Co-orientation on social impact: The role of perspectives

Relational and participatory approaches to social impact emphasize the need for organizations and stakeholders to share their perspectives, making these approaches more inclusive and normative for understanding and determining the social impact of organizational decisions and actions. This paper explores the potential of these approaches to reduce perceptual disparities related to social impact by drawing on the concept of co-orientation and perspective-taking. Based on 42 in-depth interviews with internal and external stakeholders of red meat processing organizations, the research identifies three distinct perspectives: personal (I/Me), socially connected (We/Us), and socially distant (They/Them). The findings indicate that personal and socially connected perspectives provide direct insight into individual experiences, thereby facilitating the achievement of co-orientation. In contrast, socially distant perspectives provide impersonal impacts or accounts that reflect others' views on impacts that may not align with the actual experiences of affected stakeholders. While these perspectives are valuable, they can inaccurately reflect broader social impacts. The study highlights the importance of perspective-taking in achieving co-orientation and underscores the need for organizations to engage authentically with diverse stakeholder views to accurately assess and respond to social impacts. This research extends public relations theory by incorporating multiple stakeholder perspectives into co-orientation theory. The findings suggest that organizations should prioritize authentic stakeholder engagement to ensure accurate social impact assessments, thereby enhancing their social license to operate and promoting sustainable and responsible business practices.