Redefining the Corporation

The modern corporation is an institution of enormous economic power and social impact. The evolution of the corporation has given rise to new opportunities and challenges that require a redefinition of the corporation and its objectives. This volume presents a stakeholder view of the corporation in both theoretical and practical terms. Its central proposition is that organizational wealth is created (or destroyed) through a corporation's interactions with its stakeholders. Effective stakeholder management develops and utilizes relationships between a corporation and its stakeholders for mutual benefit, thereby accomplishing the fundamental purpose of wealth creation. Following the empirical maxim that "corporations are what they do", the authors examine the stakeholder management practices of three major corporations: Cummins Engine Company; Motorola; and the Royal Dutch/Shell Group. These companies are very different, and their current stakeholder management policies and practices have evolved in very different ways. However, they share a common commitment to humanistic values and to continuous learning. Their varied experiences illustrate some of the opportunities and challenges of stakeholder management, and confirm the appropriateness of the stakeholder view of the corporation as a basis for strategy and policy.