Stakeholders and Business Strategy: A Role-Play Negotiation Themed Exercise

ABSTRACT Consideration of the interests of stakeholders as well as the potential impact of stakeholders on company decisions provides critical insight into dimensions of strategic decision making that may be overlooked using traditional strategy frameworks. Using a case based on a manufacturing company’s deliberation of a decision to send offshore the manufacturing of its core products, this exercise exposes students to a variety of stakeholder perspectives through a role-play negotiation-themed exercise. Students adopt the roles of top management, labor representative, local supplier, customer representative, city manager, environmental activist, and shareholder representative. The negotiation activity is designed to raise student awareness of the importance of stakeholder analysis in the strategic decision-making process.