Never stonewall your stakeholders

An inside look at some of the differing attributes which companies from both continents employ with their stakeholders

 
What about the stakeholders? That is not a question you will often see in many communications magazines, nor hear around the offices or corridors of public relations or corporate communications departments. Perhaps today we could make an exception. Communication professionals and consultants return to work each day to disseminate information, explain, negotiate and generally garner support for corporate decisions with those groups that matter to the company: stakeholders. Workers, members of the communities in which the company operates, customers, environmental groups, investors and government officials on every continent are making their expectations about corporate conduct heard and, for the benefit of the company, needed to be communicated. After all, the profitability and livelihood of companies depend on strong reputations as well as on transactions with each of these stakeholder groups. In early September, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, described trade union involvement at the level of corporate boards (the famous practice of Mitbestimmung, or “co-determination”) as “an essential part of Germany’s economy”. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, Starbucks has made the most of its collaboration with an important stakeholder group (in this case an NGO focused on human rights and fair trade) effectively accommodating the group’s concern via the supply of fair-trade coffee in all of its outlets. Even the mighty Wal-Mart has in recent weeks been pressured by US and Chinese governments alike to let the worker’s representatives in if they want to continue trading as normal. All continuing proof of the power of stakeholders across the US and Europe. But there are also differences between the US and Europe.

Joep Cornelissen

Joep Cornelissen heads research and teaching in the field of corporate communications at MBA level at Leeds University Business School, UK. Author of Corporate Communications: Theory and Practice, he has read at the Amsterdam School of Communications Research. His interests include the role of imagination within managerial sensemaking and innovative thinking. He has also written for international management and communication journals including the British Journal of Management, Journal of Advertising Research, Psychology and Marketing and PR Review.