re, it is ideal for a company tobe able to conduct its own investigation as well as its own punishments.After all, it would be best for a company to determine what specificdepartments are responsible rather than having a court of law impose aburden on every employee in its corporation. Yet, since there are ethicalissues of dishonesty and secrecy involved, National Semiconductor shouldhave conducted a thorough analysis of their employees as well as their ownpractices. It is through efforts like these that a corporation can raisethe ethical standard of everyone in their organization. This case brings into light the whole issue of corporateresponsibility. The two sides that must ultimately be balanced are theself interests of the company, with main goal of maximum profit, and theimpacts that a corporation can cause on society (Sawyer, 78). To furtherstrengthen this need, one could argue that there are very few businessdecisions that do not affect society in way or another. In fact, with theplethora of corporations, society is being affected on various fronts;everything from water contamination to air bag safety is a concern. Thebiggest problem that all of us must contend with is that every decisionthat a business makes is gauged by the financial responsibility to theircorporation instead of their social responsibility to the local community,and in some cases, the international community. This was pointed out onvarious occasions as the main reason why National Semiconductor falsifiedtheir reports. The cost that the full tests would incur did not outweightheir profit margins. Their business sense lead them to do what allcompanies want . . . maximum profit. In the opinion of the executives,they were acting in a sensible manner. After all, no executive wants tothink of themselves as morally irresponsible. (Capitman, 118). The question that naturally arises, in debating corporateresponsibility, is what types of checks and balances can be employ...
