Business, Marketing and Economics

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Business has always been the leading strength in the growth of our society. Businesses also provide goods, services, and jobs. As well, create the standard of living of the people of the society and influence human values and beliefs. The reasons which enable the United States to develop into a major industrialized country evolved from the European economic philosophies many centuries ago. Over the decades, the American influence has added to these principles, creating a unique society that put business as the key role.

According to the usual view, businesses had no accountability to society or its individual members of the society. Business managers and business owners work on increasing efficiency and productivity to maximize profits. Resources were exploit, and there were little work for conservation to the environment, and workers were look upon as just another resource to be used in the most productive way possible.

This attitude toward the environment and workers were consistent with the attitudes of previous times. In the late 1800’s and 1900’s after the Industrial Revolution, businesses flourished as companies produced huge quantities of goods and services people wanted. Numerous people showed little or no concern about how such productivity was to be done.

When time went on and more businesses grew, companies also grew in influence and power. In many cases, this new power was abused, and the cost of unrestrained production became high. Working conditions in factories across the country became unhealthy and dangerous. Workers working 16 hours per day were frequent. Underage children were another source of cheap labor. Ultimately, society demanded that businesses must be restrained in some of their activities.

In the early 20th century, people worry about business abuses increased quickly. In 1930’s, the United States had passed from the profit maximization period of business to the trusteeship management period. Base on the trusteeship theory, businesses were look as having a greater accountability than merely to return maximum profits to shareholders. Therefore, companies started to recognize their responsibility to their employees, staffs, customers and to the communities the companies did their business.

In 1930’s, the Great Depression began, a new era of change concerning the way how employers treated their employees. At that time, several federal laws were passed to protect workers. The Wagner Act of 1935, allowed employees the right to unionize and bargain collectively with employers. Also, the Social Security Act was passed the same year that provided the retirement pensions and disability benefits for workers. The Wage and Hour Law passed in 1938, which set minimum wages for workers employed in interstate commerce and established maximum hours that employees could be made to work.

In 1963, The Equal Pay Act was passed, which allow employers to pay all employees equally for working on jobs with the same abilities or skills. The purpose of the act was to ensure that women and others workers would receive equal pay for doing the same work. In 1964, The Civil Rights Act banned discrimination against employees based on race, religion, color, creed, sex, national origin, age, or disability. Now employers must employ, promote, and terminate on a nondiscriminatory basis. They were often required to search for employees that have been subjected to bias and discrimination.

Regardless of the new laws to ensure equal employment opportunities for everyone, inequities continue. While many businesses have done a lot to improve the economic life of the entire country, more challenges were still there, and more work still needed to be done.