Redefining corporate responsibility.
9/2/2002
Enron, WorldCom, ImClone: Perhaps there couldn't be a better time for a reexamination of the role of the corporation in society. In Redefining the Corporation: Stakeholder Management and Organizational Wealth, the authors (all three are business professors), offer readers a new look at the concept of the corporation. Their new definition presents the corporation as a collaboration of constituencies and interests called stakeholders. The key to success for the corporation of the 21st century is managing the complexity of these stakeholder relationships including resource providers, customers and suppliers, and social and political players. The authors present a compelling case illustrating their theories by examining stakeholder relationships of three companies: Cummins, Motorola, and Royal Dutch/Shell. A good read for managers, executives, scholars, and readers who wrestle with the question of the mission of the corporation.