Evolving Relationship Between Business and Society

Business and Society
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Introduction
Understanding the relationship between the society and business is presently being a very dynamic process due to the continuous transformation that both have taken over time. It is no longer the traditional approaches that only looked at making profits at the expense of everything else. The society has continued advancing over time. The same applies to businesses, save for just a few that failed in evolving, the rest have become bigger and their operations more sophisticated. The relationships between the society and business have therefore been punctuated with occurrences which have all but underlined the increasing complexity between the two. As the world grows more into a global village through the process of globalization, the relationship between the two becomes even more delicate. Consumers have become stronger in their say and hence power; therefore, they have increasingly dictated what they expect from the businesses. Increased agitation from consumers, activists, and the government has all worked to influence businesses into enhancing their images. This paper addresses strategic philanthropy, social responsibility, and organizational ethics, as the three main issues playing vital roles in the relationships between the society and business.
* Strategic philanthropy
Strategic and corporate philanthropy encompasses the implementation of some gesture of sheer charity or benevolence, done by an organization out of the decisions of one or more stakeholders in it. Corporate philanthropy is an entirely different aspect of corporate social responsibility (Kania et.al. 2014). It depends on the will of the main players in the business, or the managers running a particular company. The activities done by the company as a form of corporate philanthropy are in most cases the same as these under the responsibility of the government. It is now very normal to see businesses building schools or constructing access roads or revamping social amenities. Such acts are examples of strategic philanthropy.
Businesses have over time exercised strategic philanthropy, mainly funding nonprofit organizations and activities. The underlying framework for strategic philanthropy is that success can be predicted and hence achieved by pursuing a linear trajectory where one event leads to the other. It also predicts that the model can be repeated over and over again. The current society, however, provides a complex and dynamic situation. The injection of direct funding to bring about change is bound to raise cases of misuse of funds and fraud. On the other hand, also, the business in question might use strategic philanthropy to indirectly enhance its standing in the business niche that it operates in (Kania et.al. 2014). In the end, the society and the business end up being at...