Should individuals (directors, employees, shareholders) bear any responsability for the actions of a corporation? If so, to what degree?

It is possible to assume that people who work under the name of a corporation, do this because they agree with its mission, vission, values, and for instance with its actions and performance within society.

Therefore, directors, employees and shareholders, all are responsable for the unprecedent wealth produced, as much as for the countless cases of illness, death, poverty, pollution, exploitation and lies.

If someone is not comfortable with what is being done in any kind of institution or organization he or she make part of, they would simply quit to it or, as in the case of the Fox News reporters at the rHGB story in THE CORPORATION, got fired for trying to go against the decisions taken by the company; for the reason that as long as you keep on collaborating with a cause, you will be participating on every single one of the consequences it generates.

Corporate Culture and Cross Cultural Management...

CORPORATE CULTURE represents the assumptions, practices and norms that members in an organization adopt over time. It is what boss and employees believe deep down and no one can force or buy such belief. 

Consequently, cultural problems are most of the times the reason for mergers' and outsourcing's failure: "Daimler Benz bought Chrysler in 1998, but talk of cultural conflict followed close on the deal's announcement. In 2007, after almost nine years of value destruction, Daimler unloaded Chrysler for less than a quarter of what it had paid for it". Mead, Richard. 2004. International Management: Cross-Cultural Dimensions London: Blackwell Publishing. Chapter 1. 

CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT implies the development and application of knowledge about cultures in order to plan and control international business activities between business units that are located in different countries (whether joint venture partners, headquarters and subsidiary, principal and agent, supplier and customer) or between people who may belong to the same business unit, but who have different cultural identities.

"Communication skills are often ranked as most important in qualifying the manager for positions of international responsability. In addition, managers need to be adaptable to other cultures and capable of leading its members". Millman, Gregory J. . 2007. "Corporate Culture: more myth than reality? ." The Free Library 23:44-47. Millman, Gregory J. (2007, July 1).

IN CONCLUSION, a cross cultural manager will have the talent enough for dealing with misunderstandings derived from organizations that have different corporate cultures, as he or she should be capable of managing cultural diversity.

My Own Definition of Culture...

Culture is the essence of human beings, what guides our way of thinking, acting and speaking. It is a particular lifestyle that differentiates each group of people or society from the rest. 

What is culture?

 

1. "Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing and responding to the social realities around them".

University of Minnesota.The Center for Advance Research of Language Acquisition (CARLA). Retrieved (February 3rd, 2010) from http://www.carla/.umn.edu/culture/definitions.html

2."Culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic 'taken for granted' fashion an organization's view of itself and its environment".

Washington State University. A Baseline Definition of Culture. Retrieved (February 3rd, 2010) from http://www.wsu.edu/gened/learn-modules/top_culture/culture-definition.html

3. "Culture is both about a sense of identity, as an individual and a group, and about the creative expression or response to life".

Creative Exchange: The Network for Culture and Development. Retrieved (February 3rd, 2010) from http://www.creativexchange.org/chd/whatsculture