Clean Cooking case Introduction In this module, we explored a number of broad forces that have significant influence on business, government, and society. In this assignment, you will focus on...

Business Ethics and Society        2
BUSINESS ETHICS AND SOCIETY
Table of Contents
Part A    3
Answer 1    3
Answer 2    3
Part B    4
Introduction    4
Hewlett Packard- An Overview    5
Section 1    6
Demographic Factors    6
Technological Factors    7
Environmental Factors    8
Influences of the Factors    8
Section 2    9
Technology    9
Human Resource    10
Influences of the Factors    10
Section 3    11
Section 4    12
Conclusion    13
References    15
Part A
Answer 1
    The use of open cookstoves leads to devastating effects on the human health, the environment and the economic development. The soot particles and the smoke from the open cookstoves not only leads to health problems such as lung and heart diseases, but also results in various kinds of assaults and injuries. The widespread adoption of clean cookstoves can therefore, encourage healthy living and a sustainable environment. It will considerably reduce the harmful smokes and soot particles thereby reducing health issues associated with it, such as disfiguring burns, asthma, eye damage and complications in pregnancy. Adoption of clean cookstoves will also reduce violence on women and children, that happened earlier when they went far off to collect wood and carry them over long distances. As a result of this adoption, sexual crimes, injuries, animal attacks and violence will also decrease to a great extent.
As it is known generally, primitive methods of cooking considerably harm the environment. Trees are cut down in order to gather wood and charcoal for burning open cookstoves. This leads to deforestation, loss of biodiversity as well as watershed degradation. Primitive methods of cooking produce a huge amount of soot, the second most important factor behind global warming, following carbon dioxide. Therefore, if the amount of soot is reduced to a certain effect, it can positively impact the environment by slowing down the process of global warming. It has also been argued that reducing soot can be more effective than cutting down on carbon emissions. Clean cookstoves can therefore, be one of the most efficient ways of dealing with global environmental problems.
Answer 2
    As discussed in chapter 9 of Business and the Natural Environment, it has been observed that the widespread adoption of clean cookstoves has a positive impact on economic development as well as poverty. Although this process will require a number of resources including technical innovations in fuels and stove design, new ways of financing and on the ground campaign to encourage people across different cultures and cooking traditions as well as support from small and large business organisations, it can lead to long term health benefit and economic sustenance. In Ghana, for instance, a small business organisation, Toyola Energy Ltd. produced a clean cookstove called gyapa or ‘good fire’ made from scrap metal collected from local construction sites and fired clay liners. The clean cookstove is twice efficient as compared to an open cookstove and produces reduced amounts of global warming emissions. Due to dearth of capital, the company partnered with E+CO, a clean energy non-profit. Within a short period, they were able to sell numerous clean cookstoves to eager Ghanaians, who enjoyed cost savings and health benefits simultaneously.
    Another non-profit organisation took initiative of providing health benefits through cost effective methods. Trees, Water and People based in Fort Collins, Colorado, developed and distributed around 50,000 clean cookstoves in Guatemala. The cookstove was built from an insulated metal box and covered with a removable cooking surface along with an attached chimney pipe to vent smoke through a roof hole. The increased efficiency of fuels reduced 10 dollars of expense from each family, in a society where 80% of the members earned less or around 2 dollars daily wage.
Part B
Introduction
    Social responsibility has become an important aspect of all the companies in the present scenario. Although no legal bindings are associated with this aspect, it is extremely important to take into account the various social and environmental issues in order to ensure success and maintain the reputation of a company. It not only benefits the society and environment but also develops brand recognition and identity. The companies which address social and environmental responsibilities have increased chances of engaging with the customers in a better way. It also helps the company stand out among its rivals in the market. Companies that are socially responsible also shows greater employee engagement by promoting qualities such as volunteering. These companies have more productive and positive workforce as well as encourage both professional and personal growth.
Hewlett Packard- An Overview
    Hewlett Packard is an IT company that is operating in more than 170 countries across the globe. In 2011, the company decided to shift its focus from smartphones and tablet computers to full-fledged concentration on software and services for businesses. In the year 2015, the company split into two separate organisations, namely, HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The company offers a range of diversified products including infrastructure and business services, such as handheld devices, supercomputer installations, digital photography and entertainment as well as computing and printing solutions. The company provides products, software, technologies, solutions and services to a wide variety of customers, ranging from individual to small, medium and large business enterprises. The business of Hewlett Packard is divided into seven segments, namely, Personal Systems, Printing, workstations, consumer PC’s, Software, Enterprise Group as well as Services, Financial Services and Corporate Investments.
The company made a path-breaking approach of adopting ‘management by objective’ approach where they encouraged an informal workplace environment. According to Burgelman, McKinney and Meza (2017), HP also incorporated ‘management by walking around’ approach where the higher officials interacted with line workers and managers while visiting the departments without prior information, to understand the condition of company operation. With time, according to Jones and Comfort (2020), the company has also started paying a lot of attention to innovative ways of addressing social and environmental issues. This has led to the development of a special reputation of the company in the technology market.
Section 1
    External factors are highly important in determining a company’s initiative of becoming socially responsible. As pointed out by A Hitt (2017) the external environment can provide knowledge about a company’s internal environment and guide its mission, form its vision and identify and implement actions in order to bring about strategic changes in the business practices. The three external factors that have influenced the company’s shift to a more environmentally and or socially responsible business management practices are demographic, technological and environmental factors.
Demographic Factors
    The market position of Hewlett Packard as one of the world’s largest global technology companies requires a considerable...