Part One
An Overview of Business
Ethics
Chapter 2
Stakeholder
Relationships,
Social
Responsibility and
Corporate
Governance

© 2015 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

1

Relationships and Business
Building effective relationships is one of the most important areas of business today
 Business ethics is a team sport and few

decisions are made by only one individual

 Stakeholder framework
 Helps identify internal and external

stakeholders
 Helps monitor and respond to needs, values, and expectations of stakeholder groups

 Corporate governance
 The formal system of accountability and

control of ethical and socially responsible behavior © 2015 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

2

Stakeholders Define
Ethical Issues in Business
Stakeholders: Those who have a stake or claim in some aspect of a company’s products, operations, markets, industry, and outcomes
Customers
Investors
Employees
Suppliers
Government agencies Communities

The relationship between companies and their stakeholders is a two-way street
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

3

Stakeholder
Theory
Three approaches to stakeholder theory
 Normative
 Principles and values help identify ethical

guidelines that dictate how to treat stakeholders  Descriptive
 Focuses on actual behavior, addressing

decisions and strategies in stakeholder relationships  Instrumental
 Examines stakeholder relationships and

describes outcomes for particular behaviors
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

4

Identifying
Stakeholders
Primary stakeholders: those whose continued association is absolutely necessary for a firm’s survival
 Employees, customers, investors,

governments, and communities

Secondary stakeholders: do not typically engage in transactions with the firm and are not essential to a firm’s survival  Media, trade associations, and special

interest groups
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

5

The Stakeholder
Interaction Model

Source: Adapted from Isabelle Maignan, O. C. Ferrell, and Linda Ferrell, “A Stakeholder Model for
Implementing Social Responsibility in Marketing.” European Journal of Marketing 39 (2005): 956–977.
Used with permission.

© 2015 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

6

A Stakeholder
Orientation
 The degree to which a firm

understands and addresses stakeholder demands
 Involves activities that facilitate and maintain value with stakeholders  Generation of data about stakeholder

groups
 Distribution of that information
 Responsiveness of the organization as a whole © 2015 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license