March 2003 - Kommunikationsforum

THE MULTICULTURAL ISSUES MANAGEMENT PROCESSquestions they could ask are: How well did the company perform and what is the result in terms ofthe corporate image in the public and the relationship with specific stakeholders?Gaunt & Ollenburger also draw the attention to the fact that a second imperative step is to continuouslyre-analyse the issue. Societal changes may resurrect the issue. In that continous monitoring,it is imperative to stay attuned to sensitive topics in different cultures. Changes do not occur at thesame time around the world or in different settings. Often, an issue may be resurrected in a foreigncountry before this happens on a company’s home market. Again, cultural awareness and mindfulnessare pre-eminent for an effective evaluation process.Stakeholder theory emphasised how good stakeholder relations could strengthen the entire issuesmanagement practice around key issues. Thus, in the evolution process, issues managers couldconsider the possibility of setting up “strategic cooperative communities” around key issues engagingkey stakeholders in order to continuously monitor its development.68| Issues Management in Multicultural Stakeholder Environments