by Charles Peterson

Created on: May 01, 2009   Last Updated: September 13, 2009

This corporation exists in the abstract. This model is offered for any company. The ethic involved is the proper way to treat employees. There is always an exchange between management and labor. Management is concerned with the balance sheet bottom line as well as indices to show the investing community that the company has a healthy, ongoing outlook. For example management will ask for greater

efficiency from workers.

Labor is concerned with the well being of the workers. In return for efficiency things such as good morale are asked for. Morale is not a matter of obeying a command. It must come from within each worker.

Let's look at the larger picture. One used to list the segments of a company as 1) The owners, 2) The makers of a product or service, and 3) The consuming public. But just as the notion of ownership has broadened from the consideration of the return to "shareholders" to consideration of all "stakeholders," we are becoming more aware of the human element in our communities that a company represents.

A shareholder is defined in the narrow sense as a person who owns stock in a company. A stakeholder is any person who has a financial interest in the company. Besides shareholders these include the board of directors who create and set policy, executives who are responsible for carrying out the policy, and managers who direct and workers who implement the activities which produce the goals.

At the far end of the board-executive-management-labor chain lie the workers who interface with the buying public. Too often a company thinks they can supply any product they want and manage sales with the proper marketing and advertising. The selling clerk bears the stress that comes when the public does not want the product. Too often it is on joh (his or her) head that failure in meeting sales targets rests. US America has not yet taken up the banner hoisted successfully by the Japanese of inviting the customer into the manufacturing and design process itself.

The stakeholders are not limited to these phases of business. Some stocks are owned by mutual funds. Mutual funds own two thirds of business. So the little, old ladies and gentlemen sitting quietly on their life savings are stakeholders too. Lending institutions are stakeholders. So companies are tied in to the money supply as well as the stock market. As we are aware today, some small percentage of the success of each company reaches all of us.

The larger picture really encompasses each one of us. We

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>