The stakeholder approach revisited

"Ziel dieses Beitrages ist eine Neubetrachtung der Entwicklung des Stakeholder-Management-Ansatzes basierend auf dem Buch 'Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach', der im Jahre 1984 von Pitman Publishing veröffentlicht wurde. Einer kurzen Entstehungsgeschichte dieses Ansatzes folgt eine Zusammenfassung und eine Bewertung der Hauptargumente. Der Ansatz wurde in einer Reihe von Forschungszweigen verwendet - diese werden hier skizziert. Der Beitrag endet mit einigen Vorschlägen für viel versprechende Forschungslinien." (Autorenreferat)"The purpose of this paper is to revisit the development of the stakeholder management approach developed in 'Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach' published by Pitman Publishing in 1984. A brief history of the development of this approach is followed by a summary and an assessment of the main arguments. The approach has been used in a number of research streams which are outlined. The paper ends with some suggestions for promising lines of inquiry." (author's abstract

Is Organizational Democracy Worth the Effort?

Organizational democracy is frequently associated with increased employee involvement and satisfaction, higher levels of innovation, increased stakeholder commitment, and, ultimately, enhanced organizational performance. However, democratic processes can also absorb significant time and other organizational resources and bog down decisions, which may lead to reduced efficiency. This article summarizes the pros and cons of organizational democracy. It also introduces and integrates ideas from the three other articles in this special forum. In the end, we conclude that although the economic arguments for organizational democracy may be mixed, increased stakeholder participation in value creation and organizational governance can benefit both society and corporations. In fact, the corporation itself may be envisioned as a system of self-governance and the voluntary cooperation of stakeholders

Stakeholders

This landmark book takes a retrospective look at the most important and influential works in the study of stakeholders since Freeman’s 1984 publication, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. 2009 marked the 25th anniversary of this watershed in organizational scholarship, so now is an excellent time for Phillips and Freeman to revisit this topical and exciting subject. From the tremendous upsurge in the literature, the editors have carefully selected ground-breaking works on topics including corporate governance, stakeholder-agency theory, management models, ethical theory and stakeholder orientation. This invaluable volume will shape the thinking of scholars and academics for the next 25 years.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1048/thumbnail.jp

Corporate Citizenship and Community Stakeholders

Stipulating that work on corporate citizenship is intended to add to the conversation around the role of business in society, it is reasonable to assume that scholars adopting (and adapting) the language of corporate citizenship find something there that allows for better description, analysis and synthesis of this role. Though what \u27better\u27 may mean here remains an open question, a sensible place to begin considering the question is to compare and contrast corporate citizenship with more established ways of conceiving business\u27s role in society such as, in the case of this chapter, stakeholder theory

Stakeholders, Social Responsibility, and Performance: Empirical Evidence and Theoretical Perspectives

The management of competing stakeholder interests has emerged as a significant topic in the management literature. Related issues are the relationship between stakeholder management and the perception that a firm is socially responsible, and the performance implications of both stakeholder management and social responsibility. Theory and models surrounding these issues are abundant, but empirical research is in an early stage. This research forum reports six excellent efforts to tackle fundamental ideas about stakeholders, social responsibility, and performance

Stakeholder Theory and Marketing: Moving from a Firm-Centric to a Societal Perspective

This essay is inspired by the ideas and research examined in the special section on “Stakeholder Marketing” of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing in 2010. The authors argue that stakeholder marketing is slowly coalescing with the broader thinking that has occurred in the stakeholder management and ethics literature streams during the past quarter century. However, the predominant view of stakeholders that many marketers advocate is still primarily pragmatic and company centric. The position advanced herein is that stronger forms of stakeholder marketing that reflect more normative, macro/societal, and network-focused orientations are necessary. The authors briefly explain and justify these characteristics in the context of the growing “prosociety” and “proenvironment” perspectives—orientations that are also in keeping with the public policy focus of this journal. Under the “hard form” of stakeholder theory, which the authors endorse, marketing managers must realize that serving stakeholders sometimes requires sacrificing maximum profits to mitigate outcomes that would inflict major damage on other stakeholders, especially society

Stakeholder Theory: Concepts and Strategies

The stakeholder perspective is an alternative way of understanding how companies and people create value and trade with each other. Freeman, Harrison and Zyglidopoulos discuss the foundation concepts and implementation of stakeholder management as well as the advantages this approach provides to firms and their managers. They present a number of tools that managers can use to implement stakeholder thinking, better understand stakeholders and create value with and for them. The Element concludes by discussing how managers can create stakeholder oriented control systems and by examining some of the important stakeholder-related issues that are worthy of future scholarly and managerial attention.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1317/thumbnail.jp

What Stakeholder Theory Is Not

The term stakeholder is a powerful one. this is due, to a significant degree, to its conceptual breadth. The term means many different things to many different people and hence evokes praise or scorn for a wide variety of scholars and practitioners of myriad academic disciplines and backgrounds. Such breadth of interpretation, though one of stakeholder theory\u27s greatest strengths, is also one of its most prominent theoretical liabilities as a topic of reasoned discourse. Much of the power of stakeholder theory is a direct result of the fact that, when used unreflectively, its managerial prescriptions and implications are nearly limitless. When discussed in its instrumental variation (i.e., that managers should attend to stakeholders as a means to achieving other organizational goals such as profit or shareholder wealth maximization) stakeholder theory stands virtually unopposed. The goal of the current paper is like that of a controlled burn that clears away some of the underbrush of misinterpretation in the hope of denying easy fuel to the critical conflagration that would attempt to raze the theory. The aim is to attempt to narrow its technical meaning for greater facility of use in management and organizational studies. By elaborating a number of common misinterpretations of the theory, we hope to render a stronger and more convincing stakeholder theory as a starting place for future research

Leveraging the Creative Arts in Business Ethics Teaching

The purpose of this paper is to describe a way of teaching business ethics using the creative arts, especially literature and theater. By drawing on these disciplines for both method and texts, we can more easily make the connection to business as a fully human activity, concerned with how meaning is created. Students are encouraged to understand story-telling and narrative and how these tools lend insight into the daily life of businesspeople. The paper describes two main courses, Business Ethics Through Literature and Leadership, Ethics and Theater, and the rationale for each. We begin by suggesting three main leverage points that the courses engender. We then rely on the words of students who have taken the courses for insights into what they learned. We then critically assess some of the principles that have informed course design over time. We conclude by suggesting that paying attention to the creative arts gives rise to a rather different approach to business ethics, one grounded in the pragmatist tradition in philosophy

Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art

A variety of forces are changing the way managers and executives make sense of their responsibilities. Globalization has brought a larger variety of participants into contemporary businesses, technological innovation has increased the pace of change, and managers are discovering that their actions have the potential to affect a broader range of people all over the globe (Clement, 2005). Additionally, the pursuit of corporate objectives can be easily disrupted by the actions of unexpected groups. These challenges, driven by change and interconnectedness, reveal a need for managers and academics to re-think the traditional ways of conceptualizing the responsibilities of the firm. Fortunately, for the last 30 years a growing number of scholars and practitioners have been experimenting with concepts and models that facilitate our understanding of the complexities of today’s business challenges. Among these, “stakeholder theory” or “stakeholder thinking” has emerged as a new narrative to understand and remedy three interconnected business problems—the problem of understanding how value is created and traded, the problem of connecting ethics and capitalism, and the problem of helping managers think about management such that the first two problems are addressed. In this article, we review the major uses and adaptations of stakeholder theory in a variety of disciplines such as business ethics, corporate strategy, finance, accounting, management, and marketing. We also evaluate these uses in terms of how they help or hinder the original goals of stakeholder theory, and suggest future directions in which research on stakeholder theory can continue to provide useful insights into the practice of sustainable and ethical value creation