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Reconceptualizing Power Relations as Sustainable Business Practice
Author(s) -
Bolton Dianne,
Landells Terry
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/bse.1893
Subject(s) - ambiguity , argument (complex analysis) , stakeholder , sustainable development , sustainability , power (physics) , salient , relation (database) , business , action (physics) , corporate sustainability , strategic management , stakeholder theory , sociology , public relations , corporate social responsibility , political science , marketing , computer science , law , ecology , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , database , biology , programming language
The concept of ‘sustainable development’ has brought diverse stakeholders together to consider approaches to economic development. Thus, the possibility of irreconcilable tensions between ‘sustainability’ and ‘economic development’ has been identified, together with an apparent domination of the discourse on ‘sustainable development’ by corporations. In relation to this latter claim and mindful of Foucault's tenet that power also comes from below, we suggest that alternative ‘voices’ significant to the discourse should not be jettisoned because they are ‘managerial’ or ‘corporate’. This argument focuses on the significance of ‘voice’ generated by managers taking strategic action with salient stakeholders. Given increasing strategic ambiguity, managers are leveraging broad stakeholder knowledge and input to achieve credible strategic outcomes that stakeholders can accommodate. We contend that the relationship between knowledge and power is significant in the discourse on sustainable development and that knowledge generated by stakeholder collaboration be recognized as an alternative ‘voice’. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment