In my previous post, the two problems I posed were the unethical business practices of corporations due to flawed corporate structure and the growing trend toward hiring adjunct professors that are underpaid and overworked.
To address the first problem, I will not suggest a whole new corporate structure or substructure. In my previous post, I explained that it was the priority of maintaining shareholder value that led to unethical business practices such as trashing of the environment and underpaying of workers. Shareholder value is the “sum of all strategic decisions that affect the firm’s ability to efficiently increase the amount of free cash flow over time.” In other words, shareholder value is value assigned to a shareholder on the basis of wise investments and good returns of investments. The idea is that if a company builds value, the stock price will eventually reflect that value. In order to stay competitive and to generate a profit, companies must take shareholder value into account.
A good way to address the problem I posed is to find a way to make being environmentally responsible a means by which one can increase shareholder value by a substantial degree. This is already in the works with budding innovative corporations that are developing environmentally and socially responsible solutions to various issues people are facing throughout the world. I have been reading about an idea, which is already being applied in certain sectors by certain corporations, called Circular Economy, which involves examining the designs of how things are made and to minimize waste. Ideally, the materials that construct our goods will be perpetually reusable. But, this requires that research be done to investigate the designs of things to make them more efficient and renewable. So, I suggest that a subcommittee be formed that deals with examination of the designs and processes that construct the goods corporations seek to sell to reduce the amount of wasted energy in such systems.
Another problem I seek to address is the adjunct phenomenon. According to the American Association for University Professors, adjunct professors make up more than half of all faculties and 76% of instructional positions are filled on a temporary basis. Adjunct professors are underpaid, overworked, have no benefits, and have no job security. Just last month, February 25, was National Adjunct Walkout Day, in which many adjunct professors walked out of work to protest horrible working conditions.
The reason that adjunct professors are being oppressed is that universities are pressured to keep tuition low, keep enough teachers to run their classes, and there is overwhelming competition for faculty positions that are few in number relative to the people who want to fill these positions. Due to all of these factors, adjunct professors are not being paid enough, have to teach multiple classes that can sometimes be large distances from one another, and are trapped waiting for tenure-track positions to open up and accept them.
To address this problem, I suggest conducting a bake sale to raise money for struggling adjuncts and advertising to demonstrate to the government that this is a problem that the public finds important to address. The hope is that this will lead to greater government funding for higher education.
References:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/one-professors-american-dream-teaching-turned-american-nightmare/
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/762-the-adjunct-crisis-is-everyone-s-problem
http://www.online-phd-programs.org/adjunct/
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/the-adjunct-professor-crisis/361336/
http://adjunctcrisis.com/
http://www.newappsblog.com/adjunct-faculty-and-hyper-exploitation/
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/2014/07/18/guest-post-adjunct-instructors-petition-for-change/
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/19/research-aaas-meeting-notes-difficult-job-market-academic-science
http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/reference-material/what-is-an-adjunct-professor-and-why-do-colleges-hire-them/
http://www.toxicsaction.org/problems-and-solutions/waste
http://www.occupy.com/article/trash-tpp-why-its-time-revolt-against-worst-trade-agreement-history
http://www.globalissues.org/article/55/corporations-and-the-environment
http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/faq_shareholder_stakeholder_perspective.html
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shareholder-value.asp
https://hbr.org/2011/10/ceos-must-understand-what-crea/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-kennell/recycling-opens-the-door-_b_6164314.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=february+25+adjuncts&oq=february+25+adjuncts&aqs=chrome..69i57.5511j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8
I really like how you made it clear in your post that changing the entire corporate structure and eliminating shareholder value is virtually impossible with our economic principles. While it would be ideal to eliminate or even check many capitalist principles like shareholder value, and keep those driving principles from destroying the environment or cheating the consumers, I believe it will be difficult to achieve. Therefore your idea about making the environment a primary concern for a company’s shareholders can offer a more logical solution.
The other topic you bring up about adjuncts in universities is another pressing issue needing solutions. I think that your bake sale in a nice way to start making more money as well as spreading word of the issue. However, I think a more lasting solution would be to create an organization to unionize adjuncts. A proper union with set hours, set wages and numerous benefits would be valuable to adjuncts. Colleges should as well perhaps only be allowed ta certain number of professors as adjuncts, perhaps giving professors a permanent place as regular professors at their universities after a certain number of years teaching as adjunct lecturers. This maybe would be a stricter policy for universities to employ in order to not exploit their staff members.
I really like how you made it clear in your post that changing the entire corporate structure and eliminating shareholder value is virtually impossible with our economic principles. While it would be ideal to eliminate or even check many capitalist principles like shareholder value, and keep those driving principles from destroying the environment or cheating the consumers, I believe it will be difficult to achieve. Therefore your idea about making the environment a primary concern for a company’s shareholders can offer a more logical solution.
The other topic you bring up about adjuncts in universities is another pressing issue needing solutions. I think that your bake sale in a nice way to start making more money as well as spreading word of the issue. However, I think a more lasting solution would be to create an organization to unionize adjuncts. A proper union with set hours, set wages and numerous benefits would be valuable to adjuncts. Colleges should as well perhaps only be allowed to hire a select number of professors as adjuncts, perhaps giving professors a permanent place as regular professors at their universities after a certain number of years teaching as adjunct lecturers. This maybe would be a stricter policy for universities to employ in order to not exploit their staff members.