Stakeholder Engagement as a Core Management Function: Analysing the Business Value of Stakeholder Engagement for Nigerian Business Organizations

  • Christopher Isike University of Zululand, South Africa
  • Alice Ajeh Shell Petroleum Development Company, Nigeria
Keywords: Business value, Business organizations, Management, Niger Delta, Stakeholder engagement

Abstract

This article examines the importance of adopting credible stakeholder engagement (SE) as a core management function, with particular reference to Nigerian business organizations. It used content analysis method to specifically examine the role of SE in business organizations; determine the utility of credible SE as a core management function rather than as an add-on; and trace measurable links between SE and business value (profit) with reference to selected multinational companies operating in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. The article situated its arguments within the Stakeholder Model of Business Value Creation, which it used as a conceptual analytical framework to justify why business organizations in the region should dedicate more attention and resources to quality SE for sustainable profitability. As the findings show, business organizations in the Niger Delta tend to treat SE as an add-on rather than as a core management function. Therefore, given the business value that effective SE adds to an organization, a paradigm shift is required. Business organizations in Nigeria should elevate SE to core management level with the requisite budget to make it fully functional.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Amaeshi, K. (2007). Exploring the institutional embeddedness of corporate stakeholding and social responsibility: a comparative political economy perspective, Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Business School, University of Warwick, Warwick
Beer, E. & Rensburg, R. (2011). Towards a theoretical framework for the governing of stakeholder relationships: a perspective from South Africa. Journal of Public Affairs,11(4), 208.
Campbell, J. L. (2007). Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? An institutional theory of corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review,32(3), 946-967.
Castells, M. (2000). The Rise of the Network Society,Malden: Blackwell Publishers.
Collins, J. C. & Porras, J. I. (2005). Built to last: Successful habits of visionary companies,London: Random House.
Cooke, P. & Wills, D. (1999). Small firms, social capital and the enhancement of business performance through innovation programmes.Small Business Economics,13(3), 219-234.
Cummings, J. (2001). Engaging stakeholders in corporate accountability programmes: A cross‐sectoral analysis of UK and transnational experience.Business Ethics: A European Review,10(1), 45-52.
DCFS. (2013). Stakeholder Engagement Tools For Action. Los Angeles: Center for the Study of Social Policy.
Fontaine, C., Haarman, A. & Schmid, S. (2006). The stakeholder theory.Edlays Education, 1, 1-33.
Freeman, R. E. (2004). The stakeholder approach revisited.Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts-und Unternehmensethik,5(3), 228.
Freeman, R. E. (2010). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Freeman, R. E., Harrison, J. S. & Wicks, A. C. (2007). Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, and Success,Yale: Yale University Press.
Greenwood, M. (2007). Stakeholder engagement: Beyond the myth of corporate responsibility.Journal of Business Ethics, 74(4), 315-327.
Harrison, J. S. & Wicks, A. C. (2013). Stakeholder theory, value, and firm performance.Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(1), 97-124.
Harting, T. R., Harmeling, S. S. & Venkataraman, S. (2006). Innovative stakeholder relations: When “ethics pays”(and when it doesn’t).Business Ethics Quarterly,16(1), 43-68.
Hillman, A. J. & Keim, G. D. (2001). Shareholder value, stakeholder management, and social issues: what's the bottom line?Strategic Management Journal, 22(2), 125-139.
Hoben, M., Kovick, D. & Plumb, D. (2012). Corporate and Community Engagement in the Niger Delta: Lessons Learned from Chevron Nigeria Limited’s GMOU Process, Washington, DC: Consensus Building Institute.
Idemudia, U. (2009). Assessing corporate–community involvement strategies in the Nigerian oil industry: An empirical analysis.Resources Policy, 34(3), 133-141.
Ihugba, B. U. & Osuji, O. K. (2011). Corporate Citizenship and Stakeholder Engagement: Maintaining an Equitable Power Balance.Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies, 16(2), 28-38.
International Finance Corporation. (2007). Stakeholder Engagement: A Good Practice Handbook for Companies Doing Business in Emerging Markets, World Bank Group.
IPSOS Public Affairs. (2011). Your Stakeholders and Your Reputation.
ISEA. (1999). AccountAbility 1000 (AA1000): Standard, guidelines and professional qualification,London: Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility.
Isike, C (2016). Women, inclusiveness and participatory governance in Nigeria’s Niger-Delta: a focus on Shell’s model of community development in the region”, Journal of Social Sciences, 49(3), 205 - 214 Jeffery, N. (2009). Stakeholder Engagement: A Road Map to Meaningful Engagement,Doughty Centre, Cranfield School of Management.
Leadbeater, C. (2000). Living on thin air: The new economy, London: Penguin.
Lebura, S. (2013). Stakeholder Relationships in the Nigerian Oil Industry, Unpublished Doctoral, Business And Law, De Montfort University, Leicester
Lugard, S. B. (2014). Stakeholder approach to corporate social responsibility: recipe for sustainable peace in the Niger Delta region?Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy, 4(1), 154-173.
Nahapiet, J. & Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage.Academy of Management Review, 23(2), 242-266.
Noland, J. & Phillips, R. (2010). Stakeholder engagement, discourse ethics and strategic management.International Journal of Management Reviews, 12(1), 39-49.
Okonta, I. & Douglas, O. (2001). Where Vultures Feast: Forty Years of Shell in the Niger Delta: Environmental Rights Group/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria.
Onuoha, A. (2005). From Conflict to Collaboration:Building Peace in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities,London: Adonis & Abbey.
Perrini, F. & Tencati, A. (2006). Sustainability and stakeholder management: the need for new corporate performance evaluation and reporting systems.Business Strategy and the Environment, 15(5), 296-308.
Pyagbara, L. S. (2010). Shell’s Social Licence to Operate: A Case Study of Ogoni Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. In: ECCR (ed) Shell in the Niger Delta: A Framework for Change, Five case studies from civil society. Oxford: The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility(ECCR).
Roman, R. M., Hayibor, S. & Agle, B. R. (1999). The relationship between social and financial performance: repainting a portrait.Business & Society, 38(1), 109-125.
Sethi, S. P. (1975). Dimensions of corporate social performance: An analytical framework. California management review, 17(3), 58-64.
Soana, M. G. (2011). The relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance in the banking sector. Journal of Business Ethics,104(1), 133-148.
Svendsen, A. C., Boutilier, R. G. & Abbott, R. M. (2001). Measuring the business value of stakeholder relationships, Part One, Toronto, Ontario: the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. Uzodike, N. & Isike, C. (2009). Whose Security? Understanding the Niger-Delta conflict as a clash of two security conceptions. African Security Review, 18(3), 103-111
Waddock, S. A. & Graves, S. B. (1997). The corporate social performance-financial performance link.Strategic Management Journal, 18(4), 303-319.
Published
2017-03-12
How to Cite
Isike, C., & Ajeh, A. (2017). Stakeholder Engagement as a Core Management Function: Analysing the Business Value of Stakeholder Engagement for Nigerian Business Organizations. Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 9(1(J), 46-55. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v9i1(J).1556
Section
Research Paper