The stakeholder management approach involves the full range of dispute resolution techniques,

although ideally more integrative and relational rather than distributive or power- based methods
would be attempted first.

Integrative approaches

• Problems are seen as having more potential solutions than are immediately obvious.

• Resources are seen as expandable; the goal is to “expand the pie” before dividing it.

• Parties attempting to create more potential solutions and processes are thus said to be “value
creating.”

• Parties attempt to accommodate as many interests of each of the parties as possible.

• The so- called win– win or “all gain” approach.

Distributive approaches

• Problems are seen as zero sum.

• Resources are imagined as fixed: “divide the pie.”

• They are “value claiming” rather than “value creating.”

• They involve haggling or “splitting the difference.”

Relational approaches (that consider power, interests, rights, and ethics)

• Relationship building.

• Narrative, deliberative, and other “dialogical” (i.e., dialogue- based) approaches to negotiation and
mediation.

• Restorative justice and reconciliation (i.e., approaches that respect the dignity of every person,
build understanding, and provide opportunities for victims to obtain restoration and for off enders to
take responsibility for their actions).

Other transformative approaches to peacebuilding:

Adjudicative, legislative, restorative justice, reparation, and rights- based approaches are necessary
when rights, property, or other legitimate claims have been violated and harm results.

Moral Responsibilities of Cross- Functional Area Professionals:

One goal of a stakeholder analysis is to encourage and prepare organizational managers to articulate
their own moral responsibilities, as well as the responsibilities of their company and their profession,
toward their different constituencies. Stakeholder analysis focuses the enterprise’s attention and
moral decision- making process on external events. The stakeholder management approach also
applies internally, especially to individual managers in traditional functional areas. These managers
can be seen as conduits through which other external stakeholders are influenced.

Functional and expert areas include marketing, research and development (R&D), manufacturing,
public relations (PR), human resource management, and accounting and finance. The basic moral
dimensions of each of these are discussed below. Even though functional areas are often blurred in
some emerging network organizational structures and self- designed teams, many of the
responsibilities of these managerial areas remain intact. Understanding these managerial roles from
a stakeholder perspective helps to clarify the pressures and moral responsibilities of these job
positions.

1. Marketing and Sales Professionals and Managers as Stakeholders

Sales professionals and managers are continuously engaged— electronically and/or face- to-
face—with customers, suppliers, and vendors. Sales professionals are also evaluated by quotas
and quantitative expectations on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. The stress and pressure
to meet expectations is always present. The dilemma often becomes: “Who do I represent?
What weight do my beliefs and ethics have when measured against my department’s and
company’s performance measures for me?” Another key question for sales professionals
particularly is: “Where is the line between unethical and ethical practices for me?” Also, because
customers are an integral part of business, these professionals must create and maintain
customer interest and loyalty. They must be concerned with consumer safety and welfare, while
increasing revenue and obtaining new accounts. Moral dilemmas can arise for marketing
managers who may be asked to promote unsafe products or to implement advertising
campaigns that are untrue or not in the consumer’s best interests.

A major moral dilemma for marketing managers is having to choose between a profitable
decision and a socially responsible one. Stakeholder analysis helps marketing managers in these
morally questionable situations by identifying stakeholders and understanding the effects and
consequences of profits and services on them. Balancing company profitability with human
rights and interests is a moral responsibility of marketers. Companies that have no ethics code or
socially responsible policies— as well as those that do have these, but do not enforce them—
increase the personal pressure, pain, and liability of individual professionals. Such tensions can
lead to unethical and illegal activities.

2. R&D, Engineering Professionals, and Managers as Stakeholders

R&D managers and engineers are responsible for the safety and reliability of product design.
Faulty products can mean public outcry, which can result in unwanted media exposure and
possibly (perhaps justifiably) lawsuits. R&D managers must work and communicate effectively
and conscientiously with professionals in manufacturing, marketing, and information systems,
and with senior managers, contractors, and government representatives, to name a few of their
stakeholders.

Moral dilemmas can arise for R&D engineers whose technical judgments and risk assessments
conflict with administrative managers seeking profit and time- to- market deadlines.

3. Accounting and Finance Professionals and Managers as Stakeholders

Accounting and finance professionals are responsible for the welfare of clients and safeguard
their financial interests. Financial planners, brokers, accountants, mutual fund managers,
bankers, valuation specialists, and insurance agents have the responsibility of ensuring reliable
and accurate transactions and reporting of other people’s money and assets.

Factors in these professions that trigger unethical activities include: (1) pressures from senior
officers and supervisors to “maximize profits,” sometimes at any cost; (2) lack of integrity
(truthfulness, conscience) of leaders, supervisors, and employees; (3) corporate cultures that
devalue clients, investors, and employees; (4) requests from clients to change financial
statements and tax returns and commit tax fraud; (5) conflict of interest and lack of auditor
 independence between client and auditing firm; and (6) blurring professional and personal roles
and responsibilities between client and professional.

4. Public Relations Managers as Stakeholders

PR managers must constantly interact with outside groups and corporate executives, especially
in an age when communications media, external relations, and public scrutiny play such vital
roles. PR managers are responsible for transmitting, receiving, and interpreting information
about employees, products, services, and the company. Moral dilemmas can arise when PR
managers must defend company actions that have possible or known harmful effects on the
public or stakeholders. A stakeholder analysis can prepare PR managers and inform them about
the situation, the stakes, and the strategies they must address.

5. Human Resource Managers as Stakeholders

Human resource managers (HRMs) are on the front line of helping other managers recruit, hire,
fire, promote, evaluate, reward, discipline, transfer, and counsel employees. They also research,
write, and maintain company policies on employee affairs. They face constant ethical pressures
and uncertainties over issues about invasion of privacy and violations of employees’ rights.

Moral dilemmas can arise for these managers when affirmative action policies are threatened in
favor of corporate decisions to hide biases or protect profits. HRMs also straddle the fine line
between the individual rights of employees and corporate self- interests, especially when
reductions in force (RIFs) and other hiring or fi ring decisions are involved. As industries
restructure, merge, downsize, outsource, and expand internationally, HRMs’ work becomes
even more complicated.

Expert and functional area managers are confronted with balancing operational profit goals with
corporate moral obligations toward stakeholders. These pressures are considered “part of the job.”
Unfortunately, clear corporate directions for resolving dilemmas that involve conflicts between
individuals’ rights and corporate economic interests generally are not available. Using a stakeholder
analysis is “like walking in the shoes of another professional”: you get a sense of his or her pressures.
Using a stakeholder analysis is a step toward clarifying the issues involved in resolving ethical
dilemmas.