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Which Duties of Beneficence Should Agents Discharge on Behalf of Principals? A Reflection through Shareholder Primacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2020

Santiago Mejia Open the ORCID record for Santiago Mejia [Opens in a new window]
Santiago Mejia*
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Fordham University
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Abstract

Scholars who favor shareholder primacy usually claim either that managers should not fulfill corporate duties of beneficence or that, if they are required to fulfill them, they do so by going against their obligations to shareholders. Distinguishing between structurally different types of duties of beneficence and recognizing the full force of the normative demands imposed on managers reveal that this view needs to be qualified. Although it is correct to think that managers, when acting on behalf of shareholders, are not required to fulfill wide duties of charity, they are nevertheless required to fulfill a variety of narrow duties of beneficence. What is more, the obligation to fulfill these duties arises precisely because they are acting on behalf of shareholders. As such, this article 1) refines our understanding of the duties of corporate beneficence and 2) helps to identify which duties of beneficence are imposed on managers when they are acting on behalf of shareholders.

Keywords

agency ethicsbeneficencecharityimperfect dutiesduties of rescueshareholder primacy
Type
Article
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 421 - 449
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Business Ethics

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