These are questions from Joel Bakan’s ‘The Corporation’ and Christopher Mims’s Arriving Today:
The questions are as follows:
1. Explain the title of Bakan’s chapter, what does Bakan mean when he describes corporations as externalising machines? Use two examples from the text to illustrate, and comment on whether you agree that this is an inherent characteristic of corporations.
2. Comment on the calculation used to justify not repositioning the fuel tanks in the GM Malibu case – do you agree with the Chamber of Commerce that Cost Benefit Analysis is a”hallmark of corporate good behaviour”(page 64) If so, was GM really at fault? If not, then how should corporations make decisions of this kind?
3) Describe Bezoism as defined by Christopher Mims in his book. What does he mean by saying that Amazon’s internal culture is fundamentally Darwinian? Can you think of ways in which Bezoism is influencing or might influence the future of work?
4) Are there ways in which the trends emerging in the new form of capitalism may be able to transform corporations from the externalising machines of the past into institutions that are capable of doing more than just making profits at the expense of people and the planet?
Total Word Count 1200 – 1600 words. This means that each response can be between 300-400 words.
