Course Reflection

Part 1:

Throughout the course, a variety of concepts/topics were introduced. Please share 2 to 3 things you enjoyed the most; feel free to discuss critical “takeaways” about the relationship between business and society.

*** Under 100 Words ***

Part 2:

Respond to classmate below:

“I think this course was great! I learned about CSR in both my Total Quality Management and Organizational Behavior Courses. But this course had greater focus on the topic.

While going through this course it opened my eyes even more to what is going on in the world and what should and shouldn’t be happening. How businesses should be looking out for the communities and environment. CSR touches so many aspects of business and society, I sometimes get confused regarding a company’s actions and does it fall under CSR or simply customer service. I’m sure they both at least complement each other.

What I really think is so great about this course is that it is in the here and now. The material is relatable and applicable to current situations. A week ago my company had a data breach. I’m watching the messages be sent out by our COO and CIO to employees and customers about what happened and steps taken to resolve the issue and what we all should do and don’t do.

Also I’m actually taking a diversity WebEx today set up by my company and I look forward to hearing the company’s message.

I also watch a lot of television and movies and find myself picking up on all the business and society topics in television shows such as Billions and Succession and the number of situations demonstrating failure to provide CSR all over it.

Situations that stood out to me is on Billions where lead character Bobby Axelrod played Damian Lewis, puts a scheme together to short a company’s stocks, bet against the company by poising the product and staging people to get sick. The act that put the company out of business, cost jobs and not to mention fraud and SEC violations.

On the television Succession the scene that stuck out to me is where the lead character Logan Roy played by Brian Cox had a dispute with a local contractor over work that was done on his getaway mansion and he tells the contractor, that he is not paying the full rate after the work has been completed. In the conversation Cox shouts “sue me, my lawyer is a former US Attorney”. “I’ll have you tied up in court for years”.

I immediately thought back to our readings that talked about how government and business play too close with each other. How ex-government officials can leave the public sector and go right into a high position in the private sector but still have all the connections and relationships from their previous role which can lead to conflict of interest, abuse of power and privilege leading to mistrust by society.

Again, I thought this was a great course. With my travel schedule of three weeks on the road and one week home (which always works out to be more time on the road). I greatly appreciated that the class was not workload-heavy, but still provided opportunity for learning.

Also the class gave insightful and thought provoking discussions. I always felt like learned something new after reading my classmates’ posts. On top of being quick to reply to my inquiries I feel both Dr. Z, and Ms. Grande provided great feedback and insight as well.”