The Corporation Reaction Paper

A corporation is the most common form of business organization. A corporation

can own property, open a bank account, and do business all under the corporation’s name.

A corporation is managed by a group of people known as the board of directors. Their

primary responsibility is to make the major business decisions and oversee the general

affairs of the corporation. Corporations are a very important part of today’s society.

They provide jobs, benefits, and often a sense of security. But there are concerns people

have with corporations. Many feel that corporations have become so large that they have

m
er as
loss all sense of social responsibility to the people. Opposers to this view feel that

co
eH w
corporations are not the kind of thing that can have social responsibilities, and that the

o.
primary responsibility of a corporate executive is to the owners of the corporations, that
rs e
ou urc
the main purpose of a corporation is to make as much money as possible. In the

documentary, The Corporation, these concerns as well as many others are discussed.
o
aC s

This documentary does not paint a very pretty picture concerning corporations. It
vi y re

presents more of a leftist position because it is bias in showing only the dark side of

corporations. Corporations are compared to being psychopaths. They are referred to as

artificial creations that are like monsters trying to devour as much profit as possible at

anyone’s expense. The reason for this thinking is due to the massive amount of power
is

that corporations have obtained. They were thought to be good ways to serve the public
Th

good, but over time, people began to realize that corporations are starting to get so

powerful that they need to be strongly controlled. Corporations began to gain more
sh

power than the wealthy elite, and as a result, governments have become powerless

compared to what they were before due to globalization.

Early sociologists warned against corporate capitalism. Karl Marx and Max

Weber were two of the most influential sociologists during the nineteenth century whom
This study source was downloaded by 100000836544344 from [Link] on 11-25-2021 [Link] GMT -06:00

[Link]
 strongly believed that there was a society emerging where corporations would dominate

the economic system. Their views may be different, but on the other hand they had some

similarities. They both tried to explain social change that was taking place at that time.

Karl Marx’s conflict theory saw bureaucracy as an unnecessary evil which allowed the

owners of the means of production to maintain control of organizations. Through

hierarchy, the ruling class assures that everyone in the organization works in a way to

maximize the owner’s profit. Marx based his perspective on the conflict of classes.

According to Marx, history would have epochs of modes of production and these modes

m
er as
of production are: primitive communism, slave society, capitalism, feudalism, and then

co
eH w
socialism and communism. Max Weber looked at capitalism from all different aspects.

o.
Some of these aspects were state power, authority, class inequality, and bureaucracy.
rs e
ou urc
Weber believed that the modern worker has lost control of his fate and is forced to sell his

labor to private capitalist. His classic rational theory believes that within capitalism,
o
aC s

there is a constant struggle for power, and that for one person to gain power, someone
vi y re

else has to loose that same amount of power. According to Weber, force is power that can

be used to get one’s way, and authority is the legitimate use of power. The views of both
ed d
ar stu

sociologists are displayed in the documentary. The sweat shops are an example of how

the owner’s have control over their worker’s and the bottom line of making a profit
is

comes before the health and well-being of the production workers. Showing truth to at
Th

least one of Frederick Taylor’s theory of management assumptions that organizations

often see their workers as machines.

Corporations are under pressure to deliver results an externalize costs. And

though many people might automatically assume that corporations have a certain kind of

2
This study source was downloaded by 100000836544344 from [Link] on 11-25-2021 [Link] GMT -06:00

[Link]
 responsibility, whether it is to their stockholders, customers, employees or contributions

to social organizations, the truth to the matter is, the main responsibility of a corporation

is to make as much money as possible. It is the making of this money that the

documentary called “the bottom line”, and the corporations are legally bound to put “the

bottom line” above anything else. Socially responsible corporations rarely exist, and

even if you can find a corporation that may put the public interest first their main goal is

still to make as much money as possible. After all, if they did not make money they

would not exist. Our current economic crisis and the fall of the major banks is an

m
er as
example of that. It seems that there is an ever-increasing trend in our society. Big

co
eH w
corporations are becoming more and more influential in our lives. As they gain more and

o.
more muscle in our government they also invade almost every facet of our lives. Where I
rs e
ou urc
may not agree with every aspect of each sociologist’s theories, I will agree that there are

bits and pieces of each theory that can be applied to our modern day societal
o
aC s

organizations that were discussed in the documentary, but at the end of t he day Max
vi y re

Weber’s classical rational theory is the theory that I found myself agreeing with more

than the others.

3
This study source was downloaded by 100000836544344 from [Link] on 11-25-2021 [Link] GMT -06:00

[Link]
Powered by TCPDF ([Link])