Response to Tammy Chou

In response to the question that was asked of the four components of Corporate Social Responsibility, I believe that the responsibility that is right for society is the ethical responsibilities.

Economic responsibilities aren't always in everyones best interest; not every runs on soul profit. Legal responsibilities are too straight forward, there is no room for error. Philanthropic responsibilities are judged completely on an individuals idea of being a 'good' citizen.

Ethic responsibilities are simple, they are three things: right, just, and fair. Also, avoid harm. If a corporate office and justify that what they do is right just and fair in come way, they will be able to partake in benefiting themselves and society. Ethical is about doing whatever means necessary to avoid harm; in turn doing what it can to benefit a company.

When it comes to looking at these four components of Corporate Social Responsibility, do you also agree that there is one that benefit society? Or could it be that they are all necessary to keep it balanced?

Ethical vs. Legal

"Standards that are legal may not always be ethical, and vice versa"; our text states this in chapter 3 as it begins to discuss ethics in marketing.

In the chapter, ethics is defined as the moral principles or values that generally govern the conduct of and individual or a group. On the other hand, if the definition of legal was also looked up it would refer to something of which that is appointed, established, or authorized by law.

When reading these two definitions the difference is clear; one (ethics) is thought of as moral principles while the other (legal) is looked at as regarding the law. It would seem logical that if something were moral it would be thought of as legal, and in turn something that is legal should in hopes be moral. But it that the case?

It would seem that for this to be true, every single moral act would need to be associated with the law in order to also provide the fact that it is legal. Also, if and act were of the law making it legal, then it would have no choice but to be ethical as well.

On the other hand, it could be plausible that they are not related at all. Something maybe legal or of the law, but maybe is not necessarily moral to all people. Also, something could  be of moral standing to someone, but does not necessarily fall in line with the law.

Do you believe it is possible that all things legal are linked back to some sort of ethics, or rather could all things that are ethical be linked back to some legality? Or is it possible for them not be related at all in a given situation?