California Management Review

Abstract

The large private corporation has come under considerable attack in recent years on the ground that its response to a rapidly changing social environment has been slow, inadequate and often inappropriate. This article examines the basis for these attacks, considers them within the broader framework of the role of the corporation in society, and proposes new corporate responses to a changing social climate. The problems raised are difficult ones, both semantically and conceptually, because they lie close to matters of prevailing ideology and because most of them are being debated in an emotional atmosphere. Any suggestion that the great corporations are in conflict with society at large or that they have failed to meet the challenge of change is bound to produce reactions ranging from instant agreement to shock, chagrin, and incredulity. Because the public has come almost universally to accept the view that the great corporation is one of, if not the, dominant institution in the society, more has come to be expected of the corporation, and its functions have become more broadly perceived.

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