Ethics in business about Alibaba
Alibaba is the largest e-commerce company in China. On September 10th the founder Jack Ma announced that ‘from 2015 all employees in Alibaba should take at least three hours public service activity per year’. Alibaba is becoming more corporate social responsibility approach.
According to Freeman’s stakeholder theory, companies need to get the interests of all stakeholders together and towards the same direction. Take responsibilities to society is important for business to achieve success . As more people get involve in public service activities , some citizens may have higher living standard .However, some stakeholders may not satisfied with that decision, like shareholders who are interested in maximize returns would not like companies to pay for their employees to improve public service . Then the effects of Alibaba’s decision highly depend on how Alibaba balance their stakeholders , for example ,communication with shareholders and show the long term rising returns because of the good publicity may be important.
In Friedman’s theory , social responsibility of businesses is to increase profit. If Alibaba use the time of providing public service to create profit, then higher taxation government could be generated and use to improve the society . But if companies do not care the negative externalities during production at all, it could be risky , especially in internet age.
In conclusion ,I think although ethics and corporate responsibilities are not rules , business should take them into account during decision process. If Alibaba can find a balance between all stakeholders , that decision may help the company to generate the long term success.
news from http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2015-09-10/doc-ifxhupik6675078.shtml?ref=myrea
photo fromhttp://tech.163.com/14/0813/08/A3H19HS100094ODU.html
