do what it was told to do. Thus, mass production reversed the paradigm of craft production: volume was high with little variety. The marketing ploy (and the resultant manufacturing strategy) was exemplified by Henry Ford’s famous declaration, from now on, ‘a customer can have a car painted any colour he likes, as long as it is black! ’ In mass production, workers were typically unskilled. This was the era owing much to the contribution of F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management, whereby workers had very narrowly defined jobs, involving repetitive tasks, and quality was left to ‘quality experts’ at the final stage of the overall process rather than being an integral part of operations at each step (Taylor, 1912). Taylor enabled firms, for the first time, to control costs, times and resources, rather than rely on skilled craftsmen and women to decide what was appropriate. Coupled with the developments made in mechanization and employee co-ordination during the European industrial revolutions, Taylor’s ideas provided an entirely different way of operating. In 1926, Encyclopaedia Britannica asked Henry Ford to christen his system and he called it mass production. He meant ‘mass’ in the sense of large volume production. Perhaps he did not see the other meaning of mass as ‘heavy and cumbersome’, which is what the system turned out to be (in terms of management systems and superstructure), once the market no longer bought what it was told. These principles originating in the 1920s were slow to be adopted in services, but by the 1970s, Ted Levitt, from Harvard Business School, was able to identify the ‘production-lining’ (Levitt, 1972) of service and the ‘industrialization’ (Levitt, 1976) of service. He cited fast food, the automatic teller machine (ATM) outside banks and supermarket retailing as examples of this. Schmenner (1986) coined the phrase ‘mass service’ to exemplify this type of service operation. More recently, the aspects of working life that are typical in this mass production context have been extended to life in general by Ritzer (1993), who refers to it as the McDonaldization of society. The shift from ‘craft’ marketing to marketing in the mass production age is clearly demarcated by the publication of Levitt’s (1960) article in the Harvard Business Review entitled ‘Marketing myopia’. In mass production, customers bought what was supplied; producers concentrated on keeping costs, and hence prices, down, and focused on selling to customers through aggressive advertising and sales forces. As organizations were product-led, operations management was relatively straightforward. Mass producing goods at the lowest cost meant minimizing component and product variety, large production runs and scientific management. The success of Ford made this view highly persuasive. In 1909, the Model T automobiles were sold for $950, but by 1916, following the introduction of the assembly line, it had fallen to $345, and three-quarters of the cars on American roads were built by Ford (Bryson, 1994). However, as Levitt (1960) pointed out, Ford was eventually outstripped by General Motors, who were not product-led but market-led. They gave customers what they wanted – choice, model updates, a range of colours (not just black! ). The symbol of this age is the brand. Originally (in the craft era) the brand was a mark on the product, often a signature – for example, on a painting – or symbol, signifying its ownership or origin. But in mass production the brand took on far more significance. It became the means by which one product (or service) could differentiate itself from a competitor’s product (or service). Procter & Gamble set up brand managers in 1931 to sell their different soap products. Later the brand also became a guarantee of product/service quality. Kemmons Wilson’s motivation in 1952 to open the first Holiday Inn hotel was his own disappointment with the ariable standards and sleaziness of the motels he stayed in whilst on a family holiday. The success of delivering a consistently standard level of service resulted in Wilson opening one hotel every two and half days in the mid-1950s. But by the 1990s, brands had come under threat. Markets are highly fragmented, the proliferation of niches makes target marketing more difficult, product and service life cycles are shortening, and product/service innovation is quicker than ever before; increasing customer sophistication has reduced the power of advertising. As a result, a more holistic view of operations management is required, as Crainer (1998) suggests: Companies must add value throughout every single process they are involved in and then translate this into better value for customers. This is because the modern era has brought profound changes in operations management and operations has to be at the heart of successful strategic thinking.

American Psychiatric Association, 2000 - 3062 Words

According to the DSM IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), the diagnostic category of pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) refers to a group of disorders characterized by delays in the development of socialization and communication skills. Parents may note symptoms as early as infancy, although the typical age of onset is before three years of age. Symptoms may include problems with using and understanding language; difficulty relating to people, objects, and events; unusual play with toys and other objects; difficulty with changes in routine or familiar surroundings; and repetitive body movements or behavior patterns. Males are two times more likely to be diagnosed with PDD than females (Stewart, 2003). Autism, a†¦show more content†¦In the first section of this paper I examine the research on the etiology of ASD. Current research on etiology focuses specifically on PDD and ASD as one category, not looking at the differences among individual cases. There is li ttle information on PDD-NOS as a separate condition under PDD or ASD. Examining the literature on the etiology of ASD is useful for understanding PDD-NOS. This body of literature may be important in one day distinguishing PDD-NOS as a separate syndrome in the PDD category. In the second section of this review, I focus on treatment. I consider interventions for the PDD-NOS category because the prognosis for this population can be greatly affected by the presenting symptoms as well as the chosen interventions. While certain interventions have proven useful for children with autism or Asperger’s syndrome, PDD-NOS requires a multi-modal approach that can incorporate strategies used with the autistic population as well as the behavioral interventions used with Asperger’s syndrome. Clinicians working with children diagnosed as PDD-NOS have to be creative, flexible and prepared to use a wide array of interventional tools in order to serve this population. 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The Character of Pearl in Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter...

The Scarlet Letter: Pearl Children are incredibly sensitive and can sense almost any emotion of an adult by observing body language and facial expressions. Such is the case with the youthful Pearl from the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. As the daughter of the adulteress Hester Prynne, the townspeople view Pearl as a demon in an angel’s clothing; who not only knows exactly what the letter A signifies on the bosom of her mother, but as the demon who placed it there, as well. The townspeople believe that Pearl uses this information against Hester by constantly mentioning the letter in order to make Hester extremely uncomfortable. This belief of the townspeople is certainly not supported by the†¦show more content†¦It is important for one to understand these references are an attempt on Hawthorne’s part to display to the reader a fragment of Puritanical society. By no means is Pearl a mischievous child. She is a curious child. 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Hawthorne uses everyday objects and places to symbolize many main themes, concepts, and ideas in the lives of Hester and Pearl as well as multiple other main characters. Hester Prynne,