Managing for Stakeholders

Economics Political Theory
1

How consistent are the following Principles consistent with Austro-libertarianism? Which Principles are fallacious? Why or why not?

10 Principles of Managing for Stakeholders.

  1. Stakeholder interests need to go together over time.

  2. We need to have a philosophy of voluntarism - to engage stakeholders and manage relationships ourselves, rather than leaving it to government.

  3. We need to find solutions to issues that satisfy multiple stakeholders simultaneously.

  4. Everything that we do serves stakeholders. We never trade off the interests of one versus the other continuously over time.

  5. We act with purpose that fulfills our commitment to stakeholders. We act with aspiration towards fulfilling our dreams and theirs.

  6. We need intensive communication and dialogue with stakeholders - not just those who are friendly.

  7. Stakeholders consist of real people with names and faces and children. They are complex.

  8. We need to generalize the marketing approach.

  9. We engage with both primary and secondary stakeholders.

  10. We constantly monitor and redesign processes to make them better serve our stakeholders.

For additional background critiquing stakeholder theory:

http://blog.mises.org/archives/006899.asp

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Source: Freeman, et al. Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, Success

2

IMHO, Principle Number 2 is the only one that is explicitly consistent with Austro-libertarianism, that everything is voluntary. Assuming that a company can choose to comply, the others principles aren’t in contradiction.

3

Who the hell are stakeholders?

4

From:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_%28corporate%29

“A corporate stakeholder is a party that affects or can be affected by the actions of the business as a whole. The stakeholder concept was first used in a 1963 internal memorandum at the Stanford Research institute. It defined stakeholders as “those groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist.”[1] The theory was later developed and championed by R. Edward Freeman in the 1980s. Since then it has gained wide acceptance in business practice and in theorizing relating to strategic management, corporate governance, business purpose and corporate social responsibility (CSR).”