Through my observations and analysis in the four cases, I observed that there
are four types of stakeholder engagement approaches which can be used individually or in
combination with each other to advance a sustainable development effort. I developed these
categories in a way that emphasizes their most salient and unique essential qualities,
acknowledging that there will be some overlap between the categories and that in practice
71
Direct Engagement is often the standard definition of what fits within the existing
stakeholder management, community relations, and engagement practice and theory (Albert Health Services. 2011). This involves going in the field and directly talking to stakeholders to
inform them, solicit their support and use organizational skills to build and eventually mobilize a
community of stakeholders. This is type of approach is often associated with activist grassroots
movements and with corporate community outreach campaigns, where individual members of
a community are engaged with the intent of organizing them into a cohesive group. However, I
have used (and witnessed) this approach (being used) in internal organizational settings as well
(Case 3), for example, canvassing individual employees for their donations.
Next, I have chosen to present Issue Framing as a distinct type of approach stakeholder
management approach, recognizing that it is used at times on its own, by more organized
ENGOs and industry associations (Cases 2 and 4), with the intent of informing and influencing
public opinion, industry and academic thought leaders, or influencing government regulators
and policy makers (Lee & Chang, 2010). Stakeholder management in general, as any
organizational process, is underpinned by research and analysis relevant to the design and
execution of its initiative (Yang, Shen et al., 2011). For example, on the target stakeholder
audiences, and on engagement and communications strategies and tactics. However, I
distinguish issue framing from the regular research and analysis and position framing, as a
strategic end in itself rather than just a lower level component of executing a regular
stakeholder engagement exercise. For example, when an organization dedicates significant
resources to researching and framing a specific sustainable development policy and produces a
72 2 and 4), then that constitutes issue framing as a distinct stakeholder management approach.
Rather, than just performing research and analysis to increase the participation of the stakeholder population (Cases 1 and 3). Under this approach type I also classify, lobbying of
organizational representatives (stakeholders), because ‘true’ lobbying (including in the
traditional context of government relations practice) requires a well-supported and articulated
position, rather than just an “ask” for a simple outcome. It is important to note that this
approach of issue framing, while usually associated with informing and persuading wider,
external stakeholder audiences, can also be utilized with internal stakeholder audiences –
especially if the organization is large and the sustainability issues are not properly defined or
championed.
Third, I recognize that stakeholder management is a multidisciplinary process, and so I
have also included traditional marketing as a distinct process within the stakeholder
management tool kit. My expanded definition of traditional marketing includes not just
marketing and advertising, but also media relations and public relations (PR), as well as trade
shows and association meetings. I have combined these concepts under one concrete
approach type because they all involve managing masses of external stakeholders using the full
spectrum of traditional marketing and media tools that have in general been used by the
private sector to achieve their various ‘inform and influence external stakeholder’ objectives.
The difference that practitioners (advertiser versus a public-relations professional) of these
various methods might draw between them (Cohen, 2012) can be ignored in this context
73 Finally, I added the stakeholder management approach of new marketing, which draws
on the concept of the Internet of Things, the power of social media and the concept of online community creation and mobilization. All three of these concepts are enabled by the rise and
proliferation of internet use. Individually they are interesting but together they form a powerful
synergy that creates a powerful but not yet fully understood stakeholder management
approach. The Internet of Things – a concept whereby everything is now increasingly
networked with our internet devices (Westerlund, Leminen & Rajahonka, 2014) – and the
widespread use and evolution of social media, allows an unprecedented level of immediacy in
communication; personalization of increasingly salient stakeholder messaging; and depth,
breadth and speed of analysis on stakeholder opinions. All of these benefits greatly strengthen
and amplify the formation and mobilization of online communities, virtual groups that organize
around themes or issues of interest (Diani, 2000), and can greatly support or frustrate
stakeholder engagement efforts. Technology enabled, formal and informal online communities
have an increasing capacity to organize autonomously across organizations, communities and
society, with increasingly ability to overcome geographic, social and physical infrastructure
barriers (Shirky, 2011). Originally used primarily by grassroots activist organizations – including
ENGOs - because of its low costs, the new media approach is now being by industry and
governments to inform and influence masses of external individual stakeholders. Furthermore,
I have observed the experimentation of the use of this approach directed at informing and
persuading internal stakeholders (Case 3) in the public service, as corporate e-platforms. For
74 internal communities of practices that were created by management to support various own
stakeholder management objectives.