THE CORPORATION

Monday, August 2nd 2010

Well after my first class of Organizations and Culture, in which the teacher explained all the methodology that we would have during the semester for the subject. In our class of July 28th, we watched the documentary "The Corporation", from the birth of these ones until the perception that the society has of it.

Since many years ago corporations were not really important, was after the process of industrialization that they got an important role and the modern corporations began to appear. Corporations are legal persons that shouldn't just be seen as business, they have been developing important activities with the purpose to benefit them and the society too.
Despite the good deeds that companies have carried out, they have been involved in many social and environmental problems. About the social problems, there have been allegations that important corporations for example Nike Inc, has plants in countries such as China and Bangladesh where labor-hand is cheap and take advantage of it exploiting them. For the environmental problems, important companies like Exxon, General Electric, etc, are responsible for many environmental problems such as toxic waste and pollution that have caused many diseases, and as Samuel Epstein said, "Industries are responsible of epidemic cancer". For this problem, companies like we saw in the documentary are now being punished with fines, trying with this that they reduce the contamination of the environment.

But now corporations are committing with social and environmental problems; trying to improve the conditions of its own workers and the environmental conditions, with the purpose of contributing to the progress of the societies around the world.

After we watched some chapters of the documentary, we made a discussion about five good things that corporations have, here are some classmates’ opinions:
• “They provide employment”
• “They analyze that they are hearting people and the environment”
• “They are realizing that they can’t continue doing the same”
• “They improve the quality of life”
• “They could reach all the places of the world”


Now I’m going to solve the question that was made by the teacher in class, which was: Explain the role of the Corporations in the actual context.

As was showed in the documentary "The Corporation", for some ones corporations do not have a good image to society and world, they are seen as organizations which only seek to make money; however, over time they have been committing more and more with social and environmental situations. As Fidel G. Collazos presented, in his text Las Corporaciones Transnacionales. Una Visión Contemporanea; nowadays corporations have become transnational, because they have a great influence over all the nations of the world. Currently they play an important role, apart to be gaining profits, its role has gone much further, they have committed with the progress of the society. As Mr. Collazos defined “These giant economic organizations, are the result of a long process of business development, is now a colossal force, whose influence goes beyond the economic sphere and became really important in the social and political life of nations"(1). According with Mr. Collazos, "Corporations have been founded by capitals of a single nation and, although they operate in several countries, its headquarter is in the origin country”(2) , which guarantees that its structure be a support for all the global performance of the corporation.

To finish, here is an example of the role of corporations, based on the article "UN highlights role of transnational corporations in transitioning to low-carbon future", which shows the great commitment that all corporations specially the most important of the world, began to make an agreement on trying to reduce the emission of gases, in keep looking for new energy sources for all their activities and in benefit of the world.

Bibliography

- Documentary "The Corporation".
- (1) Collazos, Fidel Guillermo. Corporaciones Transnacionales. Una Visión Contemporánea. Santiago, 2004. (Online: http://www.uo.edu.cu/ojs/index.php/stgo/article/viewFile/14504307/847) Own translation from the original text.
- (2) Collazos, Fidel Guillermo. Corporaciones Transnacionales. Una Visión Contemporánea. Santiago, 2004. (Online: http://www.uo.edu.cu/ojs/index.php/stgo/article/viewFile/14504307/847) Own translation from the original text.
- UN News Centre. UN highlights role of transnational corporations in transitioning to low-carbon future. July 22nd, 2010. (Online: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35403&Cr=green&Cr1=investment)