Abstract:
The King III Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa (with a separate
chapter on Governing Stakeholder Relationships) highlights the importance of
stakeholder management in corporate governance. For the first time the inclusive
approach to stakeholder relationship management is explained more fully and
principles on how stakeholder relationships can be managed in a corporate
governance context are provided. These have implications for corporate
communication strategy in all organisations. The inclusion of all stakeholders in
corporate issues has taken centre stage in corporate governance. In any given
communication situation, a stakeholder could play many roles in an internal or
external organisational environment. Total stakeholder involvement (engagement) is
crucial and will have implications for organisational practices, reputation and
corporate sustainability. The explosion in social media and networking has empowered
stakeholders beyond imagination. Their roles are no longer merely employees, clients
or the community in general, but on the virtual stage of communication, stakeholders
are taking on roles as citizen editors, journalists, writers, recipients and interpreters of
their own communication material. They can become reputation ambassadors or
demolishers in the corporate environment. In this continuous neo-corporate
communication environment, it is not about communication control, but about
communication power-sharing. In this article stakeholder engagement as an allinclusive
communication management approach will be illustrated by considering
stakeholder theory, corporate governance and integrated reporting and the growing
importance of reputation management.
