Explaining The Responsibility Of The Corporation As A Moral Agent

Corporate entities are legal units with rights and responsibility duties as required by the law. Moral responsibility is not due to ownership rights, but due to the respect of others, either individuals or enterprises, that the organization relates with. Any business entity acts as goods or services supplier and also employs people. A company’s output has got to be of the right quality so that it does not have effect on the consumers or utilizers. It has to ensure that products meet quality standards as set by the quality assurance setters.

Testing of new products should not be carried out using human beings due to the unknown consequences. In case a company’s product happens to have any side effects on its users, it should take care of the medical treatment for the affected. Default in an entity’s output should be rectified to ensure that reoccurrences do not occur. The output should also meet the expectations of the end users. It is therefore necessary for a corporation to carry out research on the needs, desires and wants of its products’ users to ensure that they are well attended to.

In relation to employment, recruitments should be as fair as possible without bias resulting from nepotism or racism. Employment opportunities should be open to everyone so that the short listing can be carried out independently. An entity’s workforce should be treated with much care because they have their rights that can be enforced by labor unions. It is the responsibility of the human resource department to ensure that a company’s human capital is well taken care of because it is the entity’s most valuable asset.
The corporation’s shareholders or stakeholders should also be supplied with all the financial statements to enable them evaluate their investments and make decisions as to their future relationship with the entity. A corporate products’ or activities’ impact brings about moral responsibility. Corporations are socially and economically powerful, but should not harm persons or social institutions. In interactions that are internal or external, corporations have commitments, caring duties and are trust dependants. Philosophically, their moral responsibility focuses on the principle of agency.
Persons of a corporation should be responsible. It is members who act on behalf of the corporation. Personal, collective or corporate agency is related and may make our corporation demands difficult. People act in their corporate roles. Corporations are therefore not distinct entities. Corporate activities therefore lead to moral agency. Accountability is a basic quality in relation to moral agency and organizations should acknowledge their failure in fulfilling their responsibilities. EXAMPLES OF HOW A CORPORATION CAN BE CONSIDERED A SOCIETAL MORAL PROBLEM:
When it does not remunerate it human resources adequately; employees are products of the society and should be sufficiently rewarded for the contribution they make to the company’s profitability. A corporation that is mean to its work force is a moral burden to the society, because it makes use of them and does not compensate for their work through returns, in terms of salary and incentives. The human resources department for any entity should also ensure that employees are not mistreated or sexually harassed. The idea is to take care of natural resources.
When a corporation’s products are harmful to the consumers; incase an entity happens to produce goods that are hazardous, it should take responsibility for the medical treatment of those affected, otherwise it will be considered a societal moral problem. A corporation that does not dispose its waste material properly; sewage that is not well treated or disposed inappropriately is a societal moral problem. Air and water pollution may also be considered a societal problem. (Will, 2009 p. 6-24) REFERENCE: Will, B. (2009). The Responsibility of the Corporation as a Moral Agent. New York: Nerd Press.