Reconceptualizing Power Relations as Sustainable Business Practice

The concept of sustainable development' has brought diverse stakeholders together to consider approaches to economic development. Thus, the possibility of irreconcilable tensions between sustainability' and economic development' has been identified, together with an apparent domination of the discourse on sustainable development' by corporations. In relation to this latter claim and mindful of Foucault's tenet that power also comes from below, we suggest that alternative voices' significant to the discourse should not be jettisoned because they are managerial' or corporate'. This argument focuses on the significance of voice' generated by managers taking strategic action with salient stakeholders. Given increasing strategic ambiguity, managers are leveraging broad stakeholder knowledge and input to achieve credible strategic outcomes that stakeholders can accommodate. We contend that the relationship between knowledge and power is significant in the discourse on sustainable development and that knowledge generated by stakeholder collaboration be recognized as an alternative voice'. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment