ABSTRACT
Corporate social responsibility and business ethics have achieved a high profile in organizational life of the early twenty-first century, 1 with calls for greater attention to be focused on the role of the corporation in society. 2 Stakeholder theory, which “begins with the assumption that values are necessarily and explicitly a part of doing business”, 3 has become a central tenet in the inclusion of ethical approaches in organizations. 4 Stakeholder management, however, is more than simply an ethics tool for managers: it is a “neverending task of balancing and integrating multiple relationships and multiple objectives”. 5 Organizations continue to face a far wider range of stakeholders, many of whom change from issue to issue. 6 Indeed, even the issue is not static and can change character over time, as can the position of the stakeholder. 7 Yet in a recent review of the stakeholder management literature, “stakeholder actions and responses” were found to be the least discussed theme. 8
