STAKEHOLDER VS. SHAREHOLDER DEBATE: SOME SKEPTICAL REFLECTIONS
2017; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.22381/crlsj9120171
ISSN2162-2752
Tópico(s)War, Ethics, and Justification
ResumoTwo major theories about the moral responsibility of corporate managers dominate business ethics discussions - shareholder and stakeholder. The former states shareholders hire managers of the firms in which they own a share or have an investment and these managers owe it to them to manage the firm in a profitable way and make it prosper. The latter states corporate managers are morally responsible to advance the well being of all who may be affected by the management of the corporation.Another slightly different version of this dispute involves three theories presented by Milton Friedman, Ralph Nader and Miller-Ahrens-Machan. Friedman advances the exclusivist position that company managers should focus solely on the bottom line, make the firm profitable, and nothing else (within the rules of the game).1 Otherwise they get involved in matters that should be dealt with by the public authorities. Nader holds that since corporations were originally created by government (the king or royal court), they are arms of public policy and this means economic democracy, with managers doing what the voters want them to do.2 Miller-Ahrens-Machan argue that the primary obligation of managers is to make the firm profitable and then there can be other matters with which managers should also be concerned - the quality of the community, employee satisfaction, the arts and sciences, what have you. This is the view that profit should dominate but not be the exclusive concern.3Depending on which of these views is perceived to be right, different policies are followed for more particular issues, such as insider trading, hostile takeovers, outsourcing, and so forth. The following will make the point evident in more concrete terms.Driving to my gym on the weekends I see many motor-cyclists on the road riding their variously modified and decorated Harleys and similar choppers. There are a couple of hangouts - like Cook's Corner - where they gather Saturdays and Sundays. All I encounter is the bikers going and coming and standing around chatting outside the restaurant. Must be fun, they seem to be doing it everywhere. I saw groups of them riding in Germany, England, and Austria this summer. Talk about globalization!Near Cook's Corner, in Lake Forest, California, where El Toro and Santiago Canyon Roads meet, some photographers sit during the weekends taking photographs of approaching bikers. A sign alerts bikers to this, should they like to get a shot of themselves riding their cool looking chops, alone, or with their significant other behind them. These photographers make a few bucks during the weekend, probably enough to help them a bit with their own budgetary needs.Cook's Corner, however, like so many other restaurants, isn't a very steady business. A while ago it was up for sale and there have been rumors that it might just close. Also, the bikers might just abandon the place, should they find some better establishment at which they wish to gather. That would be the end of the local photographers' weekend job.Go down a few miles to my gym that has had so many changes of management that their policies regarding guests and family and numerous other matters have been yo-yoing about at a break neck pace. I have been with them for two years and about eight different management teams have come and gone. Indeed, the gym has folded recently. Next to the gym, little shops have sprung up - a barbershop, a nail and hair place, a cleaner's, and a coffee house that seems to be an independent outfit - it's called Michael's Coffee. In fact, there is now another fairly large establishment next to the gym, a sports medical center, including a chiropractor.As a result of the gym's closing, these adjacent businesses would also lose most of their customers. By the tenets of contemporary business ethics, however, the gym isn't responsible to satisfy the economic goals of its shareholders but must, both as a matter of ethics and law, consider the stakeholders' economic interests. …
Referência(s)