Group Leadership and Reflection - Assignment Example

On the other hand, Goldman Sachs represents the Bad and Ugly side of Capitalism. Through the discussion questions, it is established that a socially responsible corporate culture is manageable and profitable. Discussion Questions 1. 2. 2.1. What is the role of corporate culture in promoting social responsibility? 2.2. What are the challenges a company can face when they try to integrate CSR policies in their corporate culture? 2.3. Do you think this article is another attempt at bad publicity of the corporate culture of a successful company such as Goldman? 2.4.

The article suggested that “Goldman’s attitude has been: This, too, shall pass.” But will it? Can they continue believe this without changing their corporate culture and making it more socially responsible? 2.5. What practices of leadership and corporate culture distinguish Starbucks from Goldman Sachs? Overview of Group Discussion 1. 2. 2.1. Corporate Social Responsibility presents itself as a strategic opportunity and obligations, thus it is very important for organizations to evaluate CSR with the same business acumen and skills as they would any market strategy (Husted & Alen, 839).

The enterprise is considered as a cornerstone for implementing all cultural projects (Storey, 2007, p.190). Thus a corporate culture of socially responsible business practices would have a company-wide impact. The employees mirror the corporate culture of an organization to all stakeholders. The stakeholders of the company communicate within the corporate culture and jointly they contribute towards sustainability in an organization (Arnorld, 2010). 2.2. The very dynamic nature of CSR and the fact that the CSR values and implementations vary from culture to culture create problems for the organizations.

The 1789 Law of Alien Tort Claim Act, forces US firms to be accountable for their actions in international operations (Werther & Chandler, 2010). Thus MNEs are confronted with the mammoth task of integrating a corporate culture that meets global expectations. MNEs can tackle this problem by treating CSR policies in a similar manner as they would any marketing or organizational policy—compliant with the cultural expectations of the host country (Husted & Allen, 2006). 2.3. This article refers to an article by Greg Smith, a former Goldman Sachs employee who quit his job because of the low-moral corporate culture that had become prevalent at Goldman (Smith, 2012).

Goldman has the culture of treating clients as “pigeons” that need to be hunted down rather than the “valued customer”. Usually such an article would have low credibility. But looking at the questionable business ethic practices prevalent in the corporate culture of Goldman Sachs that encouraged the company to push risky loans onto their clients which led to the financial crises, such accusations hit close to home (Norcera 2012). 2.4. The culture of corporate social responsibility is constantly evolving and business practices that were acceptable once may fall short of CSR standards prevalent in the societal and legal environment (Werther and Chandler, p.11). So Goldman Sachs need to get over their dinosaur-approach of believing that their corporate culture and business practices are above ethics and policies.

Werther and Chandler evaluate the impact of the such unethical policies in the corporate culture and identify significant litigation costs and public relation fiascos. The recent