Stakeholder management capability: exploring the strategic management of dissenting stakeholder groups

Abstract

Since its inception, Stakeholder Theory has served as an important corporate governance theory, providing an holistic framework for situation analyses and strategic decision-making. Since its conceptualisation, there has been a call to go beyond normative models of stakeholder management to explore the implications of ‘stakeholder conflict management’ and the development of ‘stakeholder management capabilities’. This paper undertakes an analysis of the regional Tasmanian state government’s approach to the management of dissenting stakeholder groups towards a controversial retail development. The paper provides a discussion of the manner in which their governance structure included the use of delay tactics, the abdication of responsibility, and the building of bureaucratic layers that effectively diluted the will of stakeholder groups to continue their dissenting activities.