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The aim of this paper is to describe and qualitatively explain certain observations concerning corporate social responsibility from the personnel standpoint with special reference to various stakeholders.

The observations were made in connection with earlier studies on organizational change. The paper draws on stakeholder thinking and offers a view regarding the way employees perceive business issues concerning CSR in relation to corporate stakeholder groups. Should a business give priority to the interests of its owners or take all stakeholder groups equally into account? How do employees see their own relations with other stakeholder groups, and do their views change in the course of a post‐merger integration process? The interviews were conducted at two points in the change process in Nordic energy sector companies: first in the pre‐merger situation in 2001 and then in the post‐merger situation four years later in 2005.

The main contribution of the study is the observation of the changing positions of stakeholder groups in a merger process. The findings show that two of these primary stakeholder groups – namely, management and owners – shift places in a merger, with owners replacing the management in the corporate core and the old, pre‐merger management joining the stakeholder group of other personnel.

The paper produces new and validated scientific information about energy‐sector mergers from the employees' point‐of‐view.