Assignment: Alternative Energy

Assignment: Alternative Energy
ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT:Assignment: Alternative Energy

Assignment: Alternative Energy
Assignment: Alternative Energy

Assignment: Alternative Energy

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS

The terms ethics and social responsibility are often used interchangeably, but each has a distinct meaning. In Chapter 1 , we defined social responsibility as an organization’s obliga- tion to maximize its positive impact on stakeholders and minimize its negative impact. For example, Google makes it a mission to become a zero-carbon company by investing in alternative energy, purchasing carbon offsets, and constructing more energy-efficient data centers. 25 Intuit matches employee donations and gives employees paid time off for volunteering in their communities. 26 SC Johnson gives 5 percent of pre-tax profits to corporate giving and is investing in wind turbines to power some of its manufactur- ing plants. 27 Conversely, one study found that a firm’s sales margin will be damaged by the unethical treatment of stakeholders. 28 Many other businesses have tried to determine what relationships, obligations, and duties are appropriate between their organizations and various stakeholders. Social responsibility can be viewed as a contract with society, whereas business ethics involves carefully thought-out rules or heuristics of business con- duct that guide decision making.Assignment: Alternative Energy

There are four levels of social responsibility—economic, legal, ethical, and philan- thropic (see Figure 2–3 ). 29 At the most basic level, companies have a responsibility to be

23715_ch02_ptg01_hr_028-058.indd 3623715_ch02_ptg01_hr_028-058.indd 36 25/10/13 3:42 PM25/10/13 3:42 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Chapter 2: Stakeholder Relationships and Social Responsibility 37

profitable at an acceptable level to meet the objectives of shareholders and create value. Of course, businesses are also expected to obey all relevant laws and regulations. For example, the European Union established an online privacy law going beyond what other countries require. Under the law individuals will be able to delete uploaded personal data if there are no legitimate grounds for retaining it. The law also addresses cookies, the common Internet files websites use to remember data about users that other firms collect to track users’ online behavior. This means if a U.S. company such as Google wants to do business in the EU, it must obey the law or pay up to $ 1.4 million per violation. 30

Business ethics, as previously defined, comprises principles and values that meet the expectations of stakeholders. Philanthropic responsibility refers to activities that are not required of businesses but that contribute to human welfare or goodwill. Ethics, then, is one dimension of social responsibility. Ethical decisions by individuals and groups drive appro- priate decisions and are interrelated with all of the levels of social responsibility. For exam- ple, the economic level can have ethical consequences when making managerial decisions.

The term corporate citizenship is often used to express the extent to which businesses strategically meet the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities placed on them by various stakeholders. 31 Corporate citizenship has four interrelated dimensions: strong sustained economic performance, rigorous compliance, ethical actions beyond what the law requires, and voluntary contributions that advance the reputation and stakeholder commitment of the organization. A firm’s commitment to corporate citizenship indicates a strategic focus on fulfilling the social responsibilities its stakeholders expect. Corporate citizenship involves acting on the firm’s commitment to corporate citizenship philosophy and measuring the extent to which it follows through by actually implementing citizen- ship initiatives. Table 2–2 lists some of the world’s most ethical companies, all of which have demonstrated their commitment to stakeholders. As Chapter 1 demonstrated, many of these companies have superior financial performance compared to the indexes of other publically traded firms.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.Assignment: Alternative Energy

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASSDiscussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.Assignment: Alternative Energy
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.