Stakeholder Management
Summary
The aim of the seminar was to consider the early identification of stakeholder management issues in the development of overall strategies, to receive updates on best practice and to learn from examples of recent projects that were difficult, but well handled. In the early part of the 20th century, when capital was the only resource that was considered, the only stakeholders were stockholders. That attitude
has clearly changed and evolved. Project leaders have now to be experts, not only in technology and finance, but in political science, managing relationships, social psychology, communication and sales. In general, our understanding of physical systems is still more advanced than our understanding of social systems.
The change of ethos in stakeholder management can be summed up through the Shell example when the disposal of the oil rig Brent Spar persuaded them to move from the maxim ‘decide, announce and defend’ to ‘dialogue, decide and deliver.’ That incident was a catalyst for change in the way organisations approached their stakeholders