Abstract We analyse how public managers interact with external stakeholders during cutbacks. Relying on strategic management scholarship, we develop an argument on why public managers decide for a closed or an open cutback management strategy. In the former, they try to close off the process for external stakeholders, whereas, in the latter, they actively engage with external stakeholders. A multiple qualitative case study of cutbacks in the Dutch prison sector shows that the choice to actively engage with external stakeholders depends on public managers’ position within the organisational hierarchy, their perception of the stakeholder environment and their process goals. The factors that impact public managers strategic stance can be categorised as contextual, institutional and organisational and environmental determinants. The article contributes to the scholarship on cutback management, accounting and strategic management and shows why these perspectives should be bridged in order to understand managerial behaviour during cutbacks