About
Publication Information
Subscriptions
Permissions
Advertising
Journal Rankings
Best Article Award
Press Releases
Resources
Access Options
Submission Guidelines
Reviewer Guidelines
Sample Articles
Paper Calls
Contact Us
Submit & Review
Browse
Current Issue
All Issues
Featured
Latest
Topics
Videos
Cases
Subscribe
California Management Review
California Management Review is a premier academic management journal published at UC Berkeley
Search
Article Information
Do We Need a New Corporate Response To a Changing Social Environment? Part I
Votaw, Dow , and S. Prakash Sethi
12
/
1
(
Fall
1969
):
3
-
16
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.