Principles of Supply Chain Management, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

623Preparation for the Future

Social Responsibility

John Elkington (1999) denes 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 protability, 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 trafc ow,

infrastructure growth, public school nancing and instructional content, and

public safety issues?

• Should a company encourage employees to become members ...