TMU CSR Institute session: Stakeholder Theory and Social Justice -- In Conversation with Professors Harry Van Buren and Robert Phillips

The Institute for the Study of Corporate Social Responsibility at Toronto Metropolitan University(TMU) is pleased to co-sponsor* a hybrid in-person & online zoom seminar, Stakeholder Theory and Social Justice -- in Conversation with Professors Harry Van Buren and Robert Phillips, on Monday, November 4, 2024 from 12 pm to 1:30 pm, Toronto time (details below).

This session is a hybrid event: you can attend in-person or patch in online.

To register and attend in person (no cost, everyone welcome) please reserve your spot by clicking HERE (external link) . The session is located in room TRS 3-129 (the ninth floor) of the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University, which is located at 55 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

TO REGISTER AND ATTEND ONLINE (no cost, everyone welcome) click HERE (external link)  then press the "reserve a spot" button.

TO ACCESS THE ZOOM on Monday, November 4 at 12 noon (Toronto time), click HERE (external link)  to patch in for the live session.

Information will be provided during the session re: how to submit questions.

About this talk

Stakeholder theory has emerged as among the most influential theories of strategic management and business ethics. With this influence have also arisen new theoretical demands and critiques. On the one hand are those who find the theory too broad and contestable to serve as a guide for the strategic management of complex and pluralistic organizations. On the other hand are those who see stakeholder theory as too narrow – even timid – in its aspirations and call for its expansion to better address the grand challenges facing the larger global society.  Addressing these competing criticisms requires better specification of the terms of the debate, the strength of the arguments, and the implications of pursuing a narrower vs. broader conception.

 In this session, Rob Phillips and Harry Van Buren, long-standing friends and current co-authors, take up the question of whether stakeholder theory could be and should be a vehicle for pursuing questions related to business and social justice in addition to reforming capitalism. They have had friendly debates (and disagreements) on this topic for nearly 30 years, even as they have co-authored a paper (with Judith Schrempf-Stirling) on stakeholder theory and human rights. Among the topics they will address in their presentations are calls to include human rights and the natural environment within the ambit of stakeholder theory as well as the prospects for an “instrumental” stakeholder theory that de-emphasizes (even ignores) the role of normativity. They will discuss how their perspectives have changed (and haven’t changed) over time, and then engage with the audience’s questions.

The session will be chaired and moderated by Sareh Pouryousefi, Assistant Professor at the Law and Business Department, Ted Rogers School of Management.

About the Speakers

Harry Van Buren is the Z. Lupton Patten Endowed Chair of Business Ethics at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Gary W. Rollins College of Business as well as an honorary professor at Queen’s University Belfast School of Law. His doctorate in business environment, ethics and public  policy is from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business. He has published more than 70 articles in outlets such as the Academy of Management Review, Business & Society, Human Resource Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Industrial Relations. His current research interests include business and human rights, preventing human trafficking in global supply chains, business and peace, relational stakeholder theory, and employment ethics. He is the inaugural editor of the business and human rights section of the Journal of Business Ethics, having previously co-edited both the human resource management and religion sections at that journal. He has held leadership positions in the Social Issues in Management division of the Academy of Management and the International Assoc ation for Business & Society. He has co-edited a book on business and human rights to be published by Edward Elgar in January 2025 and also will have a forthcoming book on structural injustice and business ethics published by Cambridge University Press in fall 2025.

Robert Phillips is George R. Gardiner Professor in Business Ethics, Professor of Sustainability, and Director of the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business at York University’s Schulich School of Business. His PhD is from the University of Virginia’s Darden School. Prior to Schulich he held positions at the University of Richmond, University of San Diego, The Wharton School, and Georgetown University. He was also the Gourlay Professor of Ethics in Business, at Trinity College, University of Melbourne, visiting professor at LM Thapar School of Management (Punjab), and Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (Shanghai).

He has published over 50 scholarly articles appearing in journals such as Business Ethics Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, and the Academy of Management Review, among others. He is the author of Stakeholder Theory and Organizational Ethics (2003). His other research interests include stakeholder theory and historic corporate responsibility.

He serves as Consulting Editor at Journal of Business Ethics and has held leadership positions in the Academy of Management, the Strategic Management Society, the International Association for Business and Society, and is past president of the Society for Business Ethics.*This research seminar is organized by the TMU Law and Business Department, and is co-sponsored by the TMU Institute for the Study of Corporate Social Responsibility, the Ted Rogers Leadership Centre at Ted Rogers School of Management Institute (the Business Ethics Speaker Series), and the Office of the Dean, Ted Rogers School of Management.

About the Moderator

Sareh Pouryousefi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Law & Business at the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM), Toronto Metropolitan University. She completed her PhD at the Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto. Prior to TRSM, she was a business school faculty member at the University of Nottingham (UK). She was also a visiting scholar at the Schulich School of Business, York University, and at the Olsson Centre for Applied Ethics in the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the normative foundations of business ethics and she carries out this work in close engagement with empirical, social scientific research. She has published articles in journals such as Business Ethics Quarterly,  Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of the American Philosophical Association. She is a reviewer for academic journals and conferences in her field and serves on the Editorial Review Board at Business Ethics Quarterly, where she is currently a co-editor of a Special Issue on normativity. She has served as an organizer and mentor at meetings of the Society for Business Ethics, the European Business Ethics Network, and the Canadian Business Ethics Research Network. In light of her research excellence and service to the profession, Dr Pouryousefi received a TRSM Research Recognition Award in 2022. Her current writing projects are about trust and the professions.