I like the first half but not the second. Having trouble Reflecting on the responsibilities this places on business managers and connecting it all.
These are the issues we have to touch on
- Topic 2: Social sustainability – big issues, Environmental sustainability – big issues, Externalities and reporting
- Topic 1 – Stakeholder and Shareholder Approaches, 5Triple Bottom Line, Sustainable Business
BUSINESS AND SOCIETY 1057
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL 1
WORD COUNT – 750 WORDS (-/+ 10%)
QUESTION – Considering what you have learned in Topic 1 and Topic 2, what is the role of business in society? Reflect on the responsibilities this places on business managers.
Do:
Talk in the first person – this is all about you. Use “I”, “me”.
Use the lead-in lines (see the above readings) to help you with the critical reflective process.
Set out your existing beliefs, knowledge and understanding and how these came about, use the course material to critically reflect on these, then set out future actions as a result of what you have learned.
Do NOT:
Give your personal opinion – reflection is the opposite to this where you question your opinions.
Set out what other people, government, business etc should or should not do. This is about YOU and questioning yourself, not saying what others should do.
Write a traditional academic essay – reflection is different to this and is about questioning yourself.
- Current knowledge (about 20% of the content)
Set out your existing (prior to taking this Business and Society course) beliefs, knowledge and understanding on the issues that the question has to do with, and your life experiences that gave rise to these.
- Critical reflection (about 60% of the content)
Use the course material to critically question and challenge your existing beliefs, knowledge and understanding.
Set out any changes in knowledge, deeper understanding, and new insights.
- Future actions (about 20% of the content)
Discuss what future actions you can now take based on what has come from your reflections.
Prior to taking business and society, I was under the impression that although companies seek profit initially, they try to carefully rule within sustainable and environmental limits to help protect our planet and people working within the companies to offer customers consumer goods. Additionally, I thought that because my working conditions within my experiences were fair, everyone else’s working experience would be similar. Furthermore, I understood that Business managers are in charge of a project (development stage) and will enforce the company values.
When learning about the triple bottom line method (Kenton April 30 2023), I struggled to grasp that it was a philosophy, not a rule every business follows routinely. I felt this supported my initial beliefs as it showed the concept companies could follow, however after completing the course readings, I came to understand just how disadvantaged people are when directly suffering in working conditions due to climate stress and the burden of social challenges that it carries (Lyndon’s 2019). It became apparent that my prior thoughts and beliefs were far from reality. Once learning that students in Deli, Thailand and Mexico all had their studies abruptly postponed due to air pollution (Economists newspaper 2019), the readings helped me make sense of my personal experiences as well as help me face the reality that their experiences were directly impacted by climate change, something I had never encountered. When reading about Apple’s poor working conditions (Marchant, 2017), I now realise what wasn’t clear to me before is many companies take advantage of their workers (Chamberlain, 2011) for the service they provide. When I assessed my current beliefs regarding this reading, I realised that I do not morally agree with Apple’s treatment or conditions, and it was vastly different from my working experience. All my prior thoughts and beliefs were due to not being informed or branching out of my own experiences. I thought back to what I learned, the triple bottom line method (Kenton, April 30 2023). I felt conflicted as; evidently, It appeared companies like Apple did not follow this concept (Godelnik, 2012), as well as not being upfront about sustainable developments (Mori Junior, 2018), which left me feeling discomfit and frustrated. Modern slavery (Raby, Christ, 2023) is something I learned in my business as society class in high school. I was reintroduced in my first retail job as I quickly knew that the company I worked for was part of a fast fashion chain, Board Riders (Chou, 2023) and was not transparent about using sweatshops (EE, 2022). At the beginning of this year, I quit that role as it did not reflect me morally (EE, 2022). After leaving this role, I applied to shop sustainably, buying my wardrobe second-hand or only buying from brands with good sustainable ratings that I find on Good on You, a website rating brands on their sustainability.
I can apply what I have learnt in this course to my current manager position in a cinema as I have young staff, many experiencing their first job. I have implemented incentive programs for the team to make reaching sales targets fun and beneficial for them. I made green bins for box corn popcorn to be recycled along with the cans bin. I try to do monthly check-ins with staff to understand how their workload at school is going and if they need to cut down on work or if they would like more hours. I try to encourage the staff to have a healthy work and school life, and if they need time off, to let me know so I can organise it for them. I take my role very seriously as I do not want the young staff to have a negative working experience or experience burn out while trying to balance school. I believe implementing these values and strategies, I will easily be able to transfer and continue apply them in my business career when beginning that role.
I learned from this that many people’s work experience and their conditions are vastly different from my own experience. I hold the amount of privilege and gratefulness knowing how fair my conditions were and still are. This now allows me to think further about how I can make a change by implementing my voice when in a role professionally. I always remind myself and others in positions close to me to consider people and the planet as much as possible, whether internally or externally. I plan on applying these future values into my professional life, such as upholding incentivising eco-friendly behaviour in the office, supporting transparency in ethical practices and continuing to educate myself and employees on sustainability within business and how important it is to uphold reducing our environmental impact. I can integrate these small yet essential values into my professional life to make a lasting impact on those I work with. I can also remind myself that working towards improving something can significantly improve myself and others around me.
Reference list in alphabetical order
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Chamberlain, G. (2011, April 30). Apple factories accused of exploiting Chinese workers. The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/apr/30/apple-chinese-factory-workers-suicides-humiliation
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