Essay Instructions: Isak here are my next discussions, but first I will give you what our professor has posted for this assignment. When you get done reading this part beneath it are what I need to write about. Even though it says you have to get this back to me by December 1, 2011. You can wait until Tuesday, December 6, 2011 to send it back to me. I would really like you to access my online reading material. To get some of your referencing from
House Keeping Rules?As you prepare for your discussion questions please take time to read and answer the entire post. Each post should be supported by your text or from other documented research. You must provide a definitive answer to the discussion; therefore, if the discussion has three parts to them you must answer all parts to maximize your point potential. YOU MUST POST ON TIME-all late post without prior consideration will be deducted points from their scoring. It is imperative that you answer all parts of the question.
Post your original work by creating a new "Discussion Thread." Respond to your classmates by contributing to their respective threads. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. You will need to provide detail in your discussion thread and address the entire discussion post for full credit. When responding to your classmates, you will need to provide at least a one paragraph response (four sentences). Provide detail in your feedback to your classmates and remember your netetiquette .
READ FACULTY EXPECTATIONS!!!
This week?s reading!!!!!
Read the following selections from your Business & Society text:
Chapter 12: Technology, Organizations and Society
Chapter 13: Managing Technology and Innovation
Chapter 14: Stockholder Rights and Corporate Governance
Chapter 15: Consumer Protection
What you can expect from the reading:
This week in Corporate and Social Responsibility you will learn about technology and its unmistakable economic and social force in both business and the world where we live. Whether are at home, in school, or in the workplace, emerging technological innovations have dramatically changed how we live, play, learn, work, and interact with others, raising important social and ethical questions. (Lawrence, p. 268). You will learn how technology has evolved in phases over the past 350 years. From the Nomadic-agrarian technology of the mid 1600?s to the Semantic technology phase of today, evolution of technology has provided great innovations and great threats.
Technology has continued to improve with the combination of government, private investor, and business investments. But ultimately, technology continues to evolve because of people's insatiable desire for it (Lawrence, p. 272). This truth is evident in Apple?s new I-Phone 4S. Everyone is looking for the latest and greatest that a mobile phone has the ability to make international news based on the new and improved technological advances. How many of you are thinking of upgrading for the sure pleasure of saying you have the latest and greatest?
Technology raises serious ethical questions regarding our privacy, ownership of intellectual property, and rights to scientific research (Lawrence,. p. 292). The question you will contemplate this week is all information public information? Who should answer this question, congress or the consumer? How much would you pay to keep your information private in a world where technology has made everything open to the public?
Safeguarding consumers while continuing to supply them with the goods and services they want, at the prices they want, is a prime social responsibility of business (Lawrence, p. 340). Consumers over the years have advocated for many rights that we take for granted. Some of these rights are the right to safety, to be informed, the right to choose, the right to be heard and most of all the right to privacy. Government agencies serve as watchdogs for consumers, supplementing the actions taken by consumers to protect themselves and the actions of socially responsible corporations (Lawrence, p. 340). This is known as the consumer movement.
The consumer movement exists because consumers want to be treated fairly and honestly in the marketplace. Some business practices do not meet this standard. Consumers may be harmed by abuses such as unfairly high prices, unreliable and unsafe products, excessive or deceptive advertising claims, and the promotion of products known to be harmful to human health (Lawrence, p. 343). The role of government is to protect consumers nationally and internationally.
There are laws intended to provide consumers with better information when making purchases. It is said by Lawrence that consumers can make more rational choices when they have accurate information about the product (Lawrence, p. 344). Take for instance Laws requiring health warnings on cigarettes or alcoholic beverages broaden the information consumers have about these items. Have the warning signs on these labels influenced you in your choices to drink or smoke? Do you think they are still relevant?
Another area of interest in this week will cover insider trading. What is this? According to Lawrence, insider trading occurs when a person gains access to confidential information at a company?s financial condition and then uses that information, before it becomes public knowledge, to buy or sell the company?s stock (pp 334-335). In layman?s turns this can breach of trust and confidence, while in possession of, nonpublic information. Is this ethical or is this a good tip? Can you think of someone who has been in violation of insider trading?
Insider trading is illegal under the Securities and Exchange (SEC) Act of 1934, which outlaws ?any manipulative or deceptive device.?(Lawrence, p. 335). The SEC Act of 1934 was implemented to ensure investors had full confidence in the fundamental fairness of the stock markets. Realistically, if an investor believes that insiders can use what they know for personal gain, the system of stock trading could break down from lack of trust. When considering the ramifications of insider trading and the cost to stockholders and the economy as a hold; do you believe the penalties fit the crime? Would you be tempted to take advantage of a tip from a friend concerning a stock? Think about these questions and after your reading this week, post your answer in the Ask Your Instructor tab of the course room. Those students who post will be given an extra day to post this week?s written assignment. I do hope all of you are reading your Instructor Guidance.
Key Terms:
Biotechnology: A technological application that uses biological systems or living organisms to make or modify products or processes for specific use.
Consumer movement: A social movement that seeks to augment the rights and powers of consumers. (Also known as consumerism.)
Consumer Protection Laws: Laws that provide consumers with better information, protect consumers from possible hazards, encourage competitive pricing, protect privacy, or permit consumer lawsuits.
Corporate Governance: The system of allocating power in a corporation that determines how and by whom the company is to be directed.
Deceptive Advertising: An advertisement that makes false or misleading claims about the company's own product or its competitor's product, withholds relevant information, or creates unreasonable expectations; generally illegal under U.S. law.
Insider trading: Occurs when a person gains access to confidential information about a company's financial condition and then uses that information, before it becomes public knowledge, to buy or sell the company's stock; generally illegal.
Intuitional Investor: A financial institution, insurance company, pension fund, endowment fund, or similar organization that invests its accumulated funds in securities offered for sale on stock exchanges.
Intellectual Property: Ideas, concepts, and other symbolic creations of the human mind that are recognized and protected under a nation's copyright, patent, and trademark laws.
Internet: A global network of interconnected computers, enabling users to share information.
Nanotechnology: The application of engineering to create materials on a molecular or atomic scale.
Proxy: A legal instrument giving another person the right to vote the shares of stock of an absentee stockholder.
Semantic Phase: A phase of technology that began around 2000; characterized by the development of processes and systems that enable organizations and people to navigate through the expanding amount of information on the Internet.
Social Networking: A system using technology to enable people to connect, explore interests, and share activities around the world.
Stockholder: A person, group, or organization owning one or more shares of stock in a corporation; the legal owners of the business (Also known as shareholder.)
Technology: A broad term referring to the practical applications of science and knowledge to commercial and organizational activities
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In one paragraph supported by your text and other research, describe a recent example of insider trading. Determine whether the case met the elements of insider trading established by the Supreme Court in U.S. vs. O'Hagen, described in the text (two pages)
In one paragraph supported by your text and other research, determine which of the three solutions to consumer privacy issues listed in Chapter 15 (consumer self-help, industry self-regulation, and privacy legislation) you support. Defend your position using at least one example. (Two pages)
Case Study: Vidding -- Free Expression or Copyright Piracy?
Read Case Study Vidding -- Free Expression or Copyright Piracy? at the end of Chapter 13 in your text. In one to two pages, supported by evidence from your text and from other research, respond to the following questions:
Using the ethical criteria introduced in Chapter 4 (utilitarianism, rights, and justice), is the creating and uploading of vids to the Internet simply an ethical expression of one?s free speech, or is it an infringement of intellectual property? Where do you draw the line when using material found on the Internet, but trying to respect the artists? intellectual property and rights to royalties from their creations? How different should a vid be from the original source to justify that it is no longer the same material as the original artist created and thus not covered under the copyright laws? (Three pages)
you have my login ID as well as my password in order to access the following chapters to pick out passages that you would be able to use. These are the chapters that would give you valuable information:
Read the following selections from your Business & Society text:
Chapter 12: Technology, Organizations and Society
Chapter 13: Managing Technology and Innovation
Chapter 14: Stockholder Rights and Corporate Governance
Chapter 15: Consumer Protection
You have plenty of time because I do not need to get this back until Tuesday, December 6, 2011. Let me know if you need anything from me here is the website you need to go to in order to access the above material. https://online.vitalsource.com/signin