Stakeholder Engagement - Cranfield School of Management ...

4
Non-Productive Engagement Behaviour
Organisational Structure
This includes both the structure defined by the organisation
chart, and the unwritten lines of power and influence that
indicate whose contributions are most valued.
❖ Is the structure flat or hierarchical? Formal or informal?
Organic or mechanistic? This knowledge will help
stakeholders understand, for example, where decisions can
be made and reasons for possible delays in decision making
❖ Is there a specific or pre-determined structure for interacting
with stakeholders?
❖ Where are the formal lines of authority?
❖ Who decides on policy to engage with stakeholders?
❖ Are there informal lines and if so, how do these impact on
relationships with stakeholders?
Control Systems
These refer to the ways relationships with stakeholders are
controlled and include strategy for engagement, quality of
relations, goals, and the evaluation of engagement.
❖ What process or procedure has the strongest controls over
stakeholder relations?
❖ What has the weakest controls?
❖ Are stakeholder relations by the organisation generally
loosely or tightly controlled?
❖ Are employees rewarded for building good stakeholder
relations and/or penalised for poor stakeholder relations?
❖ What reports, instructions or memos are issued to keep
control of stakeholder relations?
Power Structures
These are the pockets of real power in the organisation.They
may involve one or two key senior executives, a whole group of
executives, or even a department.The key is that these people
have the greatest amount of influence on decisions and strategic
direction regarding stakeholders.
❖ Who has the real power in the organisation and how do
they engage with stakeholders, if at all?
❖ What do these people believe and champion within the
organisation with regard to stakeholder relations?
❖ Who makes or influences decisions on engagement with
stakeholders?
❖ How is this power used to further relations with
stakeholders?
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4.8 Non-Productive Engagement
Behaviour
Sometimes non-productive engagement can exist; this is when
previous engagement has not produced a positive outcome and
therefore has been abandoned by either or both parties. Several
challenges can arise from this situation as a result of the
engagement issue not being resolved: either it can re-emerge
later as a more difficult subject to address, or the abandonment
of the issue in itself can further inflame already difficult
stakeholder relations. Post-situational surveys are a good way of
uncovering the existence of such incidents and reasons for the
engagement failure.This may occur for many possible reasons,
including a lack of time, lack of perceived interest, lack of trust,
perceived differences in ideology or values, incompatible
personalities, competing priorities, internal disagreements,
pressure from a third party or any of the other common
obstacles identified in Box 9 (Section 4.2) above.
This type of behaviour does exist but is not often acknowledged,
particularly by organisations. It is, however, extremely important
and valuable for an organisation, alongside the process of
collating information regarding positive engagement, to capture
their experiences of non-productive engagement and analyse the
underlying reasons for that outcome, whether it be due to a lack
of good faith or interest from outside stakeholders, lack of
willingness for internal change on the part of the organisation or
as a result of some other factor. Non-productive behaviour can
originate from inside the organisation, and difficult conversations
may need to be initiated – especially if the behaviour stems from
or is displayed by senior people and those with stakeholder
relationship responsibilities.
The following questions have been developed to help managers
assess non-productive engagement and understand better the
possible causes of this behaviour. Ask yourself and colleagues in
your organisation the following questions:
❖ What is the typical story that is told about engagement
processes in your organisation? Is it always positive, negative
or both?
❖ What are the typical reasons given in your organisation for
engagement not producing a positive outcome? Are they
internal to the organisation or external?
❖ What types of engagement behaviour are not talked about
in your organisation, but you have seen or experienced?
❖ What happens in your organisation when engagement with
a particular stakeholder is seen to be going nowhere?
❖ Are senior management willing to get involved if an
engagement process is seen to be non-productive?
❖ Has your organisation experienced a previous nonproductive
engagement with a stakeholder and then
subsequently been able to successfully engage with them?
What, if anything, did you learn from this process? How was
this learning utilised across the organisation later on, if at all?
❖ Are lessons from non-productive engagement experiences
utilised in stakeholder planning exercises in your organisation
or in strategy formation for interaction with stakeholders?