Corporations, Stakeholders and Sustainable Development I: A Theoretical Exploration of Business–Society Relations

Corporations are now publicly committed to sustainability. But, beneath the public relations happy face, executives and managers are perplexed. The majority of them have a genuine desire to work in an ethical and sustainable manner, yet, when they engage with their stakeholders for that purpose, they often encounter a world of hardball politics, full of hostile activists, self-interested elites, and unpredictable attacks. Stakeholder Politics: Social Capital, Sustainable Development and The Corporation gives companies a "how to" guide for addressing the twin problems of maintaining political legitimacy, and promoting sustainable development. The text presents a typology of stakeholder networks that helps managers and community leaders identify and improve the social capital patterns in their own networks. Once they know these patterns, they can move their networks towards those that foster sustainable community development. The book describes vivid cases in which managers and community stakeholders have used the authors' approach successfully, and in addition provides managers with handy tools for predicting and avoiding community-level socio-political risk around stakeholder issues. With its proven and practical approach, Stakeholder Politics promises to be a valuable guide for managers and academics who are invested in sustainable development worldwide and stakeholder issues alike. The war is over. The largest corporations in the world are now committed to sustainability. But, behind the public relations gloss, corporate executives and managers are perplexed. The majority of them have a genuine desire to work in an ethical and sustainable manner. Yet, when they engage with their stakeholders for that purpose, they unexpectedly encounter a world of hardball politics full of hostile activists, self-interested elites and unpredictable attacks. Unfortunately, corporate management is too often unskilled in this rough-and-tumble world. While managers rely on facts and rational analysis, their self-appointed critics have mastered the arts of political discourse, issue framing and media manipulation. At the same time, as corporations extend their global reach, their third-world stakeholder communities are beset with a variety of poverty-maintaining and sustainability-thwarting conditions. In many parts of the world, communities suffer from entrenched divisions, exclusion from power, unpredictable violence and economic dependency. In order to both reduce reputational risk and to contribute to sustainable development, companies need the equivalent of roadmaps of the socio-political terrain in their stakeholder networks. This book moves on to next challenge of giving companies what they need now: namely, 'how to' guides addressing the twin problems of firstly maintaining political legitimacy (talking the talk), and, secondly, promoting sustainable development (walking the walk). They need to learn how to both play stakeholder politics and collaborate with stakeholders towards sustainability goals. Most companies have already encountered or anticipated the barriers that this book addresses, and managers will recognise the dilemmas described."Stakeholder Politics" is the first book to offer a method for classifying and dealing with these socio-political problems. The book presents a typology of stakeholder networks that will h "The war is over. The largest corporations in the world are now committed to sustainability. But, behind the public relations gloss, corporate executives and managers are perplexed. The majority of them have a genuine desire to work in an ethical and sustainable manner. Yet, when they engage with their stakeholders for that purpose, they unexpectedly encounter a world of hardball politics full of hostile activists, self-interested elites and unpredictable attacks. Unfortunately, corporate management is too often unskilled in this rough-and-tumble world. While managers rely on facts and rational analysis, their self-appointed critics have mastered the arts of political discourse, issue framing and media manipulation. At the same time, as corporations extend their global reach, their third-world stakeholder communities are beset with a variety of poverty-maintaining and sustainability-thwarting conditions. In many parts of the world, communities suffer from entrenched divisions, exclusion from power, unpredictable violence and economic dependency. In order to both reduce reputational risk and to contribute to sustainable development, companies need the equivalent of roadmaps of the socio-political terrain in their stakeholder networks." "This book moves on to the next challenge of giving companies what they need now: namely, 'how to' guides addressing the twin problems of firstly maintaining political legitimacy (talking the talk), and, secondly, promoting sustainable development (walking the walk). They need to learn how to both play stakeholder politics and collaborate with stakeholders towards sustainability goals. Most companies have already encountered or anticipated the barriers that this book addresses, and managers will recognise the dilemmas described."--BOOK JACKET Why should corporations care about sustainable development? The global regulation of corporations : coming soon or already here? Sustainability performance measurement and stakeholder relationships Multilateral "messes" and the three types of social capital Questions that measure social capital Collecting and analyzing social capital data Identifying barriers to sustainable development with the 3DSC framework Predicting protests in Peru Four years of stakeholder politics on Misima Island Mapping the network's values, priorities, and issues From social capital to inter-sectoral complementarity.