Stakeholder Engagement, Knowledge Problems and Ethical Challenges
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Stakeholder Engagement, Knowledge Problems and Ethical Challenges J. Robert Mitchell1,2 · Ronald K. Mitchell3 · Richard A. Hunt4 · David M. Townsend4 · Jae H. Lee5 Received: 11 July 2019 / Accepted: 4 June 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract In the management and business ethics literatures, stakeholder engagement has been demonstrated to lead to more ethical management practices. However, there may be limits on the extent to which stakeholder engagement can, as currently con‑ ceptualized, resolve some of the more difficult ethical challenges faced by managers. In this paper we argue that stakeholder engagement, when seen as a way of reducing five types of knowledge problems—risk, ambiguity, complexity, equivocality, and a priori irreducible uncertainty—can aid managers in resolving such ethical challenges. Using a practical illustration of the ethical challenges surrounding the development and application of genetic modification technologies, we demonstrate how stakeholder engagement enables managers to better address these knowledge problems, thereby to manage more ethi‑ cally. In this way, we suggest that stakeholder engagement has an even more crucial role to play in business ethics research and practice. Keywords Stakeholder engagement · Uncertainty and knowledge problems · Ethical challenges
With an ever-increasing global population, hunger in the developing world, and the health risks of pesticides, some experts view genetically modified food as a panacea. Others view it as one of the most serious threats to human civilization. These diametrically opposing views point to an ethical dilemma that will certainly be difficult to resolve: whether the benefits of developing and supplying the world with genetically modified foods outweigh future consequences that these products may have for the human species, animal life, and the ecosystem (Jefferson 2006, p. 33).
* Ronald K. Mitchell [email protected] J. Robert Mitchell [email protected] Richard A. Hunt [email protected] David M. Townsend [email protected] Jae H. Lee [email protected] 1
Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, 1255 Western Road, London, ON N6G 0N1, Canada
2
College of Business, Rockwell Hall, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
3
Texas Tech University, Box 42101, Lubbock, TX 79409‑2101, USA
4
Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2100 Pamplin, 880 West Campus Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
5
College of Business, Hamline University, 1536 Hewitt Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55104, USA
Introduction We begin with an epigraph that presents a situation with ethi‑ cal implications for managers, profound consequences for the stakeholders engaged, and a high level of difficulty due to the many unknowns. We do so in order to introduce our task in this paper, which is to offer theory to suggest how refining the concept of stakeholder engagement (see Dawkins
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2014; Fassin et al. 2017; Greenwood 2007; Laplum
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