Long-term focus solely on economic goals in today's management can be risky and simultaneously suboptimal in terms of economic effectiveness and efficiency. Therefore, value creation must involve various stakeholder groups and should also be addressed to them. This is a prerequisite for the sustainable and balanced development of organizations and societies. By adopting a stakeholder perspective in management, we expand the organizational lexicon with terms such as reputation, relationships, responsibility, openness, trust, and dialogue. This perspective has become the prevailing way of thinking about value creation for and by the stakeholders of modern organizations.
The term "stakeholder" is a key concept in modern business, economy, and administration. It is relevant in the context of sustainable development, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and ESG risk mitigation. However, stakeholders are above all entities within the business model and the value chain.
Therefore, competent managers must master the skills of identifying various stakeholder groups and networks, analyzing their interests, needs, and intentions, prioritizing their impact, and modeling relationships with selected ones. Skillful stakeholder management is essential for building competitive advantage, effective resource allocation, achieving operational excellence, and implementing corporate social responsibility policies. Moreover, it is a domain of value-based management as well as management based on values.
The book "Stakeholder Perspective in Contemporary Management Challenges," written by young researchers graduated from master's programs at the Institute of Economics, Finance, and Management of Jagiellonian University, offers seven different contexts for thinking about organizations through the lens of stakeholder theory and stakeholder management practice.