The role of business in society is an issue that has been debated many times due to issues such as corporate social responsibility. However, I believe that the role of business in society is compound and ranges from supplying goods to improving the welfare of the society.
Supply of goods and services
I can say this is the main responsibility of the business in the society. The society has needs in terms of goods and services and businesses are, therefore, established with the sole purpose of meeting these needs and also to make profits. Businesses purchase goods from the society, take them through various processes to make a final product that will benefit the society in general. Such instances may include buying maize from farmers to produce maize flour and other products. In addition, companies do not just buy from farmers but also develop new products and innovations to ease the way of life in the society. This is best shown through use of machineries and social websites where people can communicate from any part of the world within seconds.
Innovation will help the society lower costs enhance quality of products and ensure products and services are delivered quickly. This is best shown by Apple where people obtain technological products for communication and other uses. The products provided should be healthy so as not to compromise on the health of the society. A healthy society is important for productivity since business needs healthy individuals to work for them.
The business should also be able to give people a choice in terms of goods provided. This is by providing diverse products in the market and various industries for consumers to specialize in their areas and pursue their interests. In addition, this should offer consumers a variety of areas where they want to eat, shop and what to buy.
Employment
Employment is another role of the business in the society since the society has human skills that are critical to businesses. These skills assist the business run its operations such as manufacturing, production among others. As a result, the members of the society employed earn incomes, pay taxes for development in the same society and also buy goods for daily consumption. The incomes earned will assist the society build wealth for future spending, assist the disadvantaged and hence meet various societal needs.
In addition, businesses should provide a platform for young entrepreneurs who desire to be leaders in the future by being role models. The young people will later assist the society achieve some of its social needs such as clean water for healthy living.
Social Interactions
Businesses should offer the society a place to interact and socialize by sponsoring employees for abroad trips in order to understand each other and people better. Socialization will enhance peaceful coexistence; social-cultural interactions hence remove issues such as stereotyping.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Though corporate social responsibility is taken to be voluntary, I think it should be core for businesses to take it seriously. This is because, business, in addition to offering employment and goods to the society, also need to thank the society for peaceful coexistence. The society provides the environment around which the business operates. As such, businesses should let positives externalities trickle down to the society. This may be in the form of supply of water to the surrounding community for free. The society would find it difficult to disrupt the activities of a business that provides free services such as water.
Moreover, the business should engage in sponsoring some activities of the society such as educating the disadvantaged or students for the poor backgrounds. This is because, the society employs human skills and some students from poor backgrounds are unable to offer these skills due to lack of education. By supporting education, the business is providing a platform for having adequate skills in the future for its continued success.
Furthermore, businesses should be advocates of climate such as go green activities. These are campaigns geared towards encouraging people to use renewable sources of energy such as gas to avoid cutting down of trees. Trees assist in controlling issues such as soil erosion, cleaning of the air for healthy living and global warming.
Such spearheading will bring awareness of the importance of conserving the environment for a better tomorrow. The environment being conserved will also benefit the businesses in return since there will be readily available materials for companies’ manufacturing processes. Such materials may include water as a result of conserving the environment.
Moreover, businesses should be advocates for human rights such as freedom of expression. This is by encouraging effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, following labor laws, having clear rules and principles of labor that forbid coercion and use of child labor to advance business interests. Also, this may one may be done by ensuring that there is no workplace discrimination based on gender, age, ethnicity among other forms of exploitation.
