623Preparation for the Future
Social Responsibility
John Elkington (1999) denes social capital as a measure of the ability of people to work
together for common purposes in groups and organizations. A key element of social capi-
tal is the sense of mutual trust.
In addition to protability, what is the obligation of a business to society? Must it be a
good corporate citizen as well as being a positive economic force in the community? Some
of the questions that could be asked in the future include the following:
• Should a company participate in local government decisions such as trafc ow,
infrastructure growth, public school nancing and instructional content, and
public safety issues?
• Should a company encourage employees to become members ...