A Dialectic Model of Development of Stakeholders’ Theory and Corporate Governance: from Hume Utilitarianism to Aristotelian Virtue Ethics

Abstract

Nowadays, developing the opinion of anti-corporation has formed a large part of biases and social judgments of the management science. Among these, because of performance of some companies and managers, the attention to the ethical issues in the field of theorizing and management practices has increased and has been considered by researchers in individual and organizational levels.
In this study, the authors attempt to define a general orientation of management theories by emphasizing on the two theories of agency and stakeholders in the form of offering a dialectic model of developing the Stakeholder Theory and Corporate Governance. They intend to show that despite the proposed criticisms, the organizations are moving toward developing the ethical behaviors in their series and this movement is due to the change of ethical fundamentals of corporation theory from profit-orientation of Hume to Virtue Ethics of Aristotle.