Abstract
Stakeholder theory has been an incredibly powerful tool for understanding and improving organisations, and their relationship with other actors in society. That these critical ideas are now accepted within mainstream business is due in no small part to the influence of stakeholder theory. However, improvements to stakeholder engagement through stakeholder theory have tended to help stakeholders who are already somewhat powerful within organisational settings, while those who are less powerful continue to be marginalised and routinely ignored. In this paper, we argue that one possible obstacle preventing less powerful stakeholders from speaking up and/or being heard by organisations is found at the ontological level, where we have identified an ‘essentialist self’ underpinning the stakeholder concept. By deconstructing the stakeholder concept through how it is defined, discussed and debated, and linking this back to the practical consequences of the theory for the least powerful stakeholders, we are able to make three contributions. One, through our deconstruction, it is clear that at an ontological level, stakeholder theory is underpinned by an implicit, and problematic, assumption of the ‘essentialist self’, where the organisation is treated as the ‘natural, universal self’, and anyone not closely resembling this narrow (and unrealistic) view of self is treated as ‘other’. Two, we build on the work of authors such as Wicks et al. (Bus Ethics Q 4(4):475–497, 1994), who highlight the need for consideration of the self within stakeholder theory. We thus take our findings from contribution one and begin to build a more holistic view of the self within the stakeholder concept, where each self is encouraged to recognise common selves outside and inside the corporation. Third, we link the theoretical discussion to the practical by discussing some imperfect ways in which a more holistic, enriched stakeholder concept might begin to help mitigate marginalisation for some stakeholders.
Highlights
Management literature increasingly acknowledges that organisations are not islands of activity, and must relate in some way to the social and natural systems in which they operate (e.g. Wicks et al 1994)
We argue that one possible obstacle preventing less powerful stakeholders from speaking up and/ or being heard by organisations is found at the ontological level, where we identify an ‘essentialist self’ underpinning the stakeholder concept
The self and other are combined into a relational self through introspection and social interaction. It is this combination of self and other that provides us with an opportunity to meaningfully relate and engage with the parts of ourselves, and others, who are marginalised within mainstream thinking and social structures. It is with this detailed insight into the problems with the essentialist self, and the possibilities created by the relational self, that we demonstrate the essentialist self underpinning the stakeholder concept, and as yet undetected structures of marginalisation
Summary
Management literature increasingly acknowledges that organisations are not islands of activity, and must relate in some way to the social and natural systems in which they operate (e.g. Wicks et al 1994). If the meaning of an idea is measured in its practical consequences, it suggests further refinement of stakeholder theory is needed so as to extend meaningful engagement beyond those who already wield sufficient power that enables them to be heard within organisations By deconstructing the stakeholder concept through how it is defined, discussed and debated, and linking this back to the practical consequences of the theory for the least powerful stakeholders, we make three contributions. We link the theoretical discussion to the practical by discussing some imperfect ways in which a more holistic, enriched stakeholder concept might begin to help mitigate marginalisation for some stakeholders. The third section demonstrates evidence of our deconstruction to illustrate that the stakeholder concept is underpinned by the essentialist self, and the implications this has for devaluing stakeholders relative to organisations. The final section begins to enrich the stakeholder concept based on a relational self, and considers some early steps that may be taken to bring an enriched stakeholder concept into practice
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