 Reconceptualizing Power Relations as Sustainable Business PracticeDianne Bolton and Terry Landells Business Strategy and the Environment, 2015, vol. 24, issue 7, 604-616 Abstract: The concept of ‘sustainable development’ has brought diverse stakeholders together to consider approaches to economic development. Thus, the possibility of irreconcilable tensions between ‘sustainability’ and ‘economic development’ has been identified, together with an apparent domination of the discourse on ‘sustainable development’ by corporations. In relation to this latter claim and mindful of Foucault's tenet that power also comes from below, we suggest that alternative ‘voices’ significant to the discourse should not be jettisoned because they are ‘managerial’ or ‘corporate’. This argument focuses on the significance of ‘voice’ generated by managers taking strategic action with salient stakeholders. Given increasing strategic ambiguity, managers are leveraging broad stakeholder knowledge and input to achieve credible strategic outcomes that stakeholders can accommodate. We contend that the relationship between knowledge and power is significant in the discourse on sustainable development and that knowledge generated by stakeholder collaboration be recognized as an alternative ‘voice’. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Date: 2015 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:24:y:2015:i:7:p:604-616 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Business Strategy and the Environment is currently edited by Richard Welford More articles in Business Strategy and the Environment from Wiley Blackwell |
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