book

Stakeholder Theory and Organizational Ethics

by Robert Phillips

September 2003

Intermediate to advanced

216 pages

5h 33m

English

Berrett-Koehler Publishers

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Stakeholder TheoryChapter 2: The Limits of Stakeholder TheoryChapter 3: Why Organizational Ethics?Chapter 4: Stakeholder Theory and Its CriticsChapter 5: A Principle of Stakeholder FairnessChapter 6: Stakeholder LegitimacyChapter 7: Stakeholder IdentityChapter 8: Stakeholder Theory in Practice
What Stakeholder Theory IsCritical Distortions: Straw-Persons and Evil GeniesFriendly MisinterpretationsConclusion
Why a Theory of Organizational Ethics?Limitations of Political Theory for OrganizationsLimitations of Moral Philosophy for OrganizationsToward an Ethics of OrganizationsConclusion
Stakeholder DistinctionsStakeholders, Agency Theory, and Fiduciary DutiesStakeholder Theory and the Place of FairnessConclusion
A Principle of FairnessObligationsDefending FairnessFairness and ConsentFairness and Integrative Social Contracts TheoryOn the Question of JustificationDiscourse Ethics and the Content of Stakeholder ObligationsStakeholders As Analytic to BusinessConclusion

Legitimacy in Stakeholder TheoryLegitimacy in Stakeholder Research: Normative and Derivative PerspectivesLegitimacy in Practice
The Natural Environment As a StakeholderProblems with the Natural Environment As a StakeholderThe Natural Environment and Community StakeholdersSocial Activists As StakeholdersActivist Groups and Civil DisobedienceCivil Disobedience and Stakeholder TheoryConclusion
Why Should Managers Pay Attention to Stakeholders?Who Are an Organization’s Stakeholders and What Is the Basis for Their Legitimacy?What Do Stakeholders Want?How Should Managers Prioritize among Stakeholders?Are the Ethics of Business Different from Everyday Ethics?Stakeholder Best PracticeOther Challenges to Stakeholder Theory

Content preview from Stakeholder Theory and Organizational Ethics

Chapter 3Why Organizational Ethics?⁵⁵

The fault of methodological hierarchies is not unlike the fault of political and social ones: they lead to a distortion of vision with a consequent misdirection of effort.

—JOHN RAWLS⁵⁶

The reasons Aristotle gave for saying that politics is the culmination of ethics are today reasons for saying that business ethics is the culmination of ethics.

—EDWIN HARTMAN⁵⁷

Organizations need an ethics of their own, distinct from both political theory and moral philosophy.^a I am not the first to discern something distinctive about organizations, something that calls for a distinct moral framework.⁵⁸ However, theories ...