Business Ethics
As a corporate manager of a publicly held company, one is responsible for the interests of many different stakeholders. In the past, it has been a very common assumption and practice that corporate managers of a company should strive to act solely for the benefit of shareholders, or owners of the company. Corporate managers were trained to take any actions necessary or use any means possible to improve the bottom line; or profits, without regard to other "stakeholders". As a business student at San Diego State, I had adopted this same "bottom line" philosophy that had been preached to me since the day of my first business class. I had bought into these teachings so wholeheartedly, that before this class I really felt the terms "stakeholder" and "shareholder" could be used interchangeably. However, I was very enlightened by your lecture on February 29th, in which, you taught us the true definition of a "stakeholder". It simply boils down to two crucial yet basic points. A stakeholder is described as, "anyone or anything that can affect the ability of the corporation to achieve its mission or which is affected by the corporations activities" (Dunn, 2/29 Lecture). This simple statement encompasses so many more entities tha
In doing so, I have used many of the ethical frameworks discussed in class to support my arguments. In these days of the soaring NASDAQ, space shuttle missions, and the internet, it is easy to forget that the environment is even a stakeholder at all. The community has rights just as any other stakeholder group. I have been able to work in a corporation in which employees were simply used as a means to another end and we knew it. However, not to the extent that laws be broken and other stakeholders' rights be violated. Consumers provide the revenue stream necessary for a corporation to operate. There are two primary reasons the environment receives such important representation. The second reason I represent the environment is based upon shareholder interests. This was clearly a case in which managers crossed the line in upholding their duties to shareholders and would not be condoned within the corporation I am part of. To do this, I need to produce a high quality product or service reaching a point of marginal utility. I have to admit, before this course I had been guilty of doing just that. If a corporation doesn't have consumers purchasing their goods or services, they won't be a corporation for long. As long as nothing of that nature takes place, as a manager I have a deontological duty to my shareholders. Because of the risk they bare, the vision they had, and their ability to create an efficiently functioning corporation, their interests are number one. By doing this I am creating the greatest amount of "happiness" for the greatest amount of people.
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Acceptance Essays
