Traditional ways of organizing and managing have been challenged in the past two decades. Intense global competition, diversity, and environmental pressures are just a few of these challenges. Leaders are searching for new ways of doing things so that their respective organizations can respond and, in many cases, survive. To further complicate matters, few organizations are homogeneous. Instead, most contemporary organizations are collections of groups of diverse stakeholders, each with their own cultural orientations and values. Cultural dilemmas, “seemingly opposing” values of stakeholders in organizational settings, provide a valuable means for operationalizing and measuring the concept of culture in change initiatives.

The issue of fair trade is extremely timely as it is shown by recent agreements on labour and trade conditions. Alter an introduction on fair trade principles and evolution in Europe and Italy, this paper depicts a model to interpret the role of social causes (with a particular reference to fair trade) as a competive tool for both not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) and enterprises. Secondly, the results of a qualitative survey on marketing strategies and performance of CTM-Mag (the Italian largest fair trade products importer and distributor) is presented. Finally, the strategic issues facing CTM-Mag future developments are depicted.

This paper outlines an institutional approach to understanding stakeholder relationships. Despite profoundly different underlying assumptions, institutional theory offers a well-developed framework on which to base future stakeholder research. This paper sketches the central elements of such a framework then applies its insights to two important topics: stakeholder salience and corporation-stakeholder influence strategies.

This paper focuses on the phenomenon of stakeholder integration. It provides a theoretical exploration of the concept, incorporating the dimensions of trust and collaboration, followed by a typology of benefits. The paper finishes with some concluding propositions.

Careful examination of specific legislation contributes significantly to our understanding and development of stakeholders, stakeholder relationships, and stakeholder theory. Incorporating legislative analysis contributes to the development of a more robust stakeholder theory.

This paper criticizes the generic nature of many contributions to the stakeholder management literature. Although they may satisfy academic goals of developing stakeholder theory, these works neglect the needs of stakeholder management practitioners, as they do not help them to understand the operating logic of particular stakeholders, such as, for instance, non-market stakeholders. The paper refers to social movement theory as a background theory in order to develop propositions about associations between characteristics of social movement organizations and generic stakeholder attributes as proposed by Mitchell, Agle and Wood (1997). The goal of the paper is to draw attention on social movement theory in order to improve the practice of stakeholder management.

This article integrates perspectives from institutional theory and stakeholder salience theory to argue that the isomorphic intensity of institutional pressuresfor sustainability will be mediated by the salience of the stakeholder groups representing/channeling these forces for individual companies. A preliminary test of this framework is conducted using exploratory data on sustainability thinking and practices in the Canadian forest products industry.

This paper describes a modeling methodology for complex strategic decisions involving multiple stakeholders with multiple and divergent objectives. The methodology focuses on major strategic decisions, extracts underlying objectives, and illuminates stakeholder relations. We apply the modeling methodology to the fascinating story of Canadian forestry giant MacMillan Bloedel both for illustration and for theoretical purposes. We hope to demonstrate that this new methodology can preserve the idiosyncrasy of individual corporate decision cases, and yet permit comparison between vastly different decisions to contribute to the empirical base of stakeholder theory.

The question of choice, or "preferences" for conceptual models is placed within existing meta-modeling discourses that, to date, have not been fully assimilated into the business and society literature. Particular attention is paid to the - conceptual model of hyper-competition and to the stakeholder model of the firm. The models, with many others, are recast here as psychological triggers that can initiate a process of synergistic design, as well as an internal search, or a process of self-referral whereby an entity can become truly competitive.

Accommodation, alignment, or satisfaction of multiple stakeholder interests in a focal firm-when, how, and by whom-is an underdeveloped dimension of the governance, value creation, and stakeholder literatures. Explicit endorsements and criticisms of "balancing" of interests exist. This paper examines arguments for and against these notions, and some alternative approaches based in diplomatic, economic, legal, and political reasoning.

Three cases and their teaching notes were presented and discussed by the panel, and then opened for general discussion. Suggestions for improving cases and teaching notes were made, to show the editing and improvement process at work. The discussions were directed toward effective use in classrooms, toward possible publication in journals, and toward adoption by book authors.

This case deals with the current regulatory and competitive environment faced by the second largest telecommunications company. Bell Atlantic serves 41 million customers. Held up to examination are the regulatory and strategic hurdles the firm faces. Its community involvement approaches and its philanthropic approaches are examined; and their contribution to firm goals are questioned.

This case treats a century-old company in transition, in an industry beset by severe concerns for the natural environment. This case permits examining the firm's highly turbulent macro- and industry environment, its efforts to redefine critical stakeholder relationships, and its need to redirect its culture, strategy, and structure. A confluence of negative factors led to public questioning of the legitimacy of the firm's business practices, while sales were being pushed down and costs were increasing dramatically.

This case set treats a catastrophic derailment occurring on this railroad, in which tank cars release a poisonous cloud of chlorine gas less than a mile from the small town of Alberton at 4:45 AM, forcing its evacuation and the closure of a portion of Interstate Highway 1-90: The set follows the cleanup efforts and the aftermath of the evacuation. Continuing medical problems of some victims are treated, as are medical and legal issues that arise. A final reflection by MRL's President on the wreck and how it was handled is included.

This paper is based on a workshop that provided participants with the basic tools to understand structural equation modeling (SEM). Researchers encountering SEM-based studies for the first time often have difficulty interpreting the numerous unique symbols and indices presented. I designed this workshop to help LABS researchers understand SEM-based studies, review papers using SEM, and decide if SEM is necessary for their research.

This paper will discuss a social partnership, which combines service learning, communication and stakeholder theories, that can be used in university management or communication curricula to more fully educate the managers of tomorrow. It will also chronicle the sociopolitical issues leading up to the formation of the partnership and demonstrate the value of corporate social responsibility to future managers by providing first-hand experiences in corporate citizenship, community relations and issues management. It will also outline the stakes each partner grants or receives from the partnership serving as intended outcomes.

A study was undertaken to determine whether there had been any collateral effects on classes in business ethics and business and society taught during the period of President Clinton’s travail. Findings based on student writings and on a review of feminist literature are reported.

This paper presents the results of using the film, Saving Private Ryan, in two undergraduate and two graduate business and society classes during the 1998/99 academic year. One effect of the film is that students believe that the level of individual loyalty, dedication, responsibility, sacrifice, and commitment to mission and peers shown in the film should be transferred to nonmilitary organizations. The paper argues that organizations would be more effective, and probably more ethical and socially responsible if leaders and followers would take care of the group before taking care of themselves.

Increasingly turbulent product markets have translated into increasingly difficult management challenges. As real-world experiences, service-learning projects on a scale similar to those profiled in this paper are often just as problematic, perhaps more so, involving issues the client organization was unable to address with its own resources. Based on the lessons teamed from a series of participant focus groups, this paper describes the project, people, and process characteristics of attractive team-based service-learning engagements.