30. Stakeholder management

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is concerned with the responsibilities of business. Stakeholder management is a complementary approach that helps businesses understand which groups they have responsibilities towards and the nature of these responsibilities. This entry commences by defining the term “stakeholder” before discussing stakeholder theory as an approach to business ethics. Here, we consider normative reasoning, such as the concepts of “fairness” and “ethic of care”. We then consider instrumental reasons for engaging with (or managing) stakeholders, presenting— for example— Mitchell et al.’s (1997) “Stakeholder Identification and Salience” framework. We close the entry with a critique of stakeholder theory and proffer some final reflections for stakeholder management.