Stakeholder engagement is very hard to define because it all depends on the openness and responsiveness of the organisation. There isn’t even a definition of stakeholder engagement on Wikipedia.
The closest you will get to a definition on Wikipedia will be on the topic of brand management (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_engagement)
And this is really the problem with organisations at the moment. Stakeholder engagement does not really exist as a main stream term but rather Brand management.
For me these two terms are not totally different but build upon each other. Every organisation needs to manage their brand(s) but also needs to engage with stakeholder on a different level then the brand level.
This is where stakeholder engagement comes in. Stakeholder engagement is to put it simple the evolution of the brand management. Stakeholder engagement not only pushes out the communication message but most importantly listens and provides feedback from a broader range of stakeholders then brand management can ever do.
So what should organisations do to “upgrade” from brand management to stakeholder engagement?
Well that is up them and their organisational capabilities as well as willingness to open up and let stakeholders take charge of certain discussion topics regarded the organisation.
But there are some vital rules of engagement to make sure that the fundamentals of proper stakeholder engagement are being build the right way from moment one.
This is what I will write about in the next few posts. So stay tuned.
Fabian
