Development of Stakeholder Relationships by Integrating Their Needs into Organization’s Goals and Objectives

Abstract

Organizations have been defined as a “nexus of contracts”. These contracts specify or imply what the organization expects from each stakeholder group to help it achieve its primary objectives and what each stakeholder expects from the organization in return for its cooperation. Within this contracting framework, one of the most important managerial functions is to establish and maintain stakeholder relationships. Collaboration represents a new way of thinking and operating for most organizations. Slowly, internal systems and structures are changed to support this new way of being. Employees are more involved in decision making, cross-functional teams become commonplace, corporate reward system recognize the value of cooperation and group performance. The transition to a more collaborative organizations also takes place at the individual level as managers and employees grapple with old paradigms and develop new mind-sets as well as new skill sets. Aligning internal systems and structures requires an ongoing effort. No organization will ever be completely ready for collaboration because organizational readiness is multidimensional. Senior management must visibly and consistently support stakeholder collaboration, employees must understand their role in relationship building, multiway communications systems must be accessible, and rewards and recognition must be tied to the success of stakeholder relationships, not just to short-term financial indicators. Most organizational change efforts fail to produce expected results because business does not cope well with the emotional aspects of change. Organizations must involve their staff in creating a desirable and attainable vision and then support employees to make changes happen. Managerial tasks such as planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving, while important, are not the keys to successfully facilitating a strategic transformation or change process. There are various tools that can be used to help make the transition to a more collaborative organization. The success of organization depends on its ability to generate satisfaction and loyalty among organization customers, users, employees and the stakeholders. Seeing the organization as a set of inter-related processes is particularly useful rather than fixed line hierarchy as it is necessary to maximize and utilize the whole organization. Processes describe the numerous connections that cut across the organization, the interaction of staff and departmental activity and the flow of work that actually occurs, to ultimately deliver stakeholder satisfaction.