MANAGEMENT

Management

[Date of Submission]Management

Jack Welch, without doubt, has succeeded in making General Electric (GE) one of the most prosperous organizations in the world. Due to tremendous progress GE has made during the time he was the CEO of the company, some Wall Street analysts described Jack Welch as “the most important and influential business leaders of the 20th Century.” However, it can be argued that during his tenure as the CEO of the company, Jack Welch has failed to fulfill the duty of social responsibility, that is, he has done nothing to avoid harm or protect the social assets (Hunnicutt, 2009).

Under the leadership of Jack Welch, GE has continuously been involved in acts that can be regarded as highly damaging to the environment in areas where GE has its manufacturing facilities. For instance, GE was found involved in heavily polluting the Hudson River with PCBs, which are made up of one of the most dangerous and toxic material with the ability to potentially inflicting serous damages to the human health (May, et al, 2007). Detailed investigation of the incident revealed that GE has dumped as many as 1.3 million pounds of PCBs during the time period of 1957-1977 in the Hudson River, making the water extremely dangerous for the inhabitants who lived along the river. In other words, the GE has turned the 197-mile stretch of Hudson River into the country's biggest superfund site (Hunnicutt, 2009).

The subsequent public pressure has resulted in forcing the Congress to pass the Superfund law, which imposed additional taxes on the industries operating in the area of petroleum and chemicals. The law has also provided for the establishment of a broad Federal authority with powers to directly respond to such situations where hazardous material is being released that may have a negative effect on human ...