A minority shareholder is exactly what it sounds like: an individual or organization who holds shares in a corporation but does not control a majority of the votes. In companies that are widely-held (as opposed to majority held companies), no one holds more than a 10% share.

The voices of many minority shareholders get lost when annual shareholder meetings are dominated by more powerful and influential shareholders. Corporations that are concerned with corporate social responsibility and ethical business practices must remember to include minority shareholders' interests and concerns in their decision making sessions because they too are stakeholders. Only by considering the needs of all stakeholders can a corporation succeed at being - and be seen to be - ethically and socially responsible.

An ethical decision is not one that keeps all - or necessarily most - stakeholders happy. Rather, an ethical decision carefully considers the impacts of the decision on as broad a base of stakeholders as possible. The right decision may upset a specific constituency.

A stakeholder is an individual or group with a stake in the actions of a corporation. "It has become clear in recent years that the shareholder is no longer the sole or even the primary stakeholder in a corporation. The concept of the shareholder and profit maximization is being replaced by the concept of stakeholders, of whom the shareholder or investor is only one class" (The Corporate Ethics Monitor, Volume 1, Issue 3, page 46). The concept of corporate stakeholders has expanded to include host communities, minority shareholders, employees, employees' families, environment groups, labour representatives, governments, and other aspects of society in general. The effects of a corporation's actions are far reaching. An expanded concept of stakeholders acknowledges these effects.

Companies recognize the importance of the new corporate stakeholders by including them in their corporate codes of ethics, social and ethics audit protocols, and statements of business practices. For instance, in order to demonstrate that the health of employees' families is important, the company may provide daycare or daycare referral services, flex-time, health insurance, or drug reimbursement programs. Or, in order to take the needs of the host community into consideration when corporate services, products and policy are being evaluated and changed, organizations may hold town hall meetings, introduce minority hiring and training programs, engage in meaningful multi-stakeholder dialogue, or give out pamphlets describing the prospective changes about to take place. In order to ensure that a company's practices are not detrimental or damaging to any of its stakeholders, all of a company's stakeholders should be taken into consideration when corporate policy is created and decisions are made.

An ethical decision is not one that keeps all - or necessarily most - stakeholders happy. Rather, an ethical decision carefully considers the impacts of the decision on as broad a base of stakeholders as possible. The right decision may upset a specific constituency.