Stakeholder Theory(ies): Ethical Ideas and Managerial Action

Stakeholder theory, as its proponents make plain, is best regarded practically or pragmatically, rather than as theory in any rarified sense. In the realm of many practicing social scientists, a theory will be assessed in terms of the comprehensiveness of its account of the problems it addresses. Stakeholder theory has no such comprehensive or explanatory aims. Instead it aims to be useful, to provide tools that managers can use to better create value for the range of their constituents, tools that constituencies can use to improve their dealings with managers, and tools that theorists can use to better understand how value creation and trade take place. With a better understanding of how these tools work, we may hope to see how different moral perspectives suggest different interpretations of the value that managers create. Moreover, using the language of stakeholders makes it easier for business executives and theorists to see business and ethics as integrated, rather than always in conflict.