Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T12:11:16.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Agonistic Pluralism and Stakeholder Engagement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

Cedric Dawkins*
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University

Abstract:

This paper argues that, although stakeholder engagement occurs within the context of power, neither market-centered CSR nor the deliberative model of political CSR adequately addresses the specter of power asymmetries and the inevitability of conflict in stakeholder relations, particularly for powerless stakeholders. Noting that the objective of stakeholder engagement should not be benevolence toward stakeholders, but mechanisms that address power asymmetries such that stakeholders are able to protect their own interests, I present a framework of stakeholder engagement based on agonistic pluralism that seeks to structure and utilize discord rather than reduce or eliminate it. I then propose arbitration as an agonistic mechanism to address power asymmetries in stakeholder engagement and explore its implications.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2015 

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

Abbott, K. W. & Snidal, D. 2000. Hard and soft law in international governance. International Organization, 54(3): 421–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ajzner, J. 1994. Some problems of rationality, understanding, and universalistic ethics in the context of Habermas’s theory of communicative action. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 24(4): 466–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, D. G., & Bowie, N. E. 2003. Sweatshops and respect for persons. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13(2): 221–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Axelrod, W. D. 1981. The emergence of cooperation among egoists. American Political Science Review, 75(2): 306–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Axelrod, W. D., & Hamilton, W. D. 1981. The evolution of cooperation. Science, 211(4489): 1390–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Banerjee, S. 2007. The political economy of corporate social responsibility. In Scherer, A. G. & Palazzo, G. (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Corporate Citizenship: 706–40. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Banjo, S., & Passariello, C. 2013. Promises in Bangladesh, The Wall Street Journal, May 13.Google Scholar
Baur, D., & Palazzo, G. 2011. The moral legitimacy of NGOs as partners of corporations. Business Ethics Quarterly, 21(4): 579604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beelitz, A., & Merkl-Davies, D. 2012. Using discourse to restore organisational legitimacy: ‘CEO-speak’ after an incident in a German nuclear power plant. Journal of Business Ethics, 108(1): 101–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bingham, L. B. 1997. Employment arbitration: The repeat player effect. Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, 1(1): 189220.Google Scholar
Bohman, J. 1998. The coming of age of deliberative democracy. Journal of Political Philosophy, 6(4): 400425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J., & Dillard, J. F. 2013. Critical accounting and communicative action: On the limits of consensual deliberation. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 24(3): 176–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burchell, J., & Cook, J. 2006. Assessing the impact of stakeholder dialogue. Journal of Public Affairs, 6(34): 210–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burchell, J., & Cook, J. 2013. CSR, co-optation and resistance: The emergence of new agonistic relations between business and civil society. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(4): 741754.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burchell, J., & Cook, J. 2013. Sleeping with the enemy? Strategic transformations in business–NGO relationships through stakeholder dialogue. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(3): 505518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calton, J. M. 2006. Social contracting in a pluralist process of moral sense making: A dialogic twist on the ISCT. Journal of Business Ethics, 68(3): 329–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarkson, M. E. 1995. A stakeholder framework for analyzing and evaluating corporate social performance. Academy of Management Review, 20(1): 92117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clegg, S. R. 1989. Frameworks of Power. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connolly, W. E. 1995. The Ethos of Pluralization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Coy, P. G., & Hedeen, T. 2005. A stage model of social movement co-optation: Community mediation in the United States. The Sociological Quarterly, 46(3): 405–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, R. A. 1961. Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dawkins, C. E. 2014. The principle of good faith: Toward substantive stakeholder engagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(2): 283–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, M. 2012. The signature of power. Journal of Political Power, 5(1): 101–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delbridge, R., & Keenoy, T. 2010. Beyond managerialism? International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(6): 799817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drahozal, C. R., & Zyontz, S. 2010. An empirical study of AAA consumer arbitrations. Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, 25(4): 843930.Google Scholar
Dulles, F. R., & Dubofsky, M. 1984. Labor in America: A History (4th ed.). Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson, Inc.Google Scholar
Edward, P., & Willmott, H. 2008. Corporate citizenship: Rise or demise of a myth? The Academy of Management Review, 33(3): 771–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eley, G. 1992. Nations, publics, and political cultures: Placing Habermas in the nineteenth century. In Calhoun, C. (Ed.), Habermas and the Public Sphere: 289339. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Eligon, J. 2011. Global witness quits group on ‘blood diamonds,’ New York Times, December 5.Google Scholar
Elkouri, F., & Elkouri, E. A. 2003. How Arbitration Works (6th ed.). Edison, NJ: BNA Books.Google Scholar
Esposito, P., & Martire, J. 2012. Arbitrating in a world of communicative reason. Arbitration International, 28(2): 325342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evan, W. M., & Freeman, R. E. 1993. A stakeholder theory of the modern corporation: Kantian capitalism. In Beauchamp, T. L. & Bowies, N. E. (Eds.), Ethical Theory and Business (4th ed). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Finnemore, M., & Sikkink, K. 1998. International norm dynamics and political change. International Organization, 52(4): 887917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, P., & Jones, M. T. 2013. The End of Corporate Social Responsibility: Crisis and Critique. London: SAGE.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fligstein, N. 2001. The Architecture of Markets. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flyvbjerg, B. 1998. Habermas and Foucault: Thinkers for civil society? British Journal of Sociology, 49(2): 210–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, D., & Jonker, J. 2005. Stakeholder relationships: The dialogue of engagement. Corporate Governance, 5(5): 5157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, M. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1982. The subject and power. In Dreyfus, H. L. & Rabinow, P. (Eds.), Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics (2nd ed). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. B., & Rogers, J. 2006. What Workers Want (Updated ed.). Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. E., Martin, K., & Parmar, B. 2007. Stakeholder capitalism. Journal of Business Ethics, 74(4): 303314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frey, C. 2004. Costco’s love of labor: Employees’ well-being key to its success. March 28. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved on April 20, 2014 from:http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Costco-s-love-of-labor-Employees-well-being-key-1140722.php.Google Scholar
Friedman, A. L., & Miles, S. 2002. Developing stakeholder theory. Journal of Management Studies, 39(1): 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frooman, J. 1999. Stakeholder influence strategies. Academy of Management Review, 24(2): 191205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furubotn, E. G., & Richter, R. 2000. Institutions and Economic Theory: The Contribution of the New Institutional Economics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Gilbert, D. U., & Rasche, A. 2007. Discourse ethics and social accountability: The ethics of SA 8000. Business Ethics Quarterly, 17(2): 187216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glover, R. W. 2012. Games without frontiers? Democratic engagement, agonistic pluralism, and the question of exclusion. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 38(1): 81104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gooch, C. 2011. Why we are leaving the Kimberley Process: A message from Global Witness Founding Director Charmian Gooch. December 5. http://www.globalwitness.org/library/why-we-are-leaving-kimberley-process-message-global-witness-founding-director-charmian-gooch.Google Scholar
Gramsci, A. 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. London, UK: Lawrence & Wishart.Google Scholar
Greenhouse, S. 2013. Major retailers join Bangladesh safety plan, New York Times, May 13.Google Scholar
Greenwood, M. 2007. Stakeholder engagement: Beyond the myth of corporate responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 74(4): 315–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenwood, M., & Van Buren, H. J. III. 2010. Trust and stakeholder theory: Trustworthiness in the organisation-stakeholder relationship. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(3): 425–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guzman, A. T., & Meyer, T. L. 2010. International soft law. Journal of Legal Analysis, 2(1): 171225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J. 1984. The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society (McCarthy, T., Trans.). Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1987. The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. II: Lifeworld and System (McCarthy, T., Trans.). Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1990. Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action (Lenhardt, C. & Nicholsen, S. W., Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1996a. Between Facts and Norms (Rehg, W., Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J. 1996b. Three normative models of democracy. In Benhabib, S. (Ed.), Democracy and Difference: 2130. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J. 1998a. The Inclusion of the Other. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1998b. Three normative models of democracy. In Cronin, C. and De Greiff, P. (Eds.), The Inclusion of the Other: 239–52. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 2003. Truth and Justification (Fultner, B., Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hamann, R., Sinha, P., Kapfudzaruwa, F., & Schild, C. 2009. Business and human rights in South Africa: An analysis of antecedents of human rights due diligence. Journal of Business Ethics, 87: 453–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardt, M., & Negri, A. 2000. Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hardt, M., & Negri, A. 2005. Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Harris, J. 2008. Labor Relations at Southwest Airlines. Nuts about Southwest. Retrieved on June 30, 2014 from:http://www.blogsouthwest.com/labor-relations-southwest-airlines/#.Google Scholar
Hauenstein, N. M., McGonigle, T., & Flinder, S. W. 2001. A meta-analysis of the relationship between procedural justice and distributive justice: Implications for justice research. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 13(1): 3956.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hess, D. 2007. Social reporting and new governance regulation: The prospects of achieving corporate accountability through transparency. Business Ethics Quarterly, 17(3): 453476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heugens, P. P., van den Bosch, F. A. J., & van Reil, C. B. M. 2002. Stakeholder integration. Building mutually enforcing relationships. Business & Society, 41(1): 3660.Google Scholar
Hirschman, A. O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Honig, B. 1993. The politics of agonism: A critical response to ‘Beyond Good and Evil: Arendt, Nietzsche, and the Aestheticization of Political Action’ by Dana R. Villa. Political Theory, 21(3): 528–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaffee, D. 2012. Weak coffee: Certification and co-optation in the fair trade movement. Social Problems, 59(1): 94116.Google Scholar
Kadlec, A., & Friedman, W. 2007. Deliberative democracy and the problem of power. Journal of Public Deliberation, 3(1): 8.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, A. 2009. The democratic Narcissus: The agonism of the ancients compared to that of the (post)moderns. In Schaap, A. (Ed.), Law and Agonistic Politics: 1542. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.Google Scholar
King, B. 2008. A social movement perspective of stakeholder collective action and influence. Business & Society, 47(1): 2149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinley, D., & Tadaki, J. 2004. From talk to walk: The emergence of human rights responsibilities for corporations at international law. Virginia Journal of International Law, 44(4): 9311024.Google Scholar
Kolk, A. 2008. Sustainability, accountability and corporate governance: Exploring multinationals’ reporting practices. Business Strategy and the Environment, 17(1): 115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolk, A., van der Veen, M. L., & Hay, D. W. 2002. KPMG International Survey of Corporate Sustainability Reporting. Amsterdam: KPMG Global Sustainability Services.Google Scholar
Kroh, K. 2013. 25 Years After Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Company Still Hasn’t Paid For Long-Term Environmental Damages. Climate Progress. Retrieved on August 19, 2014 from:http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/07/15/2301451/25-years-after-exxon-valdez-oil-spill-company-still-hasnt-paid-for-long-term-environmental-damages/Google Scholar
Laclau, E. 2001. Democracy and the question of power. Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, 8(1): 314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. 1985. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. London, UK: Verso.Google Scholar
Levy, D. L. 2008. Political contestation in global production networks. Academy of Management Review, 33(4): 943–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewin, D. 1999. Theoretical and empirical research on the grievance procedure and arbitration: A critical review. In Eaton, A. E. & Keefe, J. H. (Eds.), Employment Dispute Resolution and Worker Rights in the Changing Workplace: 137–86. Champaign, IL: IRRA.Google Scholar
Lind, E. A. 2001. Fairness heuristic theory: Justice judgments as pivotal cognitions in organizational relations. Advances in Organizational Justice, 56: 5788.Google Scholar
Lipset, S. M. 1985. Consensus and Conflict: Essays in Political Sociology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Lukes, S. 1974. Power: A Radical View. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madariaga, J., & Valor, C. 2007. Stakeholders management systems: Empirical insights from relationship marketing and market orientation perspectives. Journal of Business Ethics, 71(4): 425–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mäkinen, J., & Kourula, A. 2012. Pluralism in political corporate social responsibility. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(4): 649–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marens, R. 2010. Destroying the village to save it: Corporate social responsibility, labor relations, and the rise and fall of American hegemony. Organization, 17: 743–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matten, D., & Crane, A. 2005. Corporate citizenship: Toward an extended theoretical conceptualization. Academy of Management Review, 30(1): 166–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahon, T. F. 1999. Transforming justice: A conceptualization. Business Ethics Quarterly, 9(4): 593602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mena, S., & Palazzo, G. 2012. Input and output legitimacy of multi-stakeholder initiatives. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(3): 527–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. 1997. Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of Management Review, 22(4): 853–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, R. 2007. On political institutions and social movement dynamics: The case of the United Nations and the global indigenous movement. International Political Science Review, 28(3): 273–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moriarty, J. 2005. On the relevance of political philosophy to business ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 15(3): 455473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mouffe, C. 1998. Hearts, minds, and radical democracy. Interview with Castle, D. (Ed.): Red Pepper, June 1.Google Scholar
Mouffe, C. 1999. Deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism? Social Research, 66(4): 745–58.Google Scholar
Mouffe, C. 2005. On the Political. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mouffe, C. 2008. Critique as Counter-Hegemonic Intervention. Vienna: European Institution for Progressive Cultural Politics.Google Scholar
NACA. 2014. Forced Arbitration. National Association of Consumer Advocates. Retrieved on August 19, 2014:http://www.consumeradvocates.org/issues/forced-arbitration.Google Scholar
Noland, J., & Phillips, R. 2010. Stakeholder engagement, discourse ethics and strategic management. International Journal of Management Reviews, 12(1): 3949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, C. 1991. Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review, 16(1): 145–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palazzo, G., & Scherer, A. G. 2006. Corporate legitimacy as deliberation: A communicative framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 66(1): 7188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pariotti, E. 2009. International soft law, human rights and non-state actors: towards the accountability of transnational corporations? Human Rights Review, 10(2): 139155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. 1978. The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Phillips, R., Freeman, R. E., & Wicks, A. C. 2003. What stakeholder theory is not. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13(4): 479502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, R., & Johnson-Cramer, M. 2006. Ties that unwind: Dynamism in integrative social contracts theory. Journal of Business Ethics, 68(3): 283302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. 2011. Creating shared value. Harvard Business Review, 89(1/2), 6277.Google Scholar
Purcell, M. 2009. Resisting neoliberalization: Communicative planning or counter-hegemonic movements? Planning Theory, 8(2): 140–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rancière, J. 2010. Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics. London, UK: Continuum.Google Scholar
Rasche, A., & Esser, D. E. 2006. From stakeholder management to stakeholder accountability. Journal of Business Ethics, 65: 251267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, D. 1999. Stakeholder management theory: a critical theory perspective. Business Ethics Quarterly, 9(3): 453483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhodes, C., & Harvey, H. 2012. Agonism and the possibilities of ethics for HRM. Journal of Business Ethics, 111: 4959.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, M. P. 1992. Gender and public access: Women’s politics in nineteenth-century America. In Calhoun, C. (Ed.), Habermas and the Public Sphere: 259–88. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sanders, L., Pumain, D., Mathian, H., Guérin-Pace, F., & Bura, S. 1997. SIMPOP: a multiagent system for the study of urbanism. Environment and Planning B, 24: 287306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savage, G. T., Nix, T. W., Whitehead, C. J., & Blair, J. D. 1991. Strategies for assessing and managing organizational stakeholders. The Executive, 5(2): 6175.Google 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): 10961120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, A. G., Palazzo, G., & Seidl, D. 2013. Managing legitimacy in complex and heterogeneous environments: Sustainable development in a globalized world. Journal of Management Studies, 50(2): 259284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlosberg, D. 1995. Communicative action in practice: Intersubjectivity and new social movements. Political Studies, 43(2): 291311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slater, J. 2013. Interest arbitration as alternative dispute resolution: The history from 1919 to 2011. Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, 28(2): 387417.Google Scholar
Smith, D. G. 1998. The shareholder primacy norm. Journal of Corporation Law, 23(2): 277323.Google Scholar
Soliman, M. R., Derosa, C. T., Mielke, H. W., & Bota, K. 1993. Hazardous wastes, hazardous materials and environmental health inequity. Toxicology and Industrial Health, 9(5): 901–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoney, C., & Winstanley, D. 2001. Stakeholding: Confusion or utopia? Mapping the conceptual terrain. Journal of Management Studies, 38(5): 603–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suchman, M. C. 1995. Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20(3): 571610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, C. W. 2013. Lawmaking in the shadow of the bargain: Contract procedure as a second-best alternative to mandatory arbitration. Yale Law Journal, 122(6): 1560–93.Google Scholar
Unerman, J., & O'Dwyer, B. 2006. Theorising accountability for NGO advocacy. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 19(3): 349–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Utting, P. 2005. Corporate responsibility and the movement of business. Development in Practice, 15(3–4): 375388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Buren, H. J. III. 2001. If fairness is the problem, is consent the solution? Integrating ISCT and stakeholder theory. Business Ethics Quarterly, 11(3): 481500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waddock, S. A. 2008. Building a new institutional infrastructure for corporate responsibility. Academy of Management Perspectives, 22(3): 87108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wall, M. 2000. Settlements rise as way to avoid court wrangling, Atlanta Business Chronicle. June 9.Google Scholar
Weber, M. 1978. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Whelan, G. 2012. The political perspective of corporate social responsibility: A critical research agenda. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(4): 709–37.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): 755769.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WTO. 2012. Dispute Settlement: The Disputes: World Trade Organization.Google Scholar