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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Lynda Bourne, Stakeholder Relationship Management: A Maturity Model for Organisational Implementation, Gower Publishing Limited, Farnham, UK, 2009, 215pp, £60, Hard.
Stakeholders have many hue and colours. The genesis lies in the great Berly - Dodd debate that settled the issue "to whom are the corporate managers responsible." Berly put forward the view that management powers are not absolute powers rather they are the power in trust. The controlling group is, in form at least, managing and controlling a corporation for the benefit of the owners and it is the role of the law in the course of protecting interest of the shareholders, to create legal safeguards against the management's possible abandonment of the profit motive. Dodd, on the other hand maintained that the law should require that corporate managers hold power in trust not only for the shareholders but for other social groups as well including suppliers, consumers and employees. Thus, the concept of stakeholder was born. Authors from different disciplines have defined it differently.
Lynda, the author, who is a trainer and consultant, conceives the stakeholders to be a group or individuals who supply critical resources, or place something of value at risk through their investment of funds, careers or time in pursuit of the organisation's business strategies or goals. Alternatively, stakeholders may be groups or individuals opposed to an organisation or some aspects of its activities. Stakeholders are defined as "individuals or groups who will be impacted by, or can influence the success or failure of an organisation's activities." She believes that by definition, stakeholder has stake in the activity. This stake may be an interest, a right (legal or moral), ownership or contribution in the form of knowledge or support. Thus, it is important to consider...