Rethinking ethics in business is more than a set of rules or a list of 'how to.' It's a philosophy that refocuses the value you place in stakeholders instead of just the shareholders. In 1984, Dr. Edward Freeman originally detailed the Stakeholder Theory of organizational management and business ethics that addresses morals and values in managing an organization. Stakeholder Theory is a view of capitalism that stresses the interconnected relationships between a business and its customers, suppliers, employees, investors, communities, and others who have a stake in the organization. The theory argues that a firm should create value for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
In today's episode, we sit down with Dr. Freeman to dive deep into this philosophy of business, talk about his new book 'The Power of And' and the new documentary 'Fishing with Dynamite.'
Links
Ed Freeman's Website
Fishing with Dynamite Documentary
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About Dr. R. Edward Freeman
Dr. R. Edward Freeman is University Professor and Olsson Professor of Business Administration, and an academic director of the Institute for Business in Society at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. He is also adjunct professor of stakeholder management at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, visiting professor at Nyenrode Business School (Netherlands), adjunct professor of management at Monash University (Melbourne). He has held honorary appointments as the Welling Professor at George Washington University and the Gourlay Professorship at the University of Melbourne. Prior to coming to the Darden School, Freeman taught at the University of Minnesota and the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Freeman is the co-author of Bridging the Values Gap (Berrett-Koehler, 2015) Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art (Cambridge, 2010) and Managing for Stakeholders (Yale, 2007). He is the author or editor of over 30 volumes and 150 articles in the areas of stakeholder management, business strategy, and business ethics.
Freeman is perhaps best known for his award-winning book: Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (Cambridge, 2010), originally published in 1984, in which he traced the origins of the stakeholder idea to a number of others and suggested that businesses build their strategy around their relationships with key stakeholders.
Freeman has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Washington University and a B.A. in mathematics and philosophy from Duke University. He was recently awarded honorary doctorates (DHC) in economics from Comillas University in Madrid, the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, and an honorary doctorate in management from Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands and Sherbrooke University in Canada for his work on stakeholder theory and business ethics.
Throughout his career, he has received a number of teaching awards from the Wharton School, the Carlson School, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, the State of Virginia, and the Academy of Management. He has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the World Resources Institute and Aspen Institute, the Humboldt University Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, the Academy of Management and the Society for Business Ethics. He has worked with many executives and companies around the world, and his writing on stakeholder theory has been translated into many languages.
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