Bpp learning Media is an acca approved Content Provider

The stakeholder view of company objectives
is that many groups of people have a stake or 
legitimate interest in what the company does. Shareholders own the business, but there are also 
suppliers, managers, workers and customers. A business depends on appropriate relationships 
with these groups, otherwise it will find it hard to function. Each of these groups has its own 
objectives, so that a compromise or balance is required.
(b) 
The consensus theory of company objectives
was developed by Cyert and March (1992). They 
argued that managers run a business, but do not own it, and they do not necessarily set 
objectives for the company, but rather they look for objectives which suit their own inclinations. 
Objectives emerge as a consensus of the differing views of shareholders, managers, employees, 
suppliers, customers and society at large, but (in contrast to the stakeholder view) 
they are not 
all selected or controlled by management
. 
 
3
The ethical environment 
Ethics and morality are about right and wrong behaviour. Western thinking about ethics tends to be 
based on ideas about 
duty
and 
consequences
. Unfortunately, such thinking often fails to indicate a 
single clear course of action. Ethical thinking is also influenced by the concepts of 
virtue
and 
rights
. 
Ethics: 
a set of moral principles to guide behaviour 
Whereas the political environment in which an organisation operates consists of laws, regulations and 
government agencies, the social environment consists of the customs, attitudes, beliefs and education of 
society as a whole, or of different groups in society; and the ethical environment consists of a set (or 
sets) of well-established rules of personal and organisational behaviour. 
3.1 Ethical principles 
Much of the practical difficulty with ethics lies in the absence of an