Stakeholder engagement: A service delivery-based strategy formulation process in the public sector of South Africa (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Scientific Research and Management
In keeping with the New Public Management dispensation, state corporations in Kenya have taken up strategic planning with a view to effect reforms for improved service delivery. New Public Management particularly advances a customer-centric approach to public administration for improved service delivery, with the public, who are the recipients of public service, as key stakeholders in public administration. Despite this, service delivery in the Agribusiness sub-sector in the country is riddled with inadequacies highlighted by among other complaints, unpaid produce supplies, dwindling finances, slumped agricultural extension services and low produce prices. Against this backdrop, the study set out to establish the effect of strategic planning on service delivery and assess how stakeholder involvement influences the relationship between strategic planning and service delivery among agribusiness state corporations in Kenya. Grounded on the New Public Management and Stakeholder theories...
Actor-Networking Stakeholder Theory
Purpose – The paper suggest a need to widen stakeholder theory to include non-human influences to better describe the complex corporate environment. Drawing from Actor-Network theory, non-human entities may ‘translate’ new, unexpected stakeholders to support their aims. Design/methodology/approach – Theoretical conceptual approach with three illustrative examples. Findings – Examples provided show that corporate crises result partly from previously unacknowledged non-human spheres of influence and cause corporations serious losses. Corporations that take a proactive stance and monitor the weak signals of change are able to improve their standing and maintain legitimacy. Research limitations/implications – The framework created requires more testing with different examples across contexts and cultures. Future studies should examine the process of translation more deeply and examine who can potentially be translated into a stakeholder. Practical implications – Corporate communication should play ‘the devil’s advocate’ on issues and analyze not only stakeholders but also non-human entities that may be able to translate others into joining their cause. Originality/value – This paper broadens stakeholder theory to better describe the current corporate environment by highlighting the process of translation among stakeholders and non-human entities. Keywords – Stakeholder theory, Actor-Network Theory, non-human entities, corporate communications, strategic planning Paper type – Conceptual paper
Administratio Publica, 2024
The new democratic dispensation ushered in by the 1994 elections introduced the notion of "people-centred development" in South African municipalities. Key principles of peoplecentred development include public participation, social learning, empowerment and sustainability. However, it is apparent that compliance with these principles is constrained by factors such as poor service delivery, corruption, maladministration, inefficiency and poor stakeholder involvement. This, in turn, leads to legitimacy challenges for municipal councils. Following a qualitative case study design, the purpose of this article is to probe the extent to which stakeholders are involved in the local government arena and to propose a stakeholder involvement model as an instrument to strengthen municipal customer service. The City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (CoE) was used as a case study. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews held with two cohorts, namely managers of customer care centres in the CoE and a representative random sample of stakeholder organisations that interact with these centres.
Network Approach and Stakeholder Management
Recent economic crises show that enterprises cannot be managed focusing only on economic values instead managers should acknowledge their own enterprises' responsibilities toward the society as a whole. Stakeholder Management Theory can help managers accomplishing this very same daunting task. This theory demands managers to reckon the reciprocal influences linking other social actors to the enterprise activities and to understand the relative effects. While most of the works in this theory has been geared towards defining, identifying and managing each single dyadic relationship some other scholar have highlighted the need to focus on the stakeholder network to correctly assess each stakeholder's role and to fully grasp the long term effects enterprise's action will have. In this paper after a review of the main topics in stakeholder management theory, we classify the various approach to Stakeholder Management Theory to identify relevant theoretical contributions and to highlight how the theoretical gap can be crossed using the tools of Social Network Analysis and embracing the network approach to stakeholder management. Keywords: Stakeholder Management, Relationships, Sustainability, Network Approach, Social Network Analysis, Network Measures.
A typology of operational approaches for stakeholder analysis and engagement
Construction Management and Economics, 2011
'stakeholder management' can be synthesized as: the process of identification, analysis, communication, decision making and all other kinds of activities in terms of managing stakeholders. Regarding 'stakeholder analysis', the main question is whether 'developing strategies/ways to deal with/engage stakeholders' is part of 'stakeholder analysis' or not. Varvasovszky and Brugha (2000), and Reed (2008) identified two separate steps, namely: identifying stakeholders and their interests; and assessing stakeholders' influence and relationships. Comparatively, Gupta (1995) appended 'strategies/ways' as part as the final step for stakeholder analysis. That is, these scholars consider decision making as part of stakeholder analysis. Thus decision making is can be an essential aspect of stakeholder management. But the question is should it be included in stakeholder analysis? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2009), analysis is "an examination of a complex, its elements, and their relations". In the context of this definition, decision making should not be included in 'stakeholder analysis'. To clarify the concept, in this paper, stakeholder analysis is considered as a process of identifying stakeholders and their interests, and assessing stakeholders' influence and relationships. Based on literature review, a variety of tools and approaches, such as snowball sampling (Varvasovszky and Brugha, 2000), Power/Interest matrix (Olander, 2006), can used for stakeholder analysis in different areas (Reed, 2008). To categorize the approaches, Reed (2008) separated the stakeholder analysis process into three steps, namely, (1) identifying stakeholders; (2) differentiating between and categorising stakeholders; and (3) investigating relationships between stakeholders. Similar to Reed's study, during the interviews and survey (described in Section 3), approaches for stakeholder management were also collected following three steps of stakeholder analysis: (1) identifying stakeholders and their interests, (2) assessing stakeholders' influence; and (3) analyzing stakeholders' relationships. Comparing to stakeholder analysis, stakeholder engagement is to communicate with, involve, and develop relationship with stakeholders (Greenwood, 2007; and Chinyio and Akintoye, 2008). Stakeholders should be engaged as early as possible, and this has been considered as essential for high quality and durable decisions (Chess and Purcell, 1999; and Reed et al., 2006). Many scholars categorize stakeholders into different groups, such as Blair and Whitehead's (1998) 'potential for collaboration' and 'potential for threatening', Goodpaster's (1991) 'fiduciary' and 'non-fiduciary', and Clarksons' (1995) 'primary' and 'secondary'. However, before this can be done, it is necessary to involve some of the stakeholders to identify others or do analysis (Reed, 2008), especially in the context of complicated environment, such as construction projects. Therefore, stakeholder engagement can contribute to stakeholder analysis, and some of the approaches for stakeholder engagement, such as workshop, and interviews (Ballejos and Montagna, 2008), could be used as stakeholder analysis methods. In terms of the relationship among 'stakeholder management', 'stakeholder analysis' and 'stakeholder engagement', both 'stakeholder analysis' and 'stakeholder engagement' are parts of the activities for 'stakeholder management'. Since the interrelationship exists between 'stakeholder analysis' and 'stakeholder engagement', methods of 'stakeholder engagement' can be applied for communications with stakeholders during analysing stakeholders. Research methodology This research aims to identify the approaches employed in stakeholder management practice and combine them with those proposed by other scholars to develop a typology of approaches for 'stakeholder analysis' and 'stakeholder engagement'. The research began with six semi-structured interviews with an aim of identifying practical approaches in Hong Kong. The six experts were selected because they all had more than 10 years' experience in stakeholder management on the construction projects, had different roles in projects (Client, Consultant and Contractor), and were from different types of organizations (Government, Education, and Company). A semi-structured approach was adopted in the interviews. Questions used in the interviews include but were not limited to: • How do you identify project stakeholders and their interests? • How do you identify which stakeholders are more important than others? • How do you analyse the interrelationship among stakeholders? and • What methods do you use to engage project stakeholders? Content analysis was used for "extracting and corroborating meaning from the interviews" (Chinyio and Akintoye, 2008). An initial list of approaches for stakeholder analysis was synthesized, and the first version of the survey questionnaires was developed after these interviews.
2018
The main purpose of this research was to establish how institutions of higher learning (IHLs) in Lesotho can enhance the implementation of their strategic plans by engaging stakeholders in the communication planning and implementation process. This was achieved by exploring how four IHLs in Lesotho, National University of Lesotho (NUL), Lerotholi Polytechnic (LP), Lesotho Agricultural College (LAC) and Centre for Account Studies (CAS) use communication strategies to engage their internal and external stakeholders for effective implementation of their strategic plans. The research was a phenomenological, exploratory and descriptive inquiry in to stakeholder engagement and it employed non-empirical and empirical phases of research. The non-empirical aspect comprised extensive literature review of three primary themes, namely: stakeholder engagement, communication strategy, strategy formulation and implementation; as well as content analysis of institutional strategic plans. The empirical research phase encompassed collection of primary data through interviews and questionnaires while secondary data was collected through strategic plans of the institutions. iii A convergent mixed-methods design was used to collect and analyse research data. Data analysis of both qualitative and quantitative strands was done independent of each other, while interpretation of obtained results was merged. A computer aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS), Leximancer, was used to analyse the qualitative data while SPSS software analysed the quantitative data of the study. Thematic analysis of strategic plans and transcriptions of interviews conducted with members of IHLs senior management were analysed using Leximancer, whereas closed-ended responses of questionnaires were analysed using SPSS software. Content analysis was carried on with open-ended question responses of the questionnaires. An exploratory-based mixed method was applied to sort raw data into four public institutions due to their relative similarity. Subsequently the entire set of interdependent relationships amongst the institutions was analysed simultaneously. Research findings from the internal and external stakeholders of the institutions revealed that it was in the institutions’ culture to practise a one-way/top-bottom communication to inform and engage stakeholders in the implementation of their strategic plans. They use improper and inefficient communication platforms. Therefore, a communication strategy implementation framework was developed. The framework proposed that the IHLs practise three steps recommended for enhancement of effective implementation of strategic plans. Whilst the institutions engage in a two-way communication process to enhance stakeholder engagement, they should firstly align formulation and implementation of strategic plans with the institutional culture because institutional culture can enforce certain types of institutional growth or oppose some institutional values. Secondly, it was proposed that IHLs identify their strategic and legitimate stakeholders, and maintain long-term relationships with them. This would enable identification of implications of strategic issues on institutions and stakeholders. Thirdly, the institutions were encouraged to use proper and clear communication platforms for the right type of message to engage stakeholders. The use of these platforms should be inclusive, regardless of the type of stakeholder or their length of affiliation with the institutions.
Using Actor-Network-Theory as a Means of Exploring the Management of Community Development Networks
2023
This paper explores the use of Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) as a means of understanding the management of community development networks. This was undertaken through the application of ANT as a theoretical methodology to the case of 'Organisation A', a community development organisation operating in Ireland which has grown rapidly over the past 10 years and is embarking on a strategic review intended to examine all aspects of the organisation. The data collection methodology is qualitative and involved senior managers participating in semi-structured interviews. An analysis framework based on ANT was developed with the aim of understanding and articulating the management of this organisation as a complex network. The application of ANT is used to map the state of affairs of a network through the use of conceptual tools. Central to this is identifying key patterns of action as translations. These patterns are then used to explore how translations are negotiated through to completion. In the case of Organisation A, this highlights the management of operations in a network of varied stakeholders. A key output of this study was in identifying the centres of controversy, as areas where translations fail, and need to be further explored. Identifying these areas creates a map which can be used by stakeholders to further assess and develop the empirical state of the network.
Actor-network theory and stakeholder collaboration: The case of Cultural Districts
Tourism Management, 2011
The tourism literature has increasingly recognised the importance of integrating tourism and culture with other value chains. Though the value of such integration is uncontested, it does raise several questions relating to stakeholder collaboration. Despite substantial research in this field, there remain gaps in our knowledge of the micro-dynamics of stakeholder collaborations in building tourism/cultural systems. This paper contributes to this debate by investigating the micro-level interactions among stakeholders during the conceptualisation of a large collaborative project: a Cultural District. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) the research shows that, though rigid sequential planning is not viable, conceptualisation is facilitated by deploying three ANT rules: enrolling actors, fact-building and circulating translations. These rules are used to define a "conditional path" whereby specific actions are activated when controversies emerge.
Bridging the conceptual divide: lessons from stakeholder analysis
Journal of Organizational Change Management, 2005
PurposeTo demonstrate that stakeholder analysis has a significant contribution to make as a “middle ground” research method and as a means of organisational change.Design/methodology/approachA case study of performance appraisal in UK academic institutions uses stakeholder analysis to address issues of organisation performance and development in a way that bridges the divide between theory and practice. This approach is supported by locating stakeholder theory within modes of organisation enquiry, and by positioning it more specifically within its conceptual domain.FindingsDemonstrates the integrity and value of stakeholder analysis as a “middle ground” research method via development of a stakeholder systems model that identifies design, operation and evaluation stages of the performance management process and links these to measures of effectiveness and equity.Research limitations/implications“Joined up thinking” in organisation analysis implies incorporation of quantitative and q...