Stakeholder engagement : the implementation and determination of value creation

Abstract

The title of this research paper is Stakeholder engagement - the implementation and determination of value. This research aims to establish the level of understanding of the implementation of stakeholder engagement among senior managers in organisations. The study further assesses the value that is created from stakeholder engagement with a particular emphasis on the co-creation of value between stakeholders and organisations. Then finally the study looks at how this value is apportioned or distributed. A critical sustainability and survival mechanism for any modern day organisation is effective and rigorous stakeholder engagement, particularly given the stakeholder rich environment in which organisations operate, characterised by the competing interests of the extended stakeholders (Loi, 2016). The study employed a qualitative research design in meeting the aims. The subject of the research was large organisations, which included ten state owned entities and South Africa's largest energy and chemical company. Semi structured in-depth interviews were held with respondents from the eleven organisations who are senior managers within their organisations and are experts in stakeholder engagement. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and the results analysed using Atlas Ti. The results of this exploratory study reveal that managers have a firm grasp and knowledge of the understanding and identification of their various stakeholder groups, however shows that the implementation of stakeholder engagement within organisation is still in a progressive state and not at the ideal maturity level of dialogue and information sharing as recommended by literature. Furthermore, literature has highlighted that the concept of value creation and distribution has not been sufficiently explored and that there is an information gap in the field of value creation and value allocation (Harrison and Wicks, 2013; Garriga, 2014; Govender & Abratt, 2016). Likewise the organisations interviewed demonstrated limited knowledge in understanding the value created from stakeholder engagement and in particular the issue of value apportionment.