“Strategic Management” by Jacqueline Lewis
The first article, written by Jacqueline Lewis, describes such company as General Motors in terms of their products, brands, and more importantly, their commitment to environment protection. The author evaluates the incentives, proposed by the management of this organization, in particular, the construction of landfill-free plants and production of cars with lower gas emission. The writer explains the rationale for this commitment by stating that General Motors tries to meet the new expectations of the customers’ who have become more aware of environmental issues. There are several parts of this article that require clarification.
For instance, while evaluating GM’s attempt to preserve the environment, the author provides practically no numerical data: it may be necessary to show to what extent the production of eco-friendly vehicles has increased over recent years. Moreover, a reader would expect to see information about the changes in the production process, itself. In other words, one needs to know what kind of technologies GM uses in an effort to reduce the pollution of the environment. On the whole, this article lacks details without which the major arguments appear to be slightly unfounded.
The second issue which needs to be discussed is the sources used in this article. The majority of them have been written been by people who are strongly affiliated with General Motors. In turn, this casts down on the reliability of their claims. It seems that in this case, one should mostly rely on case studies and research articles, published in peer-reviewed journals. These journals usually do not feature articles that contain commercial statements. I do not argue that the claims, made by Jacqueline, are false. However, the selection of academic sources really downgrades the quality of this article.
“Strategic Management” by Melanie S. Seiser
In this article, the writer explains the reasons why such companies as General Motors pay more attention to environmental protection. The author argues that people have become concerned with the threats to the environment and leading enterprises have to address this concern.
This article shows how GM has managed to promote eco-friendly technologies. The first detail, which inevitably attracts the reader’s attention, is the absence of any quantitative data, showing that GM has really adopted a new attitude toward environmental protection. I would be particularly interested in the reduction of gas emissions or the adoption of new technologies. This numerical information helps the reader to understand to what degree the company has succeeded in implementing new technologies.
In addition, the writer quotes the so-called “General Motors Environmental Principles”. Evidently, this information has been taken from the company’s website. First of all, this declaration has been made by people, who attempt to promote GM’s products. Therefore, it is biased in its core. If one does want to include this information in the paper, he/she has to demonstrate how the company tries to live up to these standards. It might be prudent to study the works of independent scholars, who have already examined GM’s attempts to preserve the environment. Such an approach would have greatly improved the quality of this paper.
To be frank enough, this article appears to be written by someone, who wants to advertise the products of General Motors, but not by a student or scholar. An academic paper or scholarly article must maintain a higher degree of objectivity; otherwise one can easily question the reliability of the author’s claims.