Shareholder Model And The Stakeholder Model

Corporate Citizenship is a targeted daily focus that ensured the well-being of all stakeholders and the communities where the business operates and the environment. The organization employs a very stringent and robust audit process in order to guarantee the organization is meeting and exceeding all the standards and regulatory in which the company operate.

What is ethically responsible management? How can a corporation, given its economic mission, be managed with appropriate attention to ethical concerns? These are central questions in the field of business ethics. There are two approaches to answering such questions. The first one is Milton Friedman’s shareholder theory of management and the second one is Edwards Freeman’s “Stakeholder” theory of management, two different views about the purpose and aims of a business.

Because corporations are established to profit and shareholders invest money with expectations of a greater return, managers cannot be given a directive to be “socially responsible” without providing specific criteria of checks and balances to which needs to adhere. Therefore, it is imperative to the success of a corporation for managers to not act solely but rather to act within the policies of the shareholders.

Corporate governance is a set of actions used to handle the relationship between stakeholders by determining and controlling the strategic direction and performance of the organization. Corporate governance major concern is making sure that the strategic decisions are effective and that it paves the way towards strategic competitiveness. (Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson, 2017, p. 310). In today’s corporation, the primary objective of corporate governance is to align top-level manager’s and stakeholders interest. That is why corporate governance is involved when there is a conflict of interest between with the owners, managers, and members of the board of directors (Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson, 2017, p. 310-311).

Corporate citizenship is commonly defined as ?a company's management of its influences on and relationships with the rest of society? (Marsden 2000: 9). A recent study conducted by Hill and Knowlton found that 79% of Americans consider corporate citizenship when deciding to buy a particular company?s product, 36% of which considered corporate citizenship to be an important factor (Verschoor, 2001: 20). This shows us that by achieving good corporate citizenship, a company?s practices become transparent to the interested public and provide a basis for accountability for the future (Waddock, 2000: 324).

Corporate citizenship involves acting on the firm’s commitment to the corporate citizenship philosophy and measuring the extent to which it follows through by actually implementing citizenship initiatives.

In general ,the stakeholder approach may be more conducive to balancing a wide variety of corporate interests and thereby discouraging impropriety.Executives and boards should take the perceptions of both shareholders and stakeholders into account when formulating strategy and enunciate their stance in all organizational communications. Only within that kind of clearly delineated context, can managers be expected to make appropriate decisions. Indeed, some of the most successful businesses are those which have embraced stakeholder values for example Bodyshop. However, we see that generally, shareholder value

To produce a set of recommendations in a written document about how McDonalds PLC, can reduce its carbon footprint through the management of key stakeholder relationships.

What is the responsibility of a business or corporation? Is it to meet stakeholder expectations and follow legal guidelines, or is there a higher responsibility? While Milton Friedman asserted in his famous essay that “the social responsibility of a business is to increase profits,” it can be argued that companies also have higher moral responsibilities. The question in each ethical dilemma is, “To whom do we have a moral responsibility?”

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), corporate stakeholders have a very important role, not only within the business for the community as well. "Good corporate governance helps...to ensure that corporations take into account the interests of a wide range of constituencies, as well as the communities within which they operate, and that their boards are accountable to the company and the shareholders. This, in turn, helps to assure that corporations operate for the benefit of society as a whole" (1999).

This paper will have a detailed discussion on the shareholder theory of Milton Friedman and the stakeholder theory of Edward Freeman. Friedman argued that “neo-classical economic theory suggests that the purpose of the organisations is to make profits in their accountability to themselves and their shareholders and that only by doing so can business contribute to wealth for itself and society at large”. On the other hand, the theory of stakeholder suggests that the managers of an organisation do not only have the duty towards the firm’s shareholders; rather towards the individuals and constituencies who contribute to the company’s wealth, capacity and activities. These individuals or constituencies can be the shareholders, employees,

Malden Mills, was a family own business, that was well known for there textiles and the large amount of community people they hired to work and manufacture the textile products. Malden Mills had a lot of social responsibility in the community and their employees were a great concern of theirs. Aeron Feuerstein, who was the chief executive officer, knew that the employee’s wellbeing was the best way to run the business. To Aeron Feuerstein felt that the way the employees should be treated as part of the company and a priority asset to the business. View of corporate social responsibility is that the CEO must take care of the shareholders but that they also have a responsibility to the community and workers. “The stakeholder approach to corporate social responsibility considers the various concerns of group that have an interest in the affairs of the organization and can be applied by management to identify potential reactions to corporate performance.” (Anonymous, 2009, pg.1)

Freeman is of the view that stockholders are the most important stakeholders and are essential to the profitability and sustainability of the organization. Thus, in order to maximize profits, then the best interests of all stakeholders ought to be recognized. According to Freeman’s stakeholder theory, managers have an ethical duty to manage the organization for all stakeholders. Their ethical duties are governed by the principle of corporate rights, in which the organization has an obligation not to violate the rights of others; and the principle of corporate effect, which outlines that the organization is responsible for the effects of its actions on

A growing number of organizations approach corporate responsibility as an extensive collection of beliefs and concepts, integrated into company functions through management guidelines and methods along with decision-making processes. Businesses promoting corporate responsibility usually have actually formally-written principles, strive to work as good citizens, and emphasize a constant dialogue and their stakeholders, such as companies, staff and communities.

Corporate Governance refers to the way a corporation is governed. It is the technique by which companies are directed and managed. It means carrying the business as per the stakeholders’ desires. It is actually conducted by the board of Directors and the concerned committees for the company’s stakeholder’s benefit. It is all about balancing individual and societal goals, as well as, economic and social goals. Corporate Governance is the interaction between various participants (shareholders, board of directors, and company’s management) in shaping corporation’s performance and the way it is proceeding towards. The relationship between the owners and the managers in an organization must be healthy and there should be no conflict between the