Stakeholder Salience in Corporate Codes of Ethics - Using Legitimacy, Power, and Urgency to Explain Stakeholder Relevance in Ethical Codes of German Blue Chip Companies

Abstract

What stakeholder groups are addressed in the German blue chips’ corporate codes of ethics and why do companies concentrate on particular stakeholders? These questions were subject to a study on stakeholder salience in the corporate codes of ethics of the German DAX 30-companies. The extent and the mode stakeholders are addressed in the ethical codes of the companies listed in the German blue chip stock market index were analysed. The empirical results were interpreted in the light of stakeholder salience theory. Stakeholders’ legitimacy, power, and urgency were evaluated against the background of the German business context and the sphere of research on applied business ethics in Germany. The results indicate firstly that companies Using Legitimacy, Power, and Urgency to Explain Stakeholder Relevance in Ethical Codes of German Blue Chip Companies develop a differentiated perception of their environment in terms of their ethical responsibility whereas they clearly distinguish between primary and secondary stakeholders. Secondly, this perception reflects the German business context and, hence, highlights the companies’ embeddedness in a specific environment. Thirdly, stakeholder attributes offered by the stakeholder salience theory are proved to be instrumental for a systematic evaluation of stakeholder relevance. However, the findings point to a different relationship between these attributes than it is proposed by the theory.