Issues and Issue Areas for Social & Environmental Responsibility

Note: Certain issues are applicable to a variety of issue areas. e.g., access to employment, promotion/advancement. degree to which employee input is sought or valued, and harassment on the job are issues within the issue areas of age. ability. class, cultural background. spiritual/religious orientation, gender, race, and sexual orientation.
 
  • age, including
    • forced retiremen
    • retraining
  •  ability
    • advocacy
    • accessability of workplace, equipment, etc.
  • class
  • commitment to a vision for society
  • community (defined at a variety of levels) relations
    • openness and accountability
    • tax-avoidance
    • contributions to local charity & social change efforts
    • other contributions to community
  • preservation of culture and values
    • family values
      • stable family life
      • family self-determination
      • premarital sexual abstinence
    • fostering healthy families
    • destruction of indigenous cultures
    • destruction of other cultures (e.g. fragmentation, alienation)
    • personal responsibility
    • personal liberty
  • customers: who the employer serves (see all other issues for concerns here)
  • economic preservation (local, regional, national)
    • importing labor from outside the community
    • buying local/regional/national products/services
    • exporting jobs
    • exporting material resources
  • environmental pollution/ degradation
    • materials acquisition (e.g. mining)
    • process of production
    • packaging
    • shipping/transport
    • pollution/degradation produced by product itself (e.g. automobiles)
    • pollution/degradation created by used/expended product (un)ethical/illlegal
  • business practices
    • in relation to other Institutions, including:
      • monopoly/oligopoly
    • in relation to customers. including:
      • advertising
      • pricing
      • sales
      • services
    • in relation to general public/government, including:
      • Influencing government and non-gov't monitoring groups
  • relationship of employer to employees
    • employees as mere means to ends. or as ends in themselves?
    • openness & trust
    • relationship with union(s)
    • understanding/"cooperative" with one's war-tax resistance
    • wages & benefits, including:
      • health care
      • childcare
      • vacations
      • continuing education
      • retirement package
      • wages
      • maternity/paternity leave
      • sick leave
      • holidays
      • family/emergency leave
    • job security
    • working conditions. including:
      • flex-time
      • safety
      • work pace
      • rest time/breaks
    • workplace democracy: worker input on employer decisions
    • concern for emotional well-being of employees
    • employee relocation
    • worker privacy. including:
      • mgmt. searches of employees and their desks, lockers, etc.
      • drug testing
      • flexible work arrangements. including:
        • Job-sharing
        • part-time work
  • fiscal responsibility
    • safeguard interests of investors
    • full & fair disclosure of economic condition
    • control spending
  • gender
  • International operations
    • connections to repressive governments
    • connections to other dangerous, repressive practices
    • acting inimically to national foreign policy
  • "ownership" of company/employer
    • foreign
    • size
    • multinational
    • government
    • worker (co)ownership
    • degree of stockholder control/voice
    • degree of control/voice from members of general public
  • product/service costs and profit rates
  • product/service potential for harm
    • abortion, pro-life, pro-choice
    • drugs
    • military contracting
    • nuclear power
    • weapons for personal use
    • disempowerment of people
    • contribution to the oppression of people
  • product/service quality
    • lifetime of product
    • user-friendly/well-designed
    • reliability
    • service for product after purchase
  • product/service safety
  • product/service usefulness/constructiveness & responsiveness to public needs/desires
  • product/service understandability
    • informing customers with details
    • unclear/deceptive packaging
  • race resource use
  • sexual preference
  • species, including:
    • animal testing
    • animal components in product or production thereof
    • impact of product/service on various species
  • spiritual/religion

 

The Graduation Pledge Alliance is a project of the Bentley University Alliance for Ethics and Social Responsibility."