Goodpaster (2010) delivers a brief but poignant essay on the moral obligation of business. He characterizes the current situation as a shift from "shareholder" focused to "stakeholder" focused, tilted toward the latter. Whereas, once the focus was on maximizing profit of the shareholder, today's businesses feel more obligated to meet the needs of all stakeholders. 

Goodpaster leads by introducing the concept of "proviso" in the form of an example. John Locke once held that property rights were good so long as everyone else is no worse off than they would have been without private property. In developing his argument, Goodpaster presents two "moral provisos" to anchor his points. The shareholder proviso holds the "corporate responsibility rests upon a fiduciary obligation to stockholders, shareholders, or owners"  (p. 741). However, the provision is that, in reality, there are corporate obligations to many other shareholders. This leads to the stakeholder  proviso. Businesses are obliged to support all stakeholders, but this is also morally shortsighted. Stakeholder thinking can be morally lacking or not in the best interest of the corporation.  

Because of these provisos, Goodpaster calls for comprehensive thinking in the form of attention to collaboration between the private sector and institutions coupled with attention to human dignity and the common good. So in the end it is not about siding with the stakeholder or shareholder approach, but striking a balance and doing what is right. In the closing paragraph Goodpaster writes, "Does this mean that future business leaders will need to be as philosophically literate and schooled in the humanities as they are technically skilled at cost-benefit analysis? Indeed it does" (p. 742). In this regard, I fully concur with Goodpaster. His essay is excellent and I found myself in complete agreement. What I am still left wondering is what kind of moral (and business) guidelines can we follow. Are there some moral principles? Perhaps Goodpaster's essay is written in the best of philosophical form, meant to raise questions rather than answer them.