Abstract

The notion that employees and business partners have an important role to play in organizational improvement dates back to the early days of quality management. Quality models indicate that managing stakeholders to enhance their value generation capability can be a winning strategy. This is a radical change from the past and implies a new vision of organizations in which the share of power and benefits of stockholders and employees is no longer the result of conflicts or ideological views that may weaken organizational performance. The first step toward this aim is to limit the stakeholder role to those who cooperate to achieve organizational goals. Although opportunities and threats arising from empowering stakeholders must be clearly understood, the vision presented here is one which can allow companies to foster long-term performance in an environment that is increasingly tougher and more global.