![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
Stakeholder theory contends that organizations owe an obligation to other stakeholder groups that extends beyond shareholders. This study uses stakeholder theory to examine which groups public relations practitioners and journalists attend to as well as which attributes—legitimacy, power, and urgency—they highlight. Content analysis of press releases and news stories found that the stakeholder most frequently mentioned in both press releases and newspapers was the shareholder group. Both press releases and news stories focused more on legitimacy than power or urgency for all stakeholders except government. The findings support criticisms that, in general, business news and corporate communications concentrate on the interests of shareholders. The ethical implications from the perspective of stakeholder theory are discussed.
Notes
***p < .001
1. The companies in the sample were Wal-Mart Stores, Chevron, Target, United Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Wachovia Corp., Northrop Grumman, Sysco, AETNA, Sara Lee, Duke Energy, Rite Aid, Manpower, Staples, Computer Sciences, AFLAC, United States Steel, D.R. Horton, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Enterprise Products, Sempra Energy, Colgate-Palmolive, UnitedAuto Group, SunTrust Banks, Devon Energy, Solectron, Baxter International, Yum Brands, YRC Worldwide, Amazon.com, Praxair, Apache, Campbell Soup, Northeast Utilities, Fifth Third Bancorp, Harrah's Entertainment, Applied Materials, Enbridge Energy Partners, Dover, Blockbuster, Jacobs Engineering Group, W.W. Grainger, Darden Restaurants, Charter Communications, Jones Apparel Group, W.R. Berkley, Avaya, Pacific Life, Hilton Hotels, and CNF.
2. Scott's pi and percentage of agreement for each variable are: stockholders (.83, 93.3%), attributes of stockholders (.79, 98.3%), customers (.93, 96.7%), attributes of customers (.64, 86.7%), employees (.68, 93.3%), attributes of employees (.30, 93.3%), community (.52, 86.7%), attributes of community (.46, 93.3%), government (.65, 96.7%), attributes of government (.31, 93.3%), suppliers (.85, 98.3%), and attributes of suppliers (1.0, 100%). The overall Scott's pi reliability score, which accounts for chance agreement between two coders, was .58, reaching the acceptable criteria of .50 (CitationScott, 1955).