The Corporation
Business Ethics
The Corporation
‘The Corporation’ had a specific aim to portray the problems of not just one corporation, but corporations as a whole, as is evident from the beginning of the film as a multitude of big business logos flashed across the screen. The film proceeded to highlight the issues surrounding: globalization and consumerism, environmental pollution and disregard for the planet, unethical marketing, and dishonest media. Personally, I feel that I’m quite open-minded when it comes to business and the effects that it has on the world around us. I have no secret agenda in favour of corporations and their profit reaping, nor do I sport a Marxist poster on my dormitory wall. Thus I feel that some of the aspects of the Corporation was interesting, even eye opening. However, some points I feel worked too hard to dislodge modern day capitalism without any real solutions to the problems it presented.
A particular strength of the documentary is that I found some of it to be quite balanced in its approach. It allows CEOs of companies to get a fair chance to outline their opinions. It didn’t portray these guys as demons; it actually made them come off as good people who wanted to help the business world become more ethically responsible – for example when the protesters were given tea by the CEO of Shell outside his own house as he explained to them he held similar views to the protestors. This gives the documentary a more balanced feeling as some other documentaries tend to be massively one sided in their attempt to convince their viewers. It also provides a sense of confusion. If these CEOs are good men who want to help improve the ethical behaviour of the corporate world, then who’s to blame if not evil men running the corporations? Why does the problem persist? It made me think that maybe it’s not the companies that are the problem but the people the companies operate for – the shareholders. This is solidified by one point I found interesting which
The Corporation
‘The Corporation’ had a specific aim to portray the problems of not just one corporation, but corporations as a whole, as is evident from the beginning of the film as a multitude of big business logos flashed across the screen. The film proceeded to highlight the issues surrounding: globalization and consumerism, environmental pollution and disregard for the planet, unethical marketing, and dishonest media. Personally, I feel that I’m quite open-minded when it comes to business and the effects that it has on the world around us. I have no secret agenda in favour of corporations and their profit reaping, nor do I sport a Marxist poster on my dormitory wall. Thus I feel that some of the aspects of the Corporation was interesting, even eye opening. However, some points I feel worked too hard to dislodge modern day capitalism without any real solutions to the problems it presented.
A particular strength of the documentary is that I found some of it to be quite balanced in its approach. It allows CEOs of companies to get a fair chance to outline their opinions. It didn’t portray these guys as demons; it actually made them come off as good people who wanted to help the business world become more ethically responsible – for example when the protesters were given tea by the CEO of Shell outside his own house as he explained to them he held similar views to the protestors. This gives the documentary a more balanced feeling as some other documentaries tend to be massively one sided in their attempt to convince their viewers. It also provides a sense of confusion. If these CEOs are good men who want to help improve the ethical behaviour of the corporate world, then who’s to blame if not evil men running the corporations? Why does the problem persist? It made me think that maybe it’s not the companies that are the problem but the people the companies operate for – the shareholders. This is solidified by one point I found interesting which