RECOMMENDATION REPORT

RECOMMENDATIONS

RECOMMENDATIONS

Referring to the scenario in making its every-day decisions, every organization is influenced by a range of often conflicting priorities and interests among its different stakeholders. Trying to understand stakeholders' varying priorities, and the reasons for their decisions, is no easy task. As individuals, we all make choices based on differing circumstances, values and goals. Perception audits are mini-research programs targeted at key stakeholders. While they cannot gauge mass-market reactions, they can garner information from critical customers, investors, suppliers and employees, as well as former clients and prospects. Rather than gather quantifiable statistics, perception audits collect qualitative data at a fraction of the cost of traditional market research.

For example, most people understand the difference between right and wrong. But "right" and "wrong" likely mean different things for someone raised in a city slum and someone else growing up in a wealthy suburb. And even for a single individual, priorities can shift back and forth: one moment we're an astute business person, the next an outraged customer. It falls to managers to look at an issue from a number of sides in order to balance these competing and complicated priorities -- in identifying business opportunities, in creating and implementing a strategic plan, in establishing a measuring system to monitor performance. (Alexander, 2004 Pp. 66)

What role should varied stakeholders play in making decisions about an organization's management process? Many organizations simply fail to account for and integrate the needs of different stakeholders in their management process. The results: Strategic plans and performance measurement systems either lack focus or are too narrowly focused on a limited objective. Employees are left to create their own goals and protect their personal interests and jobs. As internal communications break down, senior managers see their messages being misunderstood and employees see the organization drifting.

Even organizations that have implemented various improvement programs and tools -- total quality management, process re-engineering, customer satisfaction measurement, employee sensing tools -- are still unable to articulate a believable, acceptable set of values, objectives and measurable goals. If the organization undertakes a structured strategic planning process without fully considering stakeholders' needs, it might end up with mission statements that either say everything but mean nothing or are hopelessly unrealistic. (Alexander, 2004 Pp. 67)

Managers try to dissociate themselves from groups that are simply vying for power and promoting their own agendas. Who has a stake in the organization? Today, all players in business face the interest and the impact of different people and groupings. Especially larger corporations have to care not only for the needs of their direct owners, but also of various other groups, like employees, public interest groups like environmental organizations, strategic partners, journalists or public monitoring bodies. According to each company's individual situation, this list could easily be extended. Therefore, all businesses operate within a complex system of interests and influences. Management has to assess and evaluate these external forces in order to adjust them with corporate objectives. (Johnson 1999 Pp. 89-92)

Stakeholders are persons, groups or institutions with interests ...