When Democratic Principles are not Enough: Tensions and Temporalities of Dialogic Stakeholder Engagement

Passetti, Emilio; Bianchi, Lara; Battaglia, Massimo; Frey, Marco

Abstract

© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Stakeholder engagement and dialogue have a central role in defining the relations between organisations and their internal and external interlocutors. Drawing upon the analysis of dialogic motifs, power–conflict dynamics and sociopolitical perspectives, and based on a set of interviews with the stakeholders of a consumer-owned cooperative, the research explores the dialogic potential of stakeholder engagement. The analysis revealed a fragmented picture where the co-design and co-implementation aspects were mainly related to the non-business areas of cooperative life, while business logic dominated the most central aspects. Stakeholder engagement was mainly related to consensus building, while dialogic engagement based on a pluralistic understanding was only partially considered and then neglected. The social capital in the local area, the growing size of the organisation and the related power structure embrace stakeholder engagement, influencing the orientation of the (un)dialogic dynamic. The analysis indicates that a dialogic exchange is a relative concept which depends on the interests involved and the topics discussed. It also reveals that the key factors in the democratisation of stakeholder engagement are a mutual understanding and long-term opportunities. Common sociopolitical aspects are also important, but they do not necessarily guarantee the creation of dialogism paths. The research contributes to the critical dialogic literature in revealing whether and how stakeholder engagement has been implemented in a specific setting. It also shows the limitations of voluntarist stakeholder engagement initiatives.

Citation

Passetti, E., Bianchi, L., Battaglia, M., & Frey, M. (2019). When Democratic Principles are not Enough: Tensions and Temporalities of Dialogic Stakeholder Engagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 155(1), 173-190. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3500-z

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 28, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Mar 14, 2017
• Publication Date: 2019-03
• Deposit Date: Aug 27, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 17, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Business Ethics
• Print ISSN: 0167-4544
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-0697
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 155
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 173-190
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3500-z
• Keywords: stakeholder engagement; stakeholder dialogue; dialogic theory; consumer- owned co-operative; social accounting; critical dialogic accounting; dialogic accounting 2
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2507657
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-017-3500-z
• Additional Information: This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Journal of Business Ethics. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3500-z