ABSTRACT
Stakeholder thinking has contributed significantly to the interorganisational literature by demonstrating the importance of the environment in managing organisations. This chapter explores a rich field to analyse the dynamics of stakeholder management and also explores the joint responsibility of all the parties involved in furthering their interests. It focuses on how a professional corporation manages its organisational legitimacy. The chapter describes the conceptual framework and discusses the related concepts of professional legitimacy and legitimation, which directed data collection throughout the case. It presents the two theories to analyse the processes at work: stakeholder theory and negotiated-order theory. The chapter suggests that extending stakeholder theory through a perspective based on interaction, such as negotiated-order theory, allows a richer understanding of the dynamics. It argues that stakeholder theory and negotiated-order theory complement each other and together offer a more dynamic and realistic vision of the interplay between parties both inside and outside the organisation.
