SCEB Reflection - Lecture 1
D10
The session started with a lively discussion on the name of the course itself: Socio-cultural
environment of business or Socio-cultural environment for business. This was the question the
class had to answer. While on the face of it there seemed to be a little difference between the
two, as the discussion progressed, it became quite evident that the two represent completely
different set of things. The latter being more of a fictitious concept as there cannot be a clear
demarcation between the environments for two business running under the same
circumstances. An appropriate socio-cultural environment for the business was defined as
something which reflected a proper semblance of orders.
The next learning exercise was through a video. The video primarily focused on the negative
consequences of a growing world economy. In a desire to feed the need for growth, business
and government have promoted excessive consumption in the society. This has caused an
increase in the pollution levels and the depletion of natural resources at an alarming rate. The
speaker emphasizes that todays consumption trends are dictated more by the business
keeping in mind their profits rather than the actual needs of the consumer. She indicates that in
todays world it is not hard to identify that the welfare for businesses is not entirely translated
into societal welfare. The primary reason behind this mismatch is that the entire system of
production and consumption of goods is perceived to be a linear system, meaning that elements
of this system do not interact with the external environment and therefore cannot affect or be
affected by it. This is clearly unrealistic and therefore the speaker proposes to change this
model to a more holistic model, something which is based on sustainability, equity and that
takes into account the interaction of this system with its external environment.
Our group believes that although the increased level of consumption has led to an increase in
the resource requirement, the same has also fuelled the need for technological advancement
which has significantly improved the quality of life for human beings. What weve also
understood is that the entities in a system, whether it is business, people, the government or the
society in general cannot be treated in isolation with the environment. Therefore in order to
sustain and continue the technological progress and improvement in the quality of life that weve
achieved so far, we must take into consideration the impact that these actions are going to have
on our environment. Our group believes that this is achievable through responsible sourcing,
production and consumption. What this means in entirety is that, each element of the system
should take into consideration the impact of its actions on the environment and own up to the
task of reducing it.
The next up was an in-class exercise in which we, as a group, had to come up with a preference
order on how J&J should celebrate International Womens Day. There were 10 options in total.
Our team felt that a Senior Management initiative to form a committee representative of all
levels in the company elected by all women employees to audit HR policies and in turn
promoting gender equity in the workplace would be the best way forward. Some of the thinking
behind selecting this option was 1. It involved all levels of women employees 2. Its a long term
solution to gender issues at workplace and 3. It provided women with substantial control over
policies and necessary partnership from senior management.
All the options which displayed a sense of artificiality were rated very low in the preference list.
One such option was planning a speech by a male speaker on the importance of women in
workplace. The event was to be decorated by certain appreciating gestures by women
employees. The group believes such events dont do any good for the stated aim of gender
equality.
All in all, the class opened up various horizons of interesting issues. The discussion was very
informative and encouraged all the group members to think hard and fresh on the issues.