Les Ateliers de l’Ethique (May 2006)
Quel avenir pour la gestion des parties prenantes?
Abstract
The concept of stakeholders is, without any doubt, one of the most important contributions to the field of business ethics in the recent years.This concept articulates a moral requirement in virtue of which managers must consider the interests of all stakeholders. In its most common form, the list of stakeholders includes the employees, the customers, the suppliers and the community, as well as shareholders and other investors. The defenders of the stakeholders management theory are right on one point: the modern lucrative business must serve the interests of all stake-holding groups. But the stakeholders management theory fails in not recognizing that managers acting in the interest of the shareholders also can, by the same token, act in the interests of all stakeholders. Indeed, insofar as the market is able to provide the benefits wished by the various stakeholders, the managers do not explicitly need to consider their interests when they make a decision. Nevertheless, partisans of the stakeholders management theory are right to prompt that each one of these groups should be able to profit from the activities of the company. They are also right to recall the responsibilities of managers in creating wealth for the benefitof all.
