Marketing communication: principles and practice

MANAGING WITH STAKEHOLDERS IN MIND
Professor Bill Halal’s 1996 study shows us that we are already moving past
the idea that stakeholders are to be managed. Rather, what is now becoming
the basis for management practice in many corporations is a recognition that,
as we make the transition into an information age, stakeholders can be
working partners in the creation of value. 
All healthy social systems depend on reciprocity and are thus vulnerable
to the abuse of reciprocal behaviour. All relationships entail some ‘give and
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take’. Mechanisms are needed to ensure that reward is taken in line with
contribution. The manager as steward will have a greater significance.
Mulgan (1997) has termed this requirement ‘adult politics’. Maynard and
Mehrtens (1996) consider biopolitics to be the adoption of environmental
and biological awareness in order to be able to govern evolution.
CORPORATE COMMUNITY
One particularly central facet of the emerging context for management is
the notion of co-evolution. This sees business operating in society under a
holistic paradigm of people fully open to and supportive of each other, all
forms of diversity embraced, a seamless connection between work and
personal lives, and an integration of life and fulfilment of purpose to achieve
preservation (Maynard and Mehrtens, 1996) and see Box 5.2.
This community provides a way of living and of doing business that
supports the individual in the context of being with others. Community brings
people together in place and time, and also removes the defensive barriers
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BOX 5.1ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS
Likening the leadership role to that of the aircraft pilot, Labovitz and Rosansky identify
four key aspects of the ‘cockpit instrumentation’ that must be attended to in avoiding
serious pathologies of misalignment. Alignment arises when, simultaneously, a balance
is achieved between strategy and people, and between processes and customers.
Strategy must be developed and deployed, but must link with the needs and abilities
of the people who work in the open system we call the corporation. This must be
achieved while integrating customer needs with processes for continuous improvement
in value creation and service delivery. Many tensions have to be overcome, and the
design and operation of systems of communication is central to corporate performance.
For example, increasing knowledge and task specialization drives differentiation, yet
people relate to those who are most like themselves. We are building barriers to
necessary cooperation into the corporate system ourselves!
The overall message is clear. True leadership creates consistency among corporate
vision, goals, management systems, and incentive mechanisms. Alignment through
communicative behaviour is the key.
Labovitz and Rosansky, 1997