Stakeholder Theory
Interactional Justice
Stakeholder Governance
Área
Estratégia em Organizações
Tema
Estratégia Corporativa e de Stakeholders
Autores
Nome
1 - Italo Taumaturgo Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo - FEA - Campus Cidade Universitária
2 - Victor Pessoa de Melo Gomes Aalto University - Department of Industrial Engineering and Management
3 - Helna Almeida de Araujo Góes Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo - FEA - Faculdade de Administração, Economia e Contabilidade
Reumo
Our premises is that stakeholder theory is a theory that aims on promoting innovative ways to create value for stakeholders related to the organizations’ operation. In this sense, we discuss the concepts of organizational justice, the underlying cobblestone to interpret the collaboration and interest of stakeholders in the organization (Phillips, 2003). We pay special attention to the interactional justice, a dimension in which negotiations, and collaboration agreements between the company and stakeholders. Additionallity, we align this discussion with the concept of stakeholder governance.
We aim to contribute to the stakeholder theory literature by shedding light on the discussion of in what ways elements of interactional justice can guide stakeholder governance, promoting the coordination of stakeholders' interests and a fairer distribution of value. Therefore, expanding the debate on interactional justice within stakeholder theory and provide a theoretical framework linking elements of interactional justice to stakeholder governance.
Our theoretical discussion it’s around the concepts of interactional justice and stakeholder governance. Interactional justice evaluates how actors treat each other, including respect, courtesy, and dignity (Harrison et al., 2010). Governance regards the rules and mechanisms that permeate the interactions within organizational life. Stakeholder governance focuses on how firms can reconcile conflicts of economic and non-economic interests among firms and stakeholders to create and distribute value (Amis et al., 2020; Bridoux & Stoelhorst, 2022).
Our proposed theoretical model connects aspects related to informational justice (decision-making; rights and performance) and interpersonal justice (trust; leadership and legitimacy) as mechanisms that influence stakeholder governance. This relationship, in turn, results in better management of the appropriation of the value generated. The discussion of our theoretical model is permeated with propositions that indicate relationships between the aforementioned mechanisms and stakeholder governance, providing paths for future work.
Our paper connects the debate on interactional justice to the concept of stakeholder governance, focusing on the firm's governing system that outlines rules, rights, and decision-making processes for stakeholders. Interactional justice, an essential component of organizational justice, is pivotal in stakeholder governance (Bridoux & Stoelhorst, 2022). We aim to contribute to stakeholder theory scholarship by examining how elements of interactional justice can guide stakeholder governance, facilitating the alignment of stakeholder interests and a fairer distribution of value.
Bridoux, F., & Stoelhorst, J. W. (2022). Stakeholder governance: Solving the collective action problems in joint value creation. Academy of Management Review, 47, 214–236.
Colquitt, J. A. (2001). On the dimensionality of organizational justice: A construct validation of a measure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 386–400. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.386
Phillips, R. A. (1997). Stakeholder Theory and A Principle of Fairness. Business Ethics Quarterly, 7(1), 51–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/3857232