Understanding Stakeholder Action: Equity and Expectancy Considerations

In this study, I address the general research question, "What are the conditions under which stakeholders will take action against an organization?" I respond to this question by acknowledging that a stakeholder is likely to act when it is motivated to do so: accordingly I adopt two of the most well-established motivation theories, equity theory and expectancy theory, based on which I develop a framework for understanding when a stakeholder is likely to take action against the focal organization (FO). I assert that stakeholders are likely to take action against the FO when they perceive underreward inequity in their relationship with the FO, and when they have high expectancies that they can successfully take action in order to remedy that inequity. To test hypotheses derived from this framework I develop an experiment wherein subjects peruse two vignettes, each concerning a specific stakeholder-FO relationship, and respond to various questions concerning the likelihood that they would engage in various actions. Results provide support for the idea that both stakeholder perceptions of the degree of equity (or inequity) in their relationship with the FO and their expectancies that they can successfully engage in action that will result in valued outcomes affect stakeholders' propensities to take action against the FO. Other results indicate that overrewarded stakeholders may be more likely than others to engage in behaviors that help the FO. Results concerning the impact of equity sensitivity on stakeholder propensities to engage in action either detrimental to or supportive of the FO were mixed

Equity and Expectancy Considerations in Stakeholder Action

An "interest-based" view of stakeholder action-a view that stakeholders act against organizations to safeguard or promote their own interests-underlies much research in stakeholder theory. In this article, the author uses two motivation theories-equity theory and expectancy theory-to address the general research question, "What are the conditions under which stakeholders will take action against an organization?" Doing so allows for a more explicit elaboration of an interest-based approach to understanding stakeholder action. Applying these theories, the author develops propositions concerning the conditions that are likely to precipitate stakeholder sanctions directed at a focal organization and develops a basic framework for understanding when such stakeholder action is likely. Finally, the author discusses the theoretical and practical implications of this work

Is Fair Treatment Enough? Augmenting the Fairness-Based Perspective on Stakeholder Behaviour

Fairness and justice are core issues in stakeholder theory. Although such considerations receive more attention in the ‘normative’ branch of the stakeholder literature, they have critical implications for ‘instrumental’ stakeholder theory as well. In research in the instrumental vein, although the position has seldom been articulated in significant detail, a stakeholder’s inclination to take action against the firm or, conversely, to cooperate with it, is often taken to be a function of its perceptions concerning the fairness or unfairness (or equity or inequity) of the treatment it receives in its relationship with the firm. Thus, from various works in this domain can be distilled what might be termed a ‘fairness-based perspective on stakeholder behaviour’. This perspective, as it currently stands, assumes a high degree of homogeneity in stakeholders’ responses to fair, unfair, or munificent treatment by the firm. This supposition is itself typically based on a presumption that stakeholders consistently and uniformly adhere to norms of equity and reciprocity in their relationships with firms. However, research development

Effects of the Use of the Availability Heuristic on Ethical Decision-Making in Organizations

moral intensity, ethical decision-making, issue recognition, availability heuristic, cognitive bias,

Motivators of Mobilization: Influences of Inequity, Expectancy, and Resource Dependence on Stakeholder Propensity to Take Action Against the Firm

Although the possibility that a firm’s stakeholders may take damaging measures against it in response to its activities has been an underlying assumption of stakeholder theory from inception, the conditions that predispose stakeholders to act against firms remain largely unexplored in the literature. Based on work in equity theory, expectancy theory, and resource dependence theory, we present and test hypotheses concerning stakeholders’ propensities to impose sanctions upon—or to support—firms. Using a vignette-based experiment, we found strong confirmation of the criticality of fairness in the firm–stakeholder relationship: stakeholder equity perceptions were unequivocally associated with the proclivity to sanction the firm, or to engage in prosocial behaviours of benefit to it. Stakeholder expectancy perceptions and resourc

The relationship between social and financial performance: Repainting a portrait

A primary issue in the field of business and society over the past 25 years has been the relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance. Recently, Griffin and Mahon (1997) presented a table categorizing studies that have investigated this relationship. Motivated by concerns with this table, as well as a desire to account for progress in research in this area, the authors reconstructed it. The authors present a portrait of this relationship that is (a) substantially different from that shown in the Griffin and Mahon table and (b) more consistent with the latest research on the topic

Value Congruence and Charismatic Leadership in CEO-Top Manager Relationships: An Empirical Investigation

Although charismatic leadership theorists have long argued that leader-follower value congruence plays a central role in the development

Breaking the Rules: Examining the Facilitation Effects of Moral Intensity Characteristics on the Recognition of Rule Violations

moral intensity, ethical decision-making, issue recognition, social contracts, evolutionary psychology,