Shareholder Theory Case Study

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2) The shareholder theory states that the only goal of a business is to maximize profits and increase the shareholder value under the bounds of the law. The only people of consequence in this theory are the ones who have monetary value tied to the company through investments. This obligation has come about due to the immense pressure that shareholders have over a company. Therefore, majority shareholders will be the ones to make decisions that would influence who ever runs the company. The CEO will be attempting to make the shareholders happy, and acquiring money for the shareholders is a great way to do it. Under this theory, the only permissible way to incur a financial loss for the sake of an ethical requirement is if that ethical requirement Although the net that is cast over those considered is large, attempting to appease everyone is not only a noble goal, but a sound one as well. It is not possible to make everyone happy, but the act of trying can alleviate concerns a stakeholder might have. This stakeholder theory shares many similarities to the humanity formulation of categorical imperative. The shareholder theory is using employees and such as only a means to an end whereas the stakeholder also holds these employees as an Something like money is a perfect example of an instrumental object. Intrinsic value is the value an object has for its own sake. An object such as a teddy bear giving to a child during their youth is an object with intrinsic value. CSR can have instrumental value as well as have intrinsic value. Using CSR as instrumentally valuable allows a company to make ethically dubious decisions while acting like a good company. A company may decide to donate to a local community in the form of a new community center or something, and then expect that community to green light an initiative, such as land development, that would have otherwise never be giving the go ahead. The company used the donation to pressure the community to give something back, skipping the normal procedures. The view that CSR is only instrumentally valuable is insufficient for several reasons. For starters, companies who follow CSR policies are doing so only because they have to. They are acting in accordance with duty, and not acting from duty. Because those who act in accordance do so when they don’t want to, they are open to corrupting the duty they are doing. They will begin to try to gain a benefit from the act. Companies should be developing relationships with communities to foster social acceptance and a license to operate. Instead, a company acting in accordance with duty will try to skip the developing part, and

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