Organizational Ethics - Stakeholder and Other Theories

Stakeholder and Other Theories

Whether it is a team, small group, or a large international entity, the ability for any organization to reason, act rationally, and respond ethically is paramount. Leadership must have the ability to recognize the needs of its members (or called “stakeholders” in some theories or models), especially, the very basics of a person’s desire to belong and fit into the organization. It is the stakeholder theory that implies that all stakeholders (or individuals) must be treated equally regardless of the fact that some people will obviously contribute more than others to an organization. Leadership has to not only place aside each of their individual (or personal) ambitions (along with any prejudice) in order to present the goals of the organization, but they have to also have the stakeholders engaged for the benefit of the organization. Further, it is leadership that has to be able to influence the stakeholders by presenting the strong minority voice in order to move the organization’s members towards ethical behavior. Importantly, the leadership (or stakeholder management) has to have the desire, will, and the skills to ensure that the other stakeholders’ voices are respected within the organization, and leadership has to ensure that those other voices are not expressing views (or needs as in respects to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs) that are not shared by the larger majority of the members (or stakeholders). Therefore, stakeholder management, as well as, any other leadership of organizations have to take upon themselves the arduous task of ensuring an “ethics system” for their own management styles, personalities, systems, performances, plans, policies, strategies, productivity, openness, and even risk(s) within their cultures or industries.