Assignment

This video is designed to give you a short introduction to the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case study assignment. The case study youll be using for the assignment can be found on page 316 of your Business, Society, and Government textbook.

The case study presents the history of events leading up to the Supreme Court of the United States decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a brief summary of the publics reaction to the decision, and some thoughts to consider about the effect of this decision. The assignment requires you to identify stakeholders who will be affected by the courts decision in this case and the impacts the stakeholders will have in the aftermath of the courts decision. This video will give you a brief review of stakeholder theory and give you an idea of what skills you will be expected to demonstrate when you complete this assignment.

The textbook defines stakeholders as an entity that is benefitted or burdened by the actions of a corporation or whose actions may benefit or burden the corporation. Some common examples of stakeholders would include customers, employees, suppliers, stockholders, and the community.

Businesses will almost always have multiple stakeholders, and many times their interests will conflict. This means that a business decision-maker will frequently have to make a decision in the face of competing claims from different stakeholders. The question of whose interests should be prioritized requires the exercise of judgment. This skill examining competing claims and deciding which one is the strongest is called evaluation. You will want to consider the power, urgency, and legitimacy that each stakeholder presents. In your assignment, you will be asked to identify all relevant stakeholders and determine how they could be impacted by the Supreme Courts decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. You should put yourselves in each stakeholders position "Why do they care about the outcome of the decision? How will they be affected? What outcome would they prefer? What are their arguments in support of their preferred outcome? You will want to consider the power, urgency, and legitimacy that each stakeholder presents.

To summarize, do not answer the questions that follow the case. Instead, identify all stakeholders affected by the courts decision and determine the impact that the courts decision has on the stakeholder or the impact that the stakeholder could have in the aftermath of the courts decision.