How to become your own worst adversary: examining the connection between managerial attributions and organizational relationships with public interest stakeholders

According to numerous studies across multiple disciplines in the social sciences, business organizations tend to develop adversarial relationships with representatives of the public interest. A survey of 62 Public Affairs Managers in publicly held U.S. corporations finds that organizations adopt relational styles similar to those theorized in studies of inter‐organizational conflict, organizational communication and stakeholder management. Empirical results support the descriptive power of a two‐dimensional model reflecting four relational styles that participating organizations exhibited: avoidance, compliance, co‐optation and negotiation. The two dimensions that constitute the model are cooperativeness and boundary spanning. More importantly, managers who attributed power and legitimacy to public interest group stakeholders reported that their organizations were more likely to cooperate with these stakeholders. On the other hand, managers who perceived public interest groups' claims having urgency were more likely to develop communicative, boundary spanning relationships with public interest groups but these relationships were less likely to be cooperative. Because unhealthy relationships with these groups can be detrimental to an organization's long‐term prospects, managers must be careful to recognize public interest organizations as potent and legitimate potential allies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.