Bio:

He has a background in the engineering industry as an operational researcher, operational research manager, and then in management consulting before joining academia.

He has benn Director of the Graduate School of Business at Strathclyde University (for 8yrs), Vice Dean of the Business School (for 6yrs).

He has worked many senior management teams and public organisations in Europe and North America. – particularly in supporting their strategy development. In the for-profit sector these have included: Shell International, Bombardier, Reed Elsevier, British Telecom, Internal Computers Ltd (ICL).  In the public sector examples include: Transport Security Administration (TSA), NHS Scotland, Strathclyde Police, Glasgow Housing Association, Norwegian regional Govt during COVID, Northern Ireland Prison Service and Northern Ireland Office during the ‘troubles’.

Major research interests are into the relationship between operational decision making practices and their strategic consequences; the processes of strategy making in senior management teams; problem structuring; the use and development of group decision support in the analysis and making of strategy; multi-organizational collaboration; systemic risk assessment and management; and the modelling of the behaviour of large project disruptions and delays.

He is the Author/Editor of 11 books and over 270 scholarly articles and book chapters in management science, group decision and negotiation, project management, and strategic management. Google Scholar citations >28,000, Google H-index of 72.

He is the recipient of: INFORMS GDN Section Lifetime Award 2008; The ORSociety Beale Lifetime Medal 2007.  He is a Fellow of the British Academy of Management (BAM) and Fellow of the Agder Academy of Science and Letters, and has been Dean of the BAM Fellows College.

Abstract:

Strategy links aspirations and capabilities whether for organizations or multi-organizational efforts. Over 40 years ago Ed Freeman published Strategic Management: a stakeholder approach.  This book made aclear cut case that a crucial aspect of successful organizational and collective strategy-making is that of paying attention to stakeholders.  The presentation will demonstrate that analysis of well established strategic management textbooks shows that very little attention is being paid to stakeholders, and that Freeman’s book is often not mentioned.

Strategy implementation depends on the adoption and use of stakeholder identification, analysis, and management tools and techniques – stakeholders can both support and sabotage strategic intent. It is interesting that other fields do pay attention to stakeholders, most notably project management.

This presentation will present examples of how stakeholder analysis techniques can lead to the effective management of stakeholders.  Specifically, the talk will present a method for the identification of key stakeholders, and how further analysis, including consideration of stakeholder dynamics, helps a management team create strategies for their management. 

The presentation will draw on theory and practice presented in:

Eden, C. (1996)  The stakeholder/collaborator strategy workshop - the Northern Ireland case. In: Huxham, C., (Ed.)  Creating collaborative advantage, pp. 44-56.  London:  Sage]

Eden, C. and Ackermann, F. (1998) Making Strategy: The Journey of Strategic Management,   London:  Sage.

Ackermann, F. and Eden, C. (2011). Making Strategy: Mapping Out Strategic Success,    London:  Sage.

Ackermann, F. and Eden, C. (2011)  Strategic Management of Stakeholders: theory and practice.  Long Range Planning  44, 179-196.

Eden, C. and Ackermann, F. (2021)  Modelling Stakeholder Dynamics for Supporting Group Decision and Negotiation: Theory to Practice.  Group Decision and Negotiation  30, 1001-1025.

Ackermann, F., Eden, C. and McKiernan, P. (2024)  Stakeholders in Strategy Making.  Journal of Strategy and Management  17, 282-296.

Eden, C. and Ackermann, F. (2024)  Stakeholder Management Manual,  Vienna:  Strategyfinder.com.