Practices 7.3 and 7.4:
Practice 7.3
The social role of business has been predominated by the concept of corporate citizenship, which currently has several notions.
Corporate citizenship has two conventional views:
Limited view – corporate citizenship is “strategic philanthropy;” undertaking ethical, economic and legal responsibilities are done with self-interests in mind
Equivalent view – corporate citizenship is “corporate social responsibility;” undertaking ethical, economic and legal responsibilities are not presupposed with self-interests
Matten and Crane (2005) emphasized the need to introduce a “theoretically informed definition” of corporate citizenship, one that is not limited within the two conventional views, as aforementioned.
First observation: Corporate citizenship, as conceptualized by Matten and Crane (2005), relies on various views on citizenship from the existing literature as it is defined as the “empirical relation of the individual to the corporation.”
Corporations have the power to resemble governments as the most powerful institution in citizenship, according to its traditional definition in political theory.
Said definition is not affected by multifaceted normative notions on the role of corporations.
Second observation: The social role of corporations under corporate citizenship must be given a new name, one example being “corporate administration of citizenship” (Matten & Crane, 2005).
Corporations typically state that they are limited to the “proper role of business,” which means that they do not touch on what governments are supposed to do.
However, corporations such as Shell have since been involved in providing public services, especially in countries where governments fail to do so adequately.
Third observation: Corporations are typically self-interested in committing to corporate citizenship (Matten & Crane, 2005).
In the absence of favorable actions from governments, corporations are usually applauded in practicing corporate citizenship.
Further studies must be reconfigured towards evaluating whether corporations are acting in accordance to the interests of society.
Matten and Crane (2005) emphasized that there is a need to undertake further studies exploring the role of stakeholder democracy in managing society-corporation relationships in corporate citizenship.
Practice 7.4
Matten and Crane (2005) presented their arguments for a more theory-based concept of corporate citizenship through the use of multiple kinds of transitions. Firstly, Matten and Crane (2005) commonly utilized linguistic tags to press on the multifaceted arguments of the issue such as comparisons, contradictions and a summary at the end. Parallelism is also apparent, as the thesis statement Matten and Crane (2005) emphasized, given that it focused on expounding on the main points it raised as specified under their three observations. Lastly, Matten and Crane (2005) utilized cross-referencing, given the multitude of concepts needed for reconciliation with one another as the thesis is placed to the test.
Use of Article in Research Paper
In writing the research paper entitled “The Role of Corporate Culture in Business Ethics,” the study by Matten and Crane (2005) is essential in terms of emphasizing that the definition of corporate citizenship must be clarified in order to inculcate said concept in corporate culture as it influences business ethics. Such is in parallel with the arguments raided by Maignan and Ferrell (2004), both of which raised corporate social responsibility as a marketable aspect of corporations that they must embody, regardless of their self-interests. Maignan et al. (1999) emphasized as well that corporate citizenship provides various benefits to businesses, many of which can be rooted from corporate culture. Overall, corporate citizenship (Matten & Crane, 2005) is an aspect that enables one to understand corporate culture better as it influences business ethics.
References
Maignan, I., and Ferrell, O. (2004). Corporate social responsibility and marketing: An integrative framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 32(1), 3-19.
Maignan, I., Ferrell, O., and Hult, G. (1999). Corporate citizenship: Cultural antecedents and business benefits. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 27(4), 455-469.
Matten, D., and Crane, A. (2005). Corporate citizenship: Towards an extended theoretical conceptualization. Academy of Management Review, 30(1), 166-179.
