Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-190) and index.

Stakeholder Theory and Organizational Dogma -- Stakeholder Theory -- The Limits of Stakeholder Theory -- Why Organizational Ethics? -- Stakeholder Theory and Its Critics -- A Principle of Stakeholder Fairness -- Stakeholder Legitimacy -- Stakeholder Identity -- Stakeholder Theory in Practice -- The Limits of Stakeholder Theory -- What Stakeholder Theory Is -- Critical Distortions: Straw-Persons and Evil Genies -- Friendly Misinterpretations -- Why Organizational Ethics? -- Why a Theory of Organizational Ethics? -- Limitations of Political Theory for Organizations -- Limitations of Moral Philosophy for Organizations -- Toward an Ethics of Organizations -- Stakeholder Theory and Its Critics -- Stakeholder Distinctions -- Stakeholders, Agency Theory, and Fiduciary Duties -- Stakeholder Theory and the Place of Fairness -- A Principle of Stakeholder Fairness -- Obligations -- Defending Fairness -- Fairness and Consent -- Fairness and Integrative Social Contracts Theory -- On the Question of Justification -- Discourse Ethics and the Content of Stakeholder Obligations -- Stakeholder as Analytic to Business -- Stakeholder Legitimacy -- Legitimacy in Stakeholder Theory -- Legitimacy in Stakeholder Research: Normative and Derivative Perspectives -- Legitimacy in Practice -- Stakeholder Identity -- The Natural Environment as a Stakeholder -- Problems with the Natural Environment as a Stakeholder -- The Natural Environment and Community Stakeholders -- Social Activists as Stakeholders -- Activist Groups and Civil Disobedience -- Civil Disobedience and Stakeholder Theory -- Stakeholder Theory in Practice -- Why Should Managers Pay Attention to Stakeholders? -- Who Are an Organization's Stakeholders and What Is the Basis for Their Legitimacy? -- What Do Stakeholders Want? -- How Should Managers Prioritize among Stakeholders? -- Are the Ethics of Business Different from Everyday Ethics? -- Stakeholder Best Practice -- Other Challenges to Stakeholder Theory.

Recent corporate scandals have brought attention to business ethics, yet there are few books available that cover an important aspect of this topic. In this timely study of organizational ethics and stakeholder theory - which holds that business is beholden not only to shareholders but also to customers, employees, suppliers, management, and the community - Robert Phillips challenges the idea that the theory has no "moral underpinnings" and suggests useful ways to define which groups are or are not legitimate stakeholders. This study is based on the work of John Rawls, the most widely cited moral and political philosopher of the 20th century.