Abstract
This article begins with an explanation of how moral development for organizations has parallels to Kohlberg's categorization of the levels of individual moral development. Then the levels of organizational moral development are integrated into the literature on corporate social performance by relating them to different stakeholder orientations. Finally, the authors propose a model of organizational moral development that emphasizes the role of top management in creating organizational processes that shape the organizational and institutional components of corporate social performance. This article represents one approach to linking the distinct streams of business ethics and business-and-society research into a more complete understanding of how managers and firms address complex ethical and social issues.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bowie, N. E.: 1991, ‘Challenging the Egoistic Paradigm’, Business Ethics Quarterly 1(10, 1–21.
Brenner, S. N. and P. L. Cochran: 1991, ‘The Stakeholder Theory of the Firm: Implications for Business and Society Theory and Research’, in J. F. Mahon (ed.), International Association for Business and Society Proceedings, pp. 449–467.
Burke, L. and J. M. Logsdon: 1996, ‘How Corporate Social Responsibility Pays Off’, Long Range Planning 29, 493–502.
Burke, L., J. M. Logsdon, W. Mitchell, M. Reiner and D. Vogel: 1986, ‘Corporate Community Involvement in the San Francisco Bay Area’, California Management Review 28(3), 122–141.
Carroll, A. B.: 1995, ‘Stakeholder Thinking in Three Models of Management Morality: A Perspective with Strategic Implications’, in J. Nasi (ed.), Understanding Stakeholder Thinking (LSR Publications, Helsinki, Finland).
Cavanagh, G. F., D. J. Moberg and M. G. Velasquez: 1981, ‘The Ethics of Organizational Politics’, Academy of Management Review 6, 363–374.
Clarkson, M. B. E.: 1995, ‘A Stakeholder Framework for Analyzing and Evaluating Corporate Social Performance’, Academy of Management Review 20, 92–117.
Cohen, D. V.: 1995a, ‘Creating Ethical Work Climates: A Socio-Economic Perspective’, Journal of Socio-Economics 24, 317–343.
Cohen, D. V.: 1995b, ‘Moral Climate in Business Firms: A Framework for Empirical Research’, Academy of Management 1995 Best Paper Proceedings.
Colby, A., L. Kohlberg, J. Gibbs and M. Lieberman: 1983, ‘A Longitudinal Study of Moral Development’, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 48(1, 2), Series #200, 1–107.
Donaldson, T.: 1982, Corporations and Morality (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
Donaldson, T. and L. E. Preston: 1995, ‘The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications’, Academy of Management Review 20, 65–91.
Dunfee, T. W.: 1991, ‘Business Ethics and Extant Social Contracts’, Business Ethics Quarterly 1(1), 23–51.
Endler, N. S., J. P. Rushton and H. L. Roediger: 1978, ‘Productivity and Scholarly Impact’, American Psychologist 33, 1064–1082.
Epstein, E. M.: 1987, ‘The Corporate Social Policy Process: Beyond Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Corporate Social Responsiveness’, California Management Review 29(3), 99–114.
Fraedrich, J., D. M. Thorne and O. C. Ferrell: 1994, ‘Assessing the Application of Cognitive Moral Development to Business Ethics’, Journal of Business Ethics 13, 829–838.
Freeman, R. E.: 1984, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (Pitman, Boston, MA).
Freeman, R. E.: 1994, ‘The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions’, Business Ethics Quarterly 4(4), 409–421.
Freeman, R. E. and D. R. Gilbert, Jr.: 1988, Corporate Strategy and the Search for Ethics (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
Gilligan, C.: 1982, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
Jones, T. M.: 1995, ‘Instrumental Stakeholder Theory: A Synthesis of Ethics and Economics’, Academy of Management Review 20, 404–437.
Kohlberg, L.: 1969, ‘Stage and Sequence’, in D. Goslin (ed.), Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research (Rand McNally, Chicago, IL).
Kohlberg, L.: 1976, ‘Moral Stages and Moralization’, in T. Likona (ed.), Moral Development and Behavior (Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, New York, NY), pp. 31–53.
Kohlberg, L.: 1981, Essays on Moral Development. Vol. 1: The Philosophy of Moral Development (Harper and Row, San Francisco, CA).
Lamb, W. B.: 1994, ‘Measuring Corporate Social Performance: A Stakeholder Approach’, in S. Wartick and D. Collins (eds.), International Association for Business and Society Proceedings, pp. 247–252.
Lerner, L. D. and G. D. Fryxell: 1994, ‘CEO Stakeholder Attitudes and Corporate Social Activity in the Fortune 500’, Business & Society 33, 58–81.
Mitnick, B. M.: 1995, ‘Systematics and CSR: The Theory and Processes of Normative Referencing’, Business & Society 34(1), 5–33.
Post, J. E. and B. W. Altman: 1992, ‘Models of Corporate Greening: How Corporate Social Policy and Organizational Learning Inform Leading-Edge Environmental Management’, in J. E. Post (ed.), Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy (JAI Press, Greenwich, CT), pp. 3–29.
Preston, L. E. and J. E. Post: 1975, Private Management and Public Policy (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
Quinn, D. P. and T. M. Jones: 1995, ‘An Agent Morality View of Business Policy’, Academy of Management Review 20, 22–42.
Rappaport, A. and M. F. Flaherty: 1992, Corporate Responses to Environmental Challenges: Initiatives by Multinational Management (Quorum Books, New York, NY).
Reidenbach, R. E. and D. P. Ribin: 1991, ‘A Conceptual Model of Corporate Moral Development’, Journal of Business Ethics 10, 273–284.
Russo, M. V. and P. A. Fouts: 1996, ‘A Resource-Based Perspective on Corporate Environmental Performance and Profitability’, working paper, University of Oregon.
Sethi, S. P.: 1987, ‘The Expanding Scope of Executive Liability (Criminal and Civil) for Corporate Law Violations’, in S. P. Sethi and C. M. Falbe (eds.), Business and Society: Dimensions of Conflict and Cooperation (Lexington Books, Lexington, MA), pp. 471–506.
Sridhar, B. S. and A. Cambrun: 1993, ‘Stages of Moral Development of Corporations’, Journal of Business Ethics 12, 727–739.
Swanson, D. L.: 1995, ‘Addressing a Theoretical Problem by Reorienting the Corporate Social Performance Model’, Academy of Management Review 20, 43–64.
Trevino, L. K.: 1986, ‘Ethical Decision Making in Organizations: A Person-Situation Interactionist Model’, Academy of Management Review 11, 601–617.
Trevino, L. K.: 1992, ‘Moral Reasoning and Business Ethics: Implications for Research, Education, and Management’, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 445–459.
Velasquez, M. G.: 1982, Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
Victor, B. and J. Cullen: 1988, ‘The Organizational Bases of Ethical Work Climates’, Administrative Science Quarterly 33, 101–125.
Vogel, D.: 1978, Lobbying the Corporation: Citizen Challenges to Business Authority (Basic Books, New York, NY).
Weaver, G. R.: 1993, ‘Corporate Codes of Ethics: Purpose, Process and Content Issues’, Business & Society 32, 44–63.
Weaver, G. R., L. K. Trevino and P. L. Cochran: 1994, ‘Ethics Initiatives and Organizational Legitimacy’, in S. Wartick and D. Collins (eds.), International Association for Business and Society Proceedings, pp. 56–61.
Weber, J.: 1993, ‘Institutionalizing Ethics into Business Organizations: A Model and Research Agenda’, Business Ethics Quarterly 3, 419–436.
Wood, D. J.: 1991, ‘Corporate Social Performance Revisited’, Academy of Management Review 16, 691–718.
Wood, D. J. and R. E. Jones: 1995, ‘Stakeholder Mismatching: A Theoretical Problem in Empirical Research on Corporate Social Performance’, The International Journal of Organizational Analysis 3, 229–267.
Yuthas, K.: 1997, ‘Organizational Moral Development: Lessons From Moral Reasoning Frameworks’, Research on Accounting Ethics, forthcoming.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Logsdon, J.M., Yuthas, K. Corporate Social Performance, Stakeholder Orientation, and Organizational Moral Development. Journal of Business Ethics 16, 1213–1226 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005741931995
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005741931995