The Stakeholder Dashboard

Abstract

Sustainability and stakeholder engagement are closely interrelated; the former is virtually unachievable without the latter. While the corporation is increasingly paying lip service to stakeholder engagement, in practice there is much room for improvement. This lack of stakeholder engagement increases risks to the corporation and minimises its business opportunities. This article introduces a management tool, the stakeholder dashboard, which sustainability consultants can implement to help their clients improve stakeholder engagement by offering management vital stakeholder information at a glance. Its primary goal is to raise awareness and facilitate discussion among the corporation’s management about the corporation’s stakeholders. Through the systematised, periodic generation of the stakeholder dashboard, a reactionary environment can be combated by highlighting key stakeholders’ impressions toward the corporation in near ‘real time’ and can help the corporation identify gaps where it is ‘flying blind’. Measuring stakeholder perceptions is nothing new, but these perceptions are seldom (if ever) pulled together in a single dashboard and charted over time to give management a holistic view of the corporation’s stakeholders. ● Stakeholder engagement