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Shareholder versus Stakeholder – is there a Governance Dilemma?
Author(s) -
Vinten Gerald
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
corporate governance: an international review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.866
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1467-8683
pISSN - 0964-8410
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8683.00224
Subject(s) - dilemma , shareholder , stakeholder , normative , corporate governance , order (exchange) , business , balance (ability) , balance of interests , stakeholder theory , public relations , stakeholder analysis , accounting , law and economics , political science , sociology , law , finance , psychology , epistemology , philosophy , neuroscience
All directors are faced with real, or imagined, conflicts of interest or competing demands for time and resources, between shareholders and stakeholders. This has always been the case, but the contemporary emphasis on stakeholders has brought this to a head. Although astute organisations and directors maintain a suitable balance between the various demands placed upon them, and there are systematic ways to do this, there are a few voices opposed to stakeholding in any shape or form. In order to suggest that stakeholding is the viable and sustainable way for companies to proceed, the article considers and criticises one anti‐stakeholder, together with other antagonists, before bringing in endorsements from different quarters, and introducing three categories of stakeholding of which the normative holds most promise. Practical approaches to discriminating among the claims of various stakeholders are indicated.