Worker, manager, and society

Most company officials recognize the need for firms to participate in the affairs of the communities in which they are located. Yet engagement with local communities can be difficult, especially for multinational corporations that operate plants in distant cities around the world. Many companies have sought to develop public relations and community service programs as a means of strengthening the organization’s image. A plant manager’s role may be defined to include representing the company in community activities and establishing ties with locally based business and professional persons. Thus, it is common to find the manager and other plant executives playing prominent roles in community fund drives and other service programs.

Since the late 20th century, protests and debates over the issue of community responsibility have been ignited by corporate restructurings and plant closings that result in local job losses.Many closings are attributed to high local labour costs coupled with pressures from international and domestic competition; others stem from technological changes; and still others reflect new business strategies and priorities, such as taking advantage of cheaper labour costs by operating production plants in developing countries. Regardless of the causes, say labour leaders and community activists, employers should provide their workers and communities with advance notice of the closing; moreover, corporations should work with employee representatives and community leaders to investigate possible alternatives to closing or to ease the effects of job losses. Concern over this issue has led nearly all industrialized countries to enact legislation requiring companies to notify workers and communities of impending closings or mass layoffs.

Over the years employers have had to broaden the scope of their responsibilities in answer to changes in the demographic makeup of the labour force and to various social issues that affect the employment relationship. For example, in the 1960s the United States enacted a series of equal employment opportunity laws, which forbid discrimination in employment on the basis of race, colour, creed, sex, age, or disability. Companies that do business with the U.S government have an additional obligation to demonstrate that they have taken affirmative action to provide job opportunities for women and minorities.

Since the 1960s, therefore, firms have carefully reexamined and upgraded their recruitment, selection, training, and promotion policies to eliminate discriminatory practices. The evidence on the job market status of blacks and women shows that, while these legislative and company-level initiatives have helped to reduce the income and employment differentials of blacks and women, sizable gaps in wages and occupational status still remain. Moreover, while most employers have eliminated overt forms of discrimination from their formal personnel policies, many observers believe that there is still considerable subtle discrimination that holds back women and minorities in organizations. Research has shown, for example, that some managers tend to bias their performance evaluations of women or minorities. Others unconsciously hold lower expectations for women or minorities or are uncomfortable dealing with them as equals or superiors.

Because of their subtle nature these forms of discrimination are especially hard to eliminate from organizational life. Many firms make use of mentors (senior managers who look out for and provide career advice for junior employees), ombudsmen (third-party neutrals who help to solve conflicts and resolve problems in organizations), and peer support groups or networks to address discriminatory practices that impede the full utilization of all members of the work force.

Debates over the scope of corporate responsibilities have raised an important theoretical question that goes to the heart of the purposes and roles of the modern corporation. Does the corporation exist simply to maximize the value of its shareholders’ investment? Or should a corporation recognize the interests of multiple stakeholders, including not only its stockholders but also its employees, communities, customers, suppliers, and the broader society in which it is located?

This question takes on added importance in a world where capital is more mobile and corporate takeovers more plentiful, and where large corporations typically have multiple national allegiances. Proponents of the stakeholder model would argue for development of new forms of corporate governance where these multiple interests are represented in organizational decision making. Worker interests, for example, would be represented through the appointment of rank-and-file employees to corporate boards of directors—as they are in many European countries.

American managers are often criticized for their failure to adopt a long-term view of the corporation’s objectives, pursuing instead the immediate rewards of maximizing short-term profits. The adoption of a stakeholder view can also help reprioritize business strategies toward long-term goals and effects. The evidence supporting this belief comes from comparisons between American and Japanese firms. Overall, Japanese executives appear to take a longer and broader view of corporate objectives than do their American counterparts. One reason (but not the only one) for this is that the cost of capital is lower in Japan than in the United States. Therefore, Japanese firms can arguably achieve more favourable economic returns for their long-term investments than can comparable American companies. This allows Japanese executives to invest in new products and processes that will build and protect a stable employment base and allow the firm to grow over the long run, even though short-term profits may be sacrificed.

A person who owns stock in a corporation would argue for a more laissez-faire, or free market, approach. While the long-run trend has been to broaden gradually the scope of the corporation’s responsibilities to its communities and work force, corporate law in America still treats the maximization of shareholder wealth as the primary responsibility of firms and their top executives and directors.