Caroline will discuss the efforts by companies in the resources sector to respond to the demands of an increasing, diverse array of stakeholders. She will introduce a novel conceptual framework and describe its translation into a sense-making device for use by companies in the sector.
The research addresses the problem that approaches to CSR, intended to ensure that value is created for a wide range of stakeholders, not just those with a financial stake in the enterprise can be reactive, ill-informed, short-term, and superficial (Campbell, 2012; Cruz, 2021). The objective is to contribute to addressing this shortcoming. This is pursued by describing and analyzing approaches adopted by companies in the resource sector, to respond to the demands of diverse, legitimate stakeholders, and the implications for ‘who gets what’. The method involves the adaptation of a conceptual framework which was developed by Arnstein (1969) to consider the exercise of power by governments in relation to programs intended to benefit racial minorities. It is transformed so that it can be used to consider similar issues in the resources sector. Critiques and case studies regarding CSR and the pursuit of the SLO in the sector create the basis for this adaptation. The conceptual lens, and sense-making device which emerge from this process, make an important theoretical contribution and create a powerful lens for reflection, learning and strategy development
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