From Power to Knowledge Relationships: Stakeholder Interactions as Learning Partnerships

Antonacopoulou, Elena P ORCID: 0000-0002-0872-7883 and Meric, Jérôme (2005) From Power to Knowledge Relationships: Stakeholder Interactions as Learning Partnerships. In: Stakeholder Theory. Palgrave Macmillan UK,London, pp. 125-147. ISBN 9781349542963

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Summary

Since it progressively became a major topic in Management Science from the late 1980s, the word ‘tradition’ can be used today to best describe stakeholder theory. Relations between the firm and stakeholders are ‘traditionally’ conceived on a single opposition axis introducing two main patterns of relations. On the one hand, stakeholders can intensify pressure over the firm thus, creating conflict. On the other hand, dialogue and partnership can be set through different methods, like the participation of NGOs in decision processes and strategic actions. In both cases, the patterns of relations are assumed to take place in the context of conflicting interests. This mode of conceptualizing stakeholder relations places power as a core dimension shaping stakeholder relationships. It could be argued that power relations seem to be the only imaginable relationships between the firm and those with whom it interacts — its ‘interactors’. In such a context, institutionalizing ‘fair contracts’ seems to be the only solution to overcome conflicting power relations. However, if such contracts are to be defined, it seems necessary to consider their possible content and the stakeholder relations they imply.

Item Type:	Chapter
Uncontrolled Keywords:	35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies, 5001 Applied Ethics, 3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	03 Oct 2016 08:54
Last Modified:	16 May 2025 19:45
DOI:	10.1057/9780230524224_8
Related Websites:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3003555