Title: 'Stakeholder' and 'resource' labelled employee treatment practices and firm performance - an integrative review and implications for future research

Authors: Prachi Bhatt; Himanshu Joshi

Addresses: FORE School of Management, B-18, Qutub Institutional Area, New Delhi – 110016, India ' FORE School of Management, B-18, Qutub Institutional Area, New Delhi – 110016, India

Abstract: Businesses have grown out of the traditional firm-employee relationships into appreciating employees as key 'stakeholder' instead of 'resource'. However, research regarding how an approach underlying employee treatment practices would serve firms' interest, remains largely incoherent. The paper through an integrative review synthesises relevant and related management literature scattered across various knowledge domains, i.e., stakeholder theory, organisational theory, resource-based theory, agency-cost theory. The paper discusses and offers propositions related to how 'resource-based' and 'stakeholder-based' approaches of employee treatment would influence perceived organisational support and perceived organisational justice by employees, thus impacting firm performance. Viewpoints differing from stakeholder perspective, which influence related management decisions, are also discussed. This study emphasises 'stakeholder' approach of management's decisions as proactive, inclusive and as a sustainable approach for employee treatment. It further stimulates future research in what is still largely missing, an integration of different perspectives for refinement of existing theories.

Keywords: employee practices; employee treatment; firm performance; integrative review; employees as stakeholders; stakeholder approach; resource-based approach; stakeholder theory; agency-cost theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2022.122767

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2022 Vol.25 No.4, pp.473 - 494

Received: 04 Oct 2020
Accepted: 25 Jan 2021
Published online: 10 May 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article