Paradoxes and Dilemmas for Stakeholder Responsive Firms in the Extractive Sector: Lessons from the Case of Shell and the Ogoni
Paradoxes and Dilemmas for
Stakeholder Responsive Firms in the Extractive Sector:
Lessons from the Case of
Shell and the Ogoni
ABSTRACT. This paper examines some of the paradoxes and dilemmas facing firms in the extractive sector when they attempt to take on a more stakeholder-responsive orientation towards issues of environmental and social responsibility. We describe the case of Shell and the Ogoni and attempt to draw out some of the lessons of that case for more sustainable operations in the developing world. We argue that firms such as Shell, Rio Tinto and others may well exhibit increasingly stakeholder-responsive behaviours at the corporate, strategic level. However for reasons of strategy, lack of competency or institutional will this increasing level of corporate responsiveness may not be mirrored effectively in dealings between subsidiary business units and their most important direct stakeholders: for example local communities and in the developing world. We contrast
David Wheeler is Director and Erivan K Haub Chair of
Business and Sustainability at the Schulich School of
Business, York University, Toronto. He is also Visiting
Professor in Sustainable Enterprise at Kingston
University Business School (U.K.). Previously, he was
Executive Director of Environmental & Social Policy at
The Body Shop International. He has been a frequent consultant to the World Health Organisation and various development agencies working in water and sanitation programmes in less developed countries. He is co-author of The Stakeholder Corporation – the first business text to be endorsed by Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He was an advisor to the U.K. Government on governance aspects of the Company Law Review and is currently a member of the Government Advisory Group on
Consumer Products and the Environment. He was cofounder of the U.K. business-led Committee of Inquiry
– A New Vision for Business.
David Wheeler
Heike Fabig
Richard Boele
Stakeholder Responsive Firms in the Extractive Sector:
Lessons from the Case of
Shell and the Ogoni
ABSTRACT. This paper examines some of the paradoxes and dilemmas facing firms in the extractive sector when they attempt to take on a more stakeholder-responsive orientation towards issues of environmental and social responsibility. We describe the case of Shell and the Ogoni and attempt to draw out some of the lessons of that case for more sustainable operations in the developing world. We argue that firms such as Shell, Rio Tinto and others may well exhibit increasingly stakeholder-responsive behaviours at the corporate, strategic level. However for reasons of strategy, lack of competency or institutional will this increasing level of corporate responsiveness may not be mirrored effectively in dealings between subsidiary business units and their most important direct stakeholders: for example local communities and in the developing world. We contrast
David Wheeler is Director and Erivan K Haub Chair of
Business and Sustainability at the Schulich School of
Business, York University, Toronto. He is also Visiting
Professor in Sustainable Enterprise at Kingston
University Business School (U.K.). Previously, he was
Executive Director of Environmental & Social Policy at
The Body Shop International. He has been a frequent consultant to the World Health Organisation and various development agencies working in water and sanitation programmes in less developed countries. He is co-author of The Stakeholder Corporation – the first business text to be endorsed by Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He was an advisor to the U.K. Government on governance aspects of the Company Law Review and is currently a member of the Government Advisory Group on
Consumer Products and the Environment. He was cofounder of the U.K. business-led Committee of Inquiry
– A New Vision for Business.
David Wheeler
Heike Fabig
Richard Boele
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