Doing Stakeholder Engagement Their own Way: Experience from the Malawian Mining Industry

Organisations are increasingly adopting sustainability performance assessment tools. However, these formal organisational sustainability assessments are typically managed and prepared by technical staff. There is a lack of research on approaches that enable a stakeholder-driven performance assessment. This paper develops a framework of informal/complementary stakeholder-driven sustainability performance assessment, from the perspective of employee voluntary collaboration. The framework composes a checklist of questions covering the main sustainability domains: perceptions, individual practices, and voluntary monitoring indicators. In an exploratory case study in a public organisation, the checklist was evaluated by employees in a participatory workshop. The evaluation criteria of understanding and usefulness were rated more positively than reliability. This paper shows a novel way of integrating employee inputs for informal sustainability assessment and supports the importance of empowering public organisations, thereby increasing their understanding of sustainability management frameworks.

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employee‐Driven Sustainability Performance Assessment in Public Organisations

Coutinho

Domingues

Caeiro

et al. 2017

“…Since it enables organisations to achieve their goals (Jonker & Foster, 2002;Manetti, 2011), stakeholder engagement has been studied from various perspectives. For example, many studies have concentrated on the way firms implement dialogue with stakeholders in different industries (Amaeshi & Crane, 2006;Mzembe, 2016) and at different stages of maturity (Retolaza et al, 2009). Other researchers have investigated the determinants of stakeholder engagement (Prado-Lorenzo et al 2009;Hassan & Ibrahim, 2012) and the communication channels through which firms engage with stakeholders (Asif et al, 2013;Guziana & Dobers, 2013;Sierra-García et al, 2015).…”

Section: B Usiness Ethics Literature Has Repeatedly Emphasised the Immentioning

confidence: 99%

Value Relevance of Stakeholder Engagement: The Influence of National Culture

Maso

Liberatore

Mazzi

2016

Our study investigates whether stakeholder engagement is associated with a firm's valuation and the value relevance of accounting earnings. Since prior literature posits that the economic consequences of such practices may depend on the specific environment in which they are adopted, we also explore whether these associations are affected by the cultural traits of the country in which a firm operates. Based on a worldwide sample of firms for the period 2002 to 2014, we document that stakeholder engagement positively influences market-to-book value of equity, without enhancing the value relevance of firm's accounting earnings. Drawing on Schwartz's cultural framework, we show that the results hold only in countries with a low (high) level of embeddedness and hierarchy (mastery). Our study contributes to the literature exploring the economic consequences of non-financial information and the importance of institutional characteristics for economic outcomes.Prior literature suggests that the perception of CSR activities critically depends on country characteristics (Agudo-Valiente et al., 2015). As noted in the section Value Relevance of Stakeholder Engagement, these may drive prior 46L. Dal Maso et al.Schwartz (2008) has a more comprehensive description of the value items contained in each of the seven cultural dimensions (i.e., autonomy is specified in intellectual and affective autonomy).

“…The findings here support other recent studies showing how stakeholder impact on CSR is increasing, including cases of NGOs, industry groups, and local communities pressuring African and European companies to adopt global CSR standards (Boiral et al ., ; Mzembe, ). Furthermore, a higher number of companies than previously within a European context are integrating stakeholders’ perspectives into corporate decision‐making (Moratis & Brandt, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanisms of change: Stakeholder Engagement in the Australian Resource Sector through CSR

Fordham

Robinson

2018

The study sought to draw new perspectives on how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is shaped and created within the resource sector. The study focused on examining the role of external stakeholders in influencing the CSR strategies implemented by Australian resource companies. Data were gathered by semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved with 25 resource companies located in South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.Consistent with sociological theories of CSR, stakeholders such as business and community leaders, non-government organizations (NGOs), and government employees were able to influence CSR by empowering communities to participate in CSR, bridging cultural divides between companies and communities, and linking companies to key society standards. This was facilitated by the expression of personal ethical values and knowledge sets by stakeholders and where relevant those of their organization.A range of stakeholders were active agents of change, bringing in new ideology, skills, and expertise, and, at times, challenging existing corporate practice. This process was underlined by relationship building and trust. Stakeholders effectively introduced higher ethical values to concepts of public accountability, environmental sustainability, and social justice in line with personal and organizational ethics.The study also identified factors which promoted stakeholder influence and gave stakeholders power within CSR. This included a range of institutional-level factors such as regulatory and legal frameworks, company policy, and cultures, but also interpersonal skills and abilities of the individuals involved.The study highlights the strategic benefits of stakeholder involvement in CSR within the Australian resource sector and discusses implications for the broader resource industry.