Stakeholder Theory: Concepts and Strategies

Elements in Organization Theory

by R. Edward Freeman, Jeffery S Harrison, Stelios Zyglidopoulos

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.

75 pages, Paperback

Published August 30, 2018

About the author

R. Edward Freeman is University Professor and Olsson Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of the University of Virginia.

Reviews

[Al]

Although this thinking was a critical step to advance the leading edge of corporate strategy and thinking, now it’s quite passé. The environment is a total after thought. It’s an optional variable if that.

I can see from the lens of business schools how these concepts would have been once quite novel, yet, they fall flat today.

[Norman Hawker]

Excellent overview of shareholder theory.

[Geoffrey Kelley]

A concise introduction to Stakeholder Theory. Focussed on business, it helps identify the various interested parties who can help or hinder the outcome of a project or an initiative. It distinguishes between primary and secondary stakeholders,and offers various strategies to communicate with them. The goal is to create an effective level of consultation to ensure solid support from stakeholders who are “ onboard”, and limit the damage done by those opposed. R. Edward Freeman is the “ father” of stakeholder theory, in a seminal book written in 1984, where he distinguishes stakeholder theoryfrom shareholder theory. The latter is too narrow in focus, while the former allows for a broader consideration of ethical and societal concerns.