Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, and Success (The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics Series in Ethics and Lead) [Hardcover]

Prof. R. Edward Freeman (Author), Prof. Jeffrey S. Harrison (Author), Prof. Andrew C. Wicks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2007 | Series: The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics Series in Ethics and Lead

Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, and Success, the culmination of twenty years of research, interviews, and observations in the workplace, makes a major new contribution to management thinking and practice. Current ways of thinking about business and stakeholder management usually ask the Value Allocation Question: How should we distribute the burdens and benefits of corporate activities among stakeholders? Managing for Stakeholders, however, helps leaders develop a mindset that instead asks the Value Creation Question: How can we create as much value as possible for all of our stakeholders?

 

Business is about how customers, suppliers, employees, financiers (stockholders, bondholders, banks, etc.), communities, the media, and managers interact and create value. World-renowned management scholar R. Edward Freeman and his coauthors outline ten concrete principles and seven practical techniques for managing stakeholder relationships in order to ensure a firm’s survival, reputation, and success. Managing for Stakeholders is a revolutionary book that will change not only how managers do business but also how they recognize and evaluate business opportunities that would otherwise be invisible.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ed Freeman is one of those great teachers who change the world by changing the way people think, and even how they think about thinking. He melds intellectual rigor with practical wisdom and inspired standards—an exemplar of the very best of what a modern professor should be."—Jim Collins, Batten Fellow at the University of Virginia, author of Good to Great and co-author of Built to Last
 
 

(Jim Collins )

“This book breaks the mold for the ‘management success’ literature. Forget what you’ve read in previous management books. Stop assuming that you have to trade off the interests of employees and customers for those of stockholders. Freeman, Harrison and Wicks show why smart managers succeed by adding value everywhere.”—Tom Donaldson, Mark O. Winkelman Professor, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

(Tom Donaldson )

"Given the discussions that currently engage the market as to a US shareholder orientation versus a continental stakeholder focus, Freeman et al put forth a simple framework for stakeholder management and give a good argument for how ethical leadership is needed for the more complex times approaching us."—Jeffrey J. Diermeier, President & Chief Executive Officer, CFA Institute

(Jeffrey J. Diermeier )

“Freeman’s book, and the launch of this series, is an invaluable resource for current and future business leaders. Placing the leading thinking of top academics into the hands of managers will greatly contribute to positively shaping future business practice and the creation of value.”—John J. Castellani, President of Business Roundtable

(John J. Castellani )

About the Author

R. Edward Freeman is Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration and director, Olsson Center for Applied Ethics, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. He is the author or editor of ten books on business ethics, environmental management, and strategic management. He lives in Charlottesville, VA. Jeffrey S. Harrison is W. David Robbins Chair in Strategic Management, University of Richmond. He lives in Richmond. Andrew C. Wicks is associate professor and co-chair, Olsson Center for Applied Ethics, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. He lives in Charlottesville.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300125283
• ISBN-13: 978-0300125283
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #534,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

R. Edward Freeman (1951-) was born in Columbus Georgia and educated in mathematics and philosophy at Duke University and Washington University. Currently he is University Professor and Olsson Professor of Business Administration; Academic Director of the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics at the Darden School, University of Virginia. He is also Adjunct Professor of Stakeholder Management at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark and a Visiting Professor at Nyenrode Business School (Netherlands). He currently holds an honorary appointment as the Welling Professor at George Washington University and the Gourlay Professorship at University of Melbourne.

For 30 years Freeman has written about stakeholder theory and business. His latest book, Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2010. Managing for Stakeholders was published in 2007 by Yale University Press. His co-authors are Jeffrey Harrison, Andrew Wicks, Bidhan Parmar, and Simone de Colle. Freeman is perhaps best known for his award winning book: Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, published in 1984, and reissued in 2010 by Cambridge University Press, where he traced the origins of the stakeholder idea and suggested that businesses build their strategy around their relationships with key stakeholders.

In 2008 Freeman was awarded an honorary doctorate in economics by Comillas University in Madrid for his work on stakeholder theory and business ethics. He is a lifelong student of philosophy, martial arts, and the blues,

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Quick Read - Grist for Meaningful Reflection, March 9, 2008

By 

James Mcritchie "Publisher" (Elk Grove, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, and Success (The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics Series in Ethics and Lead) (Hardcover)

Generally, I am suspicious of any book touting a stakeholder model over one grounded on shareowners. The problem is one of identification. Without a clear party in control, the CEO and board can rationalize just about any position based on balancing "stakeholder" interests.

I'm also concerned with a book on ethics sponsored by the Business Roundtable, since that organization has a long history of ill-founded opposition to shareowner interests, such as expensing stock options and proxy access. Despite these reservations, I can honestly recommend Freeman's book. The corporate form exists for more than simply maximizing shareowner wealth. A stakeholder approach is appropriate in most day-to-day decisions, and this small volume offers good advice.

Any executive or board can benefit by more thoroughly examining their corporation's community of interest. As the authors posit, companies which "find a way to create value for conflicting stakeholder interests will be the winners." Engagement often leads to value-creation. Even when it does not, a few simple cooperative steps can often diffuse what might otherwise be a damaging situation. "Unilateral action increases the risk of conflict escalation."

The book lacks ex ante rules for deriving a hierarchy of stakeholders but, instead, takes a more organic approach. More discussion of the fundamental tension between the expectation for substantive debate over disagreements with stakeholders and the reality of our common preference for social cohesion and conflict avoidance would have added value. In Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory Democracy, for example, Diana C. Mutz, reports finding that the degree of cross-cutting discussion decreases as levels of income and education increase. This helps explains why so few corporations make an adequate effort to communicate with stakeholders. Rather than limiting active engagement to the like-minded or withdrawing, Mutz argues for "weak ties" that foster loose engagement and build tolerance.

I would have also liked more of a conceptual framework. For example, readers might have benefited from a discussion of the "rights" of stakeholders using Wesley Hohfeld's fundamental legal concepts of a claim against, a liberty or privilege, an authority or power, and an immunity. Such a discussion would be helpful in framing expectations around stakeholder engagement.

While readers are warned the book is "written for executives, not for academics," and "we are in the process of creating a separate book that will contain all the academic support," this reader would have benefited from more science and a more rigorous conceptual framework. Instead, the authors appear to argue that management is still more art than science.

Still, I liked the discussions on the principles of ethical leadership and on leadership by choice, which emphasizes that people must have adequate knowledge of alternatives and at least some options before they truly engage in a genuine choice to follow. Pack the book for your next flight and you'll probably find a reasonable amount of grist for meaningful reflection.

Another useful tool for identifying at least some of your company's stakeholders is touchgraph.com. Try it out by entering the name of your company or its URL to visually portray your firm's 6 degrees of separation in cyberspace.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars manging fo rstakeholders:, October 8, 2009

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Svein Thompson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, and Success (The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics Series in Ethics and Lead) (Hardcover)

A great introduction to a new way of seeing business. It is not only about making money, it is about giving a contribution to a better world. Managing for stakeholders is strong in its ideas and practical in how you make them happen. Make money for your owners and aim at doing somthing good for all the other stakeholders as well.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A practical approach to business management, August 2, 2009

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Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, and Success (The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics Series in Ethics and Lead) (Hardcover)

Good business leaders know they can help their firms succeed by connecting to their communities and by improving their relationships with employees, suppliers and customers. Yet, many executives still make the grave mistake of focusing solely on their shareholders and bankers, ignoring other important stakeholders. R. Edward Freeman, Jeffrey S. Harrison and Andrew C. Wicks provide new thinking and techniques to help you best manage stakeholder relationships and boost your firm's success. They offer practical advice for balancing the needs of your financiers with those of other stakeholders. getAbstract recommends this book to all managers and business thinkers. Board members and other professionals who want to understand their new roles and responsibilities in the globalized world of commerce will also value the authors' take on business ethics.