By the deadline in the syllabus, on Canvas under Discussions” please post a comment on one of the following questions. Then later in the week, comment on one of your classmates comments (the peer-to-peer commentary).
Comment in detail (about a page) on whether Albert Carrs Harvard Business Review article is in agreement with your view of business. Is Mr. Carr on point about how business is really run? If he is right, should business be managed in this way? Would businesses still be as successful if they were not run on any basis but truth, honesty, transparency and a concern for its consumers? How about what happens when a person in business loses a deal because she refused to play the game. Discuss the political donation matter and whether you would do that yourself. (Do know that many people in business donate to candidates on all opposing sides to make sure they have a friend in the winner.)
Please ignore the masculine gender businessman constantly referenced in his article. It was written at time when there were few women in the executive workforce except as stenographers and secretaries or bookkeepers. That has changed in the last 50 years until now, we have nearly equal, or certainly more equal opportunity for women even though they are paid less on average. Thats for another discussion on another day.
Comment on the success of business as how that affects the stock market. Discuss the dependence of pensioners, annuitants, and others benefit from profitable business. Discuss how the failure of businesses which leads to a down stock market actually may take food off the table for many retirees. Discuss how many teachers in Texas depend on the performance of businesses for their retirement and how, if that were not the case, they would have to be paid more while they worked so they could save for themselves (and the implications if only 10 % of those teachers failed to save for retirement). Note that not all teachers are qualified to receive Social Security payments. (Ministers can also opt out, and railroad workers are often part of an entirely separate retirement system, as are elected persons in Congress). For those without access to the Social Security System, businesses which are part of the stock market must be successful for people to eat. Also, businesses which arent successful cant hire and pay a labor force. Discuss how far a business should go to make sure it can pay its employees or keep them on the payroll.
Contrast the pressure on a business person to succeed (whether thats making a sale, producing a quantity of goods for sale, or providing a service such as surgery) and what impact that level of success has on her or his family. What would failure mean for the family? What would the business persons success do for others beyond the family? Might they become philanthropists and give lots of money to charity? Who benefits then? And if a charity becomes dependent on major gifts from successful people (say, a hospital or university), and the businesses become less successful so the donations dry up, what is the effect on others who use or depend on the charitys services?
