MACKEY VS. FRIEDMAN
TWO VIEWS ON THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS AS VIEWED THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE BP OIL SPILL
LAW AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
After watching “The Newsroom,” “The Spill,” “Deepwater Horizon” and Sisodia’s Ted Talk, Robert Sapolsky’s interview – AND reading the assigned materials from Milton Friedman and John Mackey’s book, and Loeb’s “Soul of a Citizen” AND listening to my introductory lectures — write a well-formulated and well-written essay exploring the questions below.
Your essay should:
contain between 1000 and 1500 words
Also – if you exceed word count, that is fine. It is quite difficult to figure out how many words students need to write in order to fully explore this topic. So err on the side of more – rather than less…
be written in 12 point Garamond, Times New Roman Cambria, Arial, Tahoma font and single-spaced
include the questions below in italics (simply copy and paste them into your Word document) and your answers to them after each question
be submitted by one team member as a Word document on Canvas on due date noted in the Canvas Assignments tab
PROMPT QUESTIONS
The tension between self-interest and concern for others is a key theme in the pilot episode of “The Newsroom,” John Mackey’s vision of a “conscious capitalist,” Loeb’s essay and Sapolsky’s teaching.
Here is how the character MacKenzie McHale put it in her first conversation with her boss Will McAvoy in his office. “We are coming to a tipping point… There’s going to be a huge conversation… Is self-interest our basic resting pulse? Or is there something bigger we want to reach for? Emphasis added
Question to answer in 1000 word Essay is:
How do you think John Mackey and Raj Sisodia would respond to the question “is self-interest our basic resting pulse? Or is there something bigger we want to reach for?”
Materials to read/watch for assistance:MODULE 1 – INTRODUCTION TO CSR/THE GREAT DEBATE
Watch/listen to:
the pilot episode of the HBO series “The Newsroom” – story set on the first day of the BP Oil Spill
PBS documentary “The Spill” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-spill/
the first half of the movie “Deepwater Horizon”
Raj Sisodia TED talk on conscious capitalism
Robert Sapolsky interview on human behavior
Read:
The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits Milton Friedman New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970. Copyright 1970 by The New York Times Company
Conscious Capitalism, Foreword by Bill George and Introduction – pp. ix-xiv and pp.1-40
Paul Rogat Loeb, “Excerpts from Soul of a Citizen” pp.1-7 Introduction and Chapters 1-7
