Stakeholder Engagement - Cranfield School of Management ...

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Motivation
The following is a checklist to assist managers to identify
the motivations behind an organisation’s desire to engage
with stakeholders. Ten possible different motivations for
engagement are contemplated. Ask yourself and colleagues
the following questions:
❖ Are stakeholders seen as a source of expert information, knowledge and expertise either
technical, medical or niche specific, for the organisation?
❖ Are stakeholders seen as a source of credibility and legitimacy to allow the organisation
to better respond to business challenges by more easily, more cheaply, more effectively, or
more rapidly constructing a solution to an issue?
❖ Are stakeholders regarded as useful because of their ability to facilitate, convene or
coordinate the activities or responses of smaller, less credible, less well resourced
stakeholders, thus creating a single point of contact for the organisation and reducing
staff time and resources that need to be deployed?
❖ Are stakeholders regarded as useful because of their ability to help lessen the antagonism
and emotional response, which may or may not be justified, of other stakeholders to
actions, decisions and plans of the organisation, by acting as a buffer between
stakeholders and organisation?
❖ Are stakeholders regarded as a source of specialised and detailed information and
knowledge for companies regarding potential new customers, such as consumer needs,
consumer characteristics and consumer habits?
❖ Are stakeholders regarded as useful because they act as a conduit or channel to prospective
new consumers or are they seen as potentially playing a critical role in persuading
consumers to consider the organisation’s products or to trust the organisation’s services?
❖ Are stakeholders regarded as useful because they allow the organisation to respond or
acquiesce to investor, client, media or regulatory pressure, or to others that have influence
over the organisation?
❖ Are stakeholders regarded as a resource to improve the organisation’s long-term
reputation?
❖ Is interaction with stakeholders regarded as a useful way to provide the organisation’s
staff with an innovative training environment where they can learn and develop new and
distinctive skills, or as a way to motivate staff at very little cost?
❖ Are stakeholders regarded as an obstacle to be overcome or ignored, as a result of their
critical views of the organisation’s operations, or belief that the organisation should
change its business operations in some way, i.e. not market to a certain type of consumer,
not sell a certain type of product, change their remuneration structure, or address the
perceived impact of previous actions?
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