The Stakeholder Engagement Manual Volume 2 - AccountAbility

Introduction
WHAT IS IN THIS HANDBOOK?
THIS HANDBOOK PRESENTS STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
IN FIVE STAGES:
- Th e fi rst Stage is an overall consideration of strategic business objectives, how
these relate to stakeholders and specifi c issues, and how you can undertake an
initial prioritisation of stakeholders and issues for further analysis.
- Th e second Stage introduces diff erent levels of engagement, and guides you
in analysing your existing relationships, available resources and organisational
constraints. It also helps you to learn more about specifi c stakeholder’s
representatives, and to decide on what kind of relationship you want to develop
with these stakeholders.
- Th e third Stage addresses questions of internal and external competencies and
capacities to engage, and provides guidance on how you can ensure that all parties
to an engagement are able to join and take part in it eff ectively.
- Th e fourth Stage outlines diff erent engagement techniques, and – building
on the previous steps – helps you to design an approach that suits the needs of
your specifi c situation and helps you to reach your objectives.
- Finally, in the fi fth Stage, this handbook will provide you with guidance on how
to follow up on the outputs of engagement, and how to ensure that your
stakeholders feel assured regarding the quality of your eff orts.
For the sake of clarity and ease of use, the handbook presents stakeholder
engagement as a process consisting of discrete stages. The stages represent groups
of necessary questions and processes in planning and managing stakeholder
engagement, but will not always be best covered in such a strict sequence. It may well
be necessary to carry out several of the described activities at the same time, or to
return to ‘previous’ steps in order to clarify or reconsider.
Th e process for stakeholder engagement presented here is underpinned by the
principles of materiality, completeness and responsiveness. Th e relevance of these
principles in the individual stages is described in each chapter. Th ey are further
outlined later in this introduction, on p15.
Th e handbook includes a number of tables, tools and templates which users can
apply to their own context.
Th ese can be downloaded from www.accountability.org.uk.
Each chapter consists of:
- Purpose: An outline of the objectives and rationale for undertaking this Stage.
- Principles: An explanation of how this Stage relates to the principles of
materiality, completeness and responsiveness.
- Process: Practical guidance for each of the key processes, decisions and actions
involved at this Stage.
- Practical examples: Organisational policies and experiences and fi rst hand
comments from practitioners.