Corporate responsibility and Australian business: Identifying the issue

This paper responds to a 2004 paper by Warburton et al. The paper acknowledges their exploration of the corporate responsibilities of Australian business, and the importance of such research given the social impact business has in contemporary Australian society. However, while their paper was concerned with the situation at one specific Australian business and its view of corporate responsibility, this paper attempts to utilise their findings to make a normative argument as to the possibilities for overall corporate responsibility in Australian business. In particular it considers their omission of two primary stakeholder groups, the owners and the workers, in conducting their stakeholder analysis. This paper queries whether if it is not possible to include all stakeholders, it makes sense to omit the other stakeholders too; and rather to agitate for more judicious ownership rights in pursuing the concept of corporate responsibility.