Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-10T14:53:24.123Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Creating Value by Sharing Values: Managing Stakeholder Value Conflict in the Face of Pluralism through Discursive Justification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

Maximilian J. L. Schormair  and
Dirk Ulrich Gilbert
Maximilian J. L. Schormair
Affiliation:
Trinity College Dublin
Dirk Ulrich Gilbert
Affiliation:
University of Hamburg
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The question of how to engage with stakeholders in situations of value conflict to create value that includes a plurality of conflicting stakeholder value perspectives represents one of the crucial current challenges of stakeholder engagement as well as of value creation stakeholder theory. To address this challenge, we conceptualize a discursive sharing process between affected stakeholders that is oriented toward discursive justification involving multiple procedural steps. This sharing process provides procedural guidance for firms and stakeholders to create pluralistic stakeholder value through the discursive accommodation of diverging stakeholder value perspectives. The outcomes of such a discursive value-sharing process range from stakeholder value dissensus to low (agreement to disagree) and increasing levels of stakeholder value congruence (value compromise) to stakeholder value consensus (shared values). Hence, this article contributes to the emerging literature on integrative stakeholder engagement by conceptualizing a procedural framework that is neither overly oriented towards dissensus nor consensus.

Keywords

stakeholder value conflictvalue pluralismstakeholder engagementdiscursive justificationsharing
Type
Article
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 1 - 36
Copyright
©2020 Business Ethics Quarterly

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Accord. 2018. Quarterly aggregate report on remediation progress at RMG factories covered by the Accord. http://bangladeshaccord.org/wp-content/uploads/Accord_Quarterly_Aggregate_Report_April_2018.pdf.Google Scholar
Accord. 2019. Accord reaches resolution on continuation of its work in Bangladesh. https://admin.bangladeshaccord.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Accord-Reaches-Resolution-on-Continuation-of-Its-Work-in-Bangladesh.pdf.Google Scholar
Bakker, F. G. A. de, Rasche, A., & Ponte, S. 2019. Multi-stakeholder initiatives on sustainability: A cross-disciplinary review and research agenda for business ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 29(3): 343–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banerjee, S. B. 2014. A critical perspective on corporate social responsibility: Towards a global governance framework. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 10(1/2): 84–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bardhi, F., & Eckhardt, G. M. 2012. Access-based consumption: The case of car sharing. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(4): 881–898.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, P. M., Baumann-Pauly, D., & Gu, A. 2018. Five years after Rana Plaza: The way forward. https://bhr.stern.nyu.edu/s/NYU-Bangladesh-Rana-Plaza-Report.pdf.Google Scholar
Baumann-Pauly, D., Labowitz, S., & Banerjee, N. 2015. Closing governance gaps in Bangladesh’s garment industry – The power and limitations of private governance schemes. SSRN Working Paper: 1–21. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2577535.Google Scholar
Belk, R. 2007. Why not share rather than own? The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 611(1): 126–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belk, R. 2010. Sharing. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(5): 715–734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Botsman, R., & Rogers, R. 2010. What’s mine is yours: The rise of collaborative consumption. New York: Harper Business.Google Scholar
Brown, J., & Dillard, J. 2013. Critical accounting and communicative action: On the limits of consensual deliberation. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 24(3): 176–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J., & Dillard, J. 2015. Dialogic accountings for stakeholders: On opening up and closing down participatory governance. Journal of Management Studies, 52(7): 961–985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bundy, J., Vogel, R. M., & Zachary, M. A. 2018. Organization–stakeholder fit: A dynamic theory of cooperation, compromise, and conflict between an organization and its stakeholders. Strategic Management Journal, 39(2): 476–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CCC. 2013. History Bangladesh Safety Accord. http://www.cleanclothes.org/resources/background/history-bangladesh-safety-accord/view.Google Scholar
Curato, N., Dryzek, J. S., Ercan, S. A., Hendriks, C. M., & Niemeyer, S. 2017. Twelve key findings in deliberative democracy research. Daedalus, 146(3): 28–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, C. 2015. Agonistic pluralism and stakeholder engagement. Business Ethics Quarterly, 25(1): 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dentoni, D., Bitzer, V., & Schouten, G. 2018. Harnessing wicked problems in multi-stakeholder partnerships. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(2): 333–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaghey, J., & Reinecke, J. 2017. When industrial democracy meets corporate social responsibility — A comparison of the Bangladesh Accord and Alliance as responses to the Rana Plaza disaster. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 56(1): 14–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebers, M., & Oerlemans, L. 2016. The variety of governance structures beyond market and hierarchy. Journal of Management, 42(6): 1491–1529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fooks, G., Gilmore, A., Collin, J., Holden, C., & Lee, K. 2013. The limits of corporate social responsibility: Techniques of neutralization, stakeholder management and political CSR. Journal of Business Ethics, 112(2): 283–299.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forester, J. 2009. Dealing with differences: Dramas of mediating public disputes. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Forester, J. 2012. On the theory and practice of critical pragmatism: Deliberative practice and creative negotiations. Planning Theory, 12(1): 5–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forst, R. 2002. Contexts of justice: Political philosophy beyond liberalism and communitarianism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Forst, R. 2012. The right to justification: Elements of a constructivist theory of justice. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Forst, R. 2014a. Justice, democracy and the right to justification: Rainer Forst in dialogue. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Forst, R. 2014b. Justification and critique: Towards a critical theory of politics . Cambridge, United Kingdom, and Malden, MA: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. E., Harrison, J. S., Wicks, A. C., Parmar, B. L., & Colle, S. de. 2010. Stakeholder theory: The state of the art. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, M. 1970. The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. The New York Times Magazine, September 13.Google Scholar
Ghoshal, S. 2005. Bad management theories are destroying good management practices. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4(1): 75–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, D. U., & Behnam, M. 2009. Advancing integrative social contracts theory: A Habermasian perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 89(2): 215–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, D. U., & Rasche, A. 2007. Discourse ethics and social accountability: The ethics of SA 8000. Business Ethics Quarterly, 17(2): 187–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, D. U., Rasche, A., & Waddock, S. 2011. Accountability in a global economy: The emergence of international accountability standards. Business Ethics Quarterly, 21(1): 23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gond, J.-P., Cabantous, L., Harding, N., & Learmonth, M. 2016. What do we mean by performativity in organizational and management theory? The uses and abuses of performativity. International Journal of Management Reviews, 18(4): 440–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, J., & Arenas, D. 2015. Engaging ethically: A discourse ethics perspective on social shareholder engagement. Business Ethics Quarterly, 25(2): 163–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J. 1993. Justification and application: Remarks on discourse ethics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1996. Between facts and norms: Contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Polity Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J. 1999. The inclusion of the other: Studies in political theory. Oxford: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Harris, J. D., & Freeman, R. E. 2008. The impossibility of the separation thesis. Business Ethics Quarterly, 18(4): 541–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, J. S., & Wicks, A. C. 2013. Stakeholder theory, value, and firm performance. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(1): 97–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, K., & Schormair, M. J. L. 2019. Progressive and conservative firms in multistakeholder initiatives: Tracing the construction of political CSR identities within the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. Business & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0007650319825786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IndustriAll Global Union. 2017. Leading fashion brands join with unions to sign new Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety. http://www.industriall-union.org/leading-fashion-brands-join-with-unions-to-sign-new-bangladesh-accord-on-fire-and-building-safety.Google Scholar
Irvine, K. N., O’Brien, L., Ravenscroft, N., Cooper, N., Everard, M., Fazey, I., Reed, M. S., & Kenter, J. O. 2016. Ecosystem services and the idea of shared values. Ecosystem Services, 21: 184–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, M. C. 2002. Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. Business Ethics Quarterly, 12(2): 235–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
John, N. A. 2012. Sharing and Web 2.0: The emergence of a keyword. New Media & Society, 15(2): 167–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
John, N. A. 2013. The social logics of sharing. The Communication Review, 16(3): 113–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
John, N. A. 2016. The age of sharing. Malden, MA: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Jones, T. M., Donaldson, T., Freeman, R. E., Harrison, J. S., Leana, C. R., Mahoney, J. T., & Pearce, J. L. 2016. Management theory and social welfare: Contributions and challenges. Academy of Management Review, 41(2): 216–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, T. M., & Felps, W. 2013a. Shareholder wealth maximization and social welfare: A utilitarian critique. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(2): 207–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, T. M., & Felps, W. 2013b. Stakeholder happiness enhancement: A neo-utilitarian objective for the modern corporation. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(3): 349–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenter, J. O., O’Brien, L., Hockley, N., Ravenscroft, N., Fazey, I., Irvine, K. N., Reed, M. S., Christie, M., Brady, E., Bryce, R., Church, A., Cooper, N., Davies, A., Evely, A., Everard, M., Fish, R., Fisher, J. A., Jobstvogt, N., Molloy, C., Orchard-Webb, J., Ranger, S., Ryan, M., Watson, V., & Williams, S. 2015. What are shared and social values of ecosystems? Ecological Economics, 111: 86–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenter, J. O., Reed, M. S., & Fazey, I. 2016. The deliberative value formation model. Ecosystem Services, 21: 194–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kourula, A., & Delalieux, G. 2016. The micro-level foundations and dynamics of political corporate social responsibility: Hegemony and passive revolution through civil society. Journal of Business Ethics, 135(4): 769–785.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramer, M. R., & Pfitzer, M. W. 2016. The ecosystem of shared value. Harvard Business Review, 94(10): 80–89.Google Scholar
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. 1985. Hegemony and socialist strategy: towards a radical democratic politics. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Lankoski, L., Smith, N. C., & van Wassenhove, L. 2016. Stakeholder judgments of value. Business Ethics Quarterly, 26(02): 227–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, D., Reinecke, J., & Manning, S. 2016. The political dynamics of sustainable coffee: Contested value regimes and the transformation of sustainability. Journal of Management Studies, 53(3): 364–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marti, E., & Scherer, A. G. 2016. Financial regulation and social welfare: The critical contribution of management theory. Academy of Management Review, 41(2): 298–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marti, E. 2018. Book review: Rainer Forst normativity and power: Analyzing social orders of justification. Organization Studies, 39(9): 1348–1351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mena, S., & Palazzo, G. 2012. Input and output legitimacy of multi-stakeholder initiatives. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(3): 527–556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, R. K., van Buren, H. J., Greenwood, M., & Freeman, R. E. 2015. Stakeholder inclusion and accounting for stakeholders. Journal of Management Studies, 52(7): 851–877.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, R. K., Weaver, G. R., Agle, B. R., Bailey, A. D., & Carlson, J. 2016. Stakeholder agency and social welfare: Pluralism and decision making in the multi-objective corporation. Academy of Management Review, 41(2): 252–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moog, S., Spicer, A., & Böhm, S. 2015. The politics of multi-stakeholder initiatives: The crisis of the Forest Stewardship Council. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(3): 469–493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mouffe, C. 2005. On the political. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Owen, D., & Smith, G. 2015. Survey article: Deliberation, democracy, and the systemic turn. Journal of Political Philosophy, 23(2): 213–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palazzo, G., & Scherer, A. G. 2006. Corporate legitimacy as deliberation: A communicative framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 66(1): 71–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patzer, M., Voegtlin, C., & Scherer, A. G. 2018. The normative justification of integrative stakeholder engagement: A Habermasian view on responsible leadership. Business Ethics Quarterly, 28(3): 325–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. 2006. Strategy and society: The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility. Harvard Business Review, 84(12): 78–92.Google ScholarPubMed
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. 2011. Creating shared value. Harvard Business Review, 89(1/2): 62–77.Google Scholar
Reed, D. 1999. Stakeholder management theory: A critical theory perspective. Business Ethics Quarterly, 9(3): 453–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinecke, J., & Ansari, S. 2015. What is a “fair” price? Ethics as sensemaking. Organization Science, 26(3): 867–888.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinecke, J., & Donaghey, J. 2015. After Rana Plaza: Building coalitional power for labour rights between unions and (consumption-based) social movement organisations. Organization, 22(5): 720–740.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabadoz, C., & Singer, A. 2017. Talk ain’t cheap: Political CSR and the challenges of corporate deliberation. Business Ethics Quarterly, 27(2): 183–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, A. G. 2015. Can hypernorms be justified? Insights from a discourse–ethical perspective. Business Ethics Quarterly, 25(04): 489–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, A. G. 2017. Theory assessment and agenda setting in political CSR: A critical theory perspective. International Journal of Management Reviews: n/a-n/a.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, A. G., & Palazzo, G. 2007. Toward a political conception of corporate responsibility: business and society seen from a Habermasian perspective. Academy of Management Review, 32(4): 1096–1120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, A. G., & Palazzo, G. 2011. The new political role of business in a globalized world: A review of a new Perspective on CSR and its implications for the firm, governance, and democracy. Journal of Management Studies, 48(4): 899–931.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, A. G., Palazzo, G., & Baumann, D. 2006. Global rules and private Actors: Toward a new role of the transnational corporation in global governance. Business Ethics Quarterly, 16(04): 505–532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, A. G., Rasche, A., Palazzo, G., & Spicer, A. 2016. Managing for political Corporate Social Responsibility: New challenges and directions for PCSR 2.0. Journal of Management Studies, 53(3): 273–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, J. D. 2004. A précis of a communicative theory of the firm. Business Ethics: A European Review, 13(4): 317–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soundararajan, V., Brown, J. A., & Wicks, A. C. 2019. Can multi-stakeholder initiatives improve global supply chains? Improving deliberative capacity with a stakeholder orientation. Business Ethics Quarterly, 29(3): 385–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stansbury, J. 2009. Reasoned moral agreement: applying discourse ethics within organizations. Business Ethics Quarterly, 19(1): 33–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundaram, A. K., & Inkpen, A. C. 2004. The corporate objective revisited. Organization Science, 15(3): 350–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taeubner, M. 2013. Die Getriebenen. https://www.brandeins.de/magazine/brand-eins-wirtschaftsmagazin/2013/verhandeln/die-getriebenen.Google Scholar
Thompson, D. F. 2008. Deliberative democratic theory and empirical political science. Annual Review of Political Science, 11(1): 497–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ulrich, P. 2008. Integrative economic ethics: Foundations of a civilized market economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Linden, B., & Freeman, R. E. 2017. Profit and other values: Thick evaluation in decision making. Business Ethics Quarterly, 27(3): 353–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vente, J. de, Reed, M. S., Stringer, L. C., Valente, S., & Newig, J. 2016. How does the context and design of participatory decision making processes affect their outcomes? Evidence from sustainable land management in global drylands. Ecology and Society, 21(2): 24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, M. E. 2017. A problem-based approach to democratic theory. American Political Science Review, 111(1): 39–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whelan, G. 2012. The political perspective of corporate social responsibility: A critical research agenda. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(4): 709–737.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whelan, G. 2013. Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: Differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(4): 755–769.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, S. K. 2015. Does critical theory need strong foundations? Philosophy & Social Criticism, 41(3): 207–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, S. K. 2017. A democratic bearing: Admirable citizens, uneven injustice, and critical theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, S. K., & Farr, E. R. 2012. “No-Saying” in Habermas. Political Theory, 40(1): 32–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, O. E. 1987. The economic institutions of capitalism: Firms, markets, relational contracting . New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. E. 1991. Comparative economic organization: The analysis of discrete structural alternatives. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36(2): 269–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar