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In this chapter, we update stakeholder salience research using the new lens of stakeholder work: the purposive processes of organization aimed at being aware of, identifying, understanding, prioritizing, and engaging stakeholders. Specifically, we focus on stakeholder prioritization work — primarily as represented by the stakeholder salience model — and discuss contributions, shortcomings, and possibilities for this literature. We suggest that future research focus on stakeholder inclusivity, the complexity of prioritization work within intra-corporate markets, the integration of stakeholder prioritization with other forms of stakeholder work, and the development of managerial tools for multiobjective decision making within the strategic management context.

This paper identifies the stakeholders engaged in inclusive employability management for employees whose health at work is impaired and examines how different mechanisms can be used to engage these stakeholders. The paper aims to explore the link between stakeholder engagement and inclusive employability management.

The empirical study uses a qualitative approach to mobilise a case study in a French public organisation. Data collection combines four sources: 50 individual interviews, informal dialogues, 39 days of observations and 43 documents.

The findings provide insights into the management of inclusive employability for vulnerable employees and reveal the multiplicity of stakeholders involved. Institutional, organisational and individual mechanisms are used to engage stakeholders in employability management for vulnerable employees. Furthermore, the implementation of inclusive structural and operational mechanisms promotes a policy that favours employability management. However, stakeholders are also faced with institutional, organisational and individual difficulties that limit their engagement.

The findings have the potential to inform organisational stakeholders – human resources management (HRM) and managerial stakeholders in particular – of the support needed for employability management. The findings emphasise the value of ensuring that employability management policies and practices promote the full integration of vulnerable employees.

The research fills an important gap in the HRM literature on managing employability for vulnerable employees. In doing so, the study makes a specific contribution to the literature on organisational inclusion with employability management. Our research contributes to extant knowledge of stakeholder engagement by including a bottom-up dimension to facilitate stakeholder engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on graduate work-readiness challenges in three Asia Pacific economies (Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia), and the roles of three main stakeholders (government, employers and industry) in the process. The intention of the paper is to design a stakeholder-oriented HRM model to address the identified graduate work-readiness challenges.

A qualitative triangulation method comprising interviews and focus groups was used with participant samples for each country – Australia (19), Indonesia (19) and Malaysia (15). Stakeholder-oriented HRM theory underpins the conceptual framework for the paper.

All three countries are currently experiencing difficulties attracting graduates with the required portfolio of qualifications, skills and personal capabilities. The reported effects include: constraints on national economic growth, future production structures, and long-term socio-economic development. Based on a review of the work-readiness and stakeholder-oriented HRM theory literature, it is posited that graduate work-readiness challenges can be effectively addressed by HR professionals in partnership with other key stakeholders.

The study sought the input of only three stakeholder groups for ascertaining graduate work readiness challenges, there is a strong case to include other groups including students/parents and secondary schools.

Bridging the graduate skills gap between government, employers and educational institutions is an important area in which HR professionals can contribute by reducing the mismatch between demand and supply through influencing and balancing the interests and goals of key stakeholders.

This study makes a contribution to the extant literature as it explores the role of HR professionals in relation to a multiple stakeholder strategy to address these challenges in the less-explored Asia Pacific region.

The objective of this study is to investigate how country risk, different political actions from the government and bureaucratic behavior influence the activities in industry supply chains (SCs) in emerging markets. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of these external stakeholders’ elements to the demand-side and supply-side drivers and barriers for improving competitiveness of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in the way of analyzing supply chain. Considering the phenomenon of recent change in the RMG business environment and the competitiveness issues this study uses the principles of stakeholder and resource dependence theory and aims to find out some factors which influence to make an efficient supply chain for improving competitiveness. The RMG industry of Bangladesh is the case application of this study. Following a positivist paradigm, this study adopts a two phase sequential mixed-method research design consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. Qualitative field study is then carried out to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. A survey is carried out with sample of top and middle level executives of different garment companies of Dhaka city in Bangladesh and the collected quantitative data are analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling. The findings support eight hypotheses. From the analysis the external stakeholders’ elements like bureaucratic behavior and country risk have significant influence to the barriers. From the internal stakeholders’ point of view the manufacturers’ and buyers’ drivers have significant influence on the competitiveness. Therefore, stakeholders need to take proper action to reduce the barriers and increase the drivers, as the drivers have positive influence to improve competitiveness.

This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. This study represents an important contribution to the theory by integrating two theoretical perceptions to identify factors of the RMG industry’s SC that affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. This research study contributes to the understanding of both external and internal stakeholders of national and international perspectives in the RMG (textile and clothing) business. It combines the insights of stakeholder and resource dependence theories along with the concept of the SC in improving effectiveness. In a practical sense, this study certainly contributes to the Bangladeshi RMG industry. In accordance with the desire of the RMG manufacturers, the research has shown that some influential constructs of the RMG industry’s SC affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. The outcome of the study is useful for various stakeholders of the Bangladeshi RMG industry sector ranging from the government to various private organizations. The applications of this study are extendable through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.

To further extend the understanding of multidimensional engagement of stakeholders embedded in service systems, the purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents that constitute stakeholder engagement in inter-organizational service ecosystems where stakeholders co-create innovations over time.

An explorative, longitudinal case study design is employed to analyze stakeholders’ engagement in co-innovation in an inter-organizational service system in an engineering context.

The study identifies eight antecedents for stakeholder engagement in innovation in the context of a B2B environment. Building on related engagement research, the empirical data show how stakeholder engagement is influenced at both individual and organizational levels by the antecedents friendship, common experiences, self-representation, trust, a common goal, resource dependency, level in the hierarchy, institutional arrangements, and local proximity.

The paper extends current understanding of engagement and illuminates stakeholder engagement on a micro level, addressing four key issues for stakeholder engagement in a service ecosystem. How can stakeholder engagement be maintained over time? Does stakeholder engagement at specific hierarchical levels enhance or hinder inter-organizational co-innovation? Is strong engagement necessary for innovation activities? Are the different engagement antecedents linked?

It is widely reported that there is a competence deficit between graduating from Australian higher education (HE) and becoming work ready and that the deficit is becoming more pronounced. The purpose of this paper is to examine the work readiness competencies of Australian HE and vocational education (VE) graduates. The reported competence deficits, the causes of these deficits and the potential strategies to overcome these deficits are discussed.

A qualitative, inductive research design was used to examine Australian graduates’ work readiness competence, potential deficits, their causes and possible solutions to gain some preliminary insights and help shape future research. A multiple case design was used comprising key stakeholders’ in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. In-depth semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted to gain insights from the key stakeholders.

The stakeholders reported that the Australian VE and HE sectors do not sufficiently prepare graduates in terms of their work readiness skills. Self-management skills, communication (written and expression), team-work skills, cognitive skills, system thinking and innovation and creativity were the main work readiness competency deficits reported by the stakeholders.

The research has its limitations in terms of the limited sample and time frame, and the absence of input from graduates. The results of the study indicate the deteriorating state of the Australian graduate labour market and emphasise that an integrated approach is urgently required from all stakeholders to facilitate the transition and reduce the time taken from graduation to employment.

The focus of the study is located in the Australian labour market in terms of the competencies that reportedly are present upon graduation and the competencies that employers are looking for on recruitment. The requisite competency list and the deficits are examined through the lens of four stakeholder groups; government representatives, industry representatives and VE and HE representatives.

The absence of effective stakeholder engagement at the early planning and implementation stages impact projects negatively. However, the role of stakeholders in Sustainable Procurement (SP) is not well recognized and as such there is limited involvement of stakeholders in sustainable procurement of public (SPP) works. This research aims to examine the barriers to stakeholder engagement in SPP works.

A survey of 104 respondents from eight procurement entities of tertiary institutions in Ghana was undertaken and validated with seven procurement experts. After satisfying all the necessary tests of reliability of the survey instrument and sample size, the data was subjected to the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to determine the critical barriers.

The study's results indicate that there are three cluster of barriers to stakeholder engagement in SPP works. They are organisational structures and knowledge driven factors, attitudinal and stakeholder fatigue and relational and information sharing processes.

This study offers relevant data for policy makers, organisations and local communities in establishing controls against barriers to stakeholder engagement. Furthermore, this research presents policy makers with recommendations to improve communication and organisational policies in enhancing stakeholder participation in SPP works in Ghana and other developing countries.

Although studies on SP has increased with time, issues such as obstacles to stakeholder engagement in SP remain unexplored. Empirical data presented in this study bridges the gap that exists on the barriers of stakeholder engagement in SPP works in the Ghana Construction Industry.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for assisting individuals in organisations to understand how to engage their senior stakeholders.

The main method for the research is a descriptive case study to test the theories described in the paper. The approach to the topic is based on reflection of the experiences of the author and colleagues, tied in with theories developed by the research of individuals in the field of leadership and organisational strategy. The result is a framework to provide guidance to practitioners working in organisations and a new approach for researchers in organisational management and stakeholder engagement.

While there are many journals and books devoted to assisting management to lead and motivate staff and team members, there is an absence of research and thinking on how staff and team members may gain the attention and support of their managers. This paper addresses this gap. The problem has been expressed in terms of the experiences of the author and colleagues and has been received with interest by those individuals who have attended workshops and presentations given by the author on this topic.

The solutions proposed are based on the experiences and reflection of the author and colleagues. Additional research needs to be conducted to further support the conclusions drawn from the ideas in this paper.

Significant changes should be made in the thinking of staff and team members in their approach to acquiring and maintaining the support of their managers. The recommended approach is a structured process of stakeholder engagement based on building and maintaining robust relationships with important stakeholders leading to the development of timely, appropriate and effective communication.

The paper and the ideas expressed within it take a different approach to most of the published literature in that they seek to view organisational culture and practice from the perspective of staff or team members (followers) and how they might proceed to address issues that require management attention and support.

Stakeholder theory understands business in terms of relationships among stakeholders whose interests are mainly joint but may be occasionally conflicting. In the latter case, managers may need to make trade-offs between these interests. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of managerial decision-making about these trade-offs.

This paper draws on the ordonomic approach which sees business life to be rife with social dilemmas and locates the role of stakeholders in harnessing or resolving these dilemmas through engagement in rule-finding and rule-setting processes.

The ordonomic approach suggests that stakeholder interests trade-offs ought to be neither ignored nor avoided, but rather embraced and welcomed as an opportunity for bringing to fruition the joint interest of stakeholders in playing a better game of business. Stakeholders are shown to bear responsibility for overcoming the perceived trade-offs through the institutional management of social dilemmas.

For many stakeholder theorists, the nature of managerial decision-making about trade-offs between conflicting stakeholder interests and the nature of trade-offs themselves have been a long-standing point of contention. The paper shows that trade-offs may be useful for the value creation process and explicitly discusses managerial strategies for dealing with them.

Stakeholder assessment is based on attributes possessed by stakeholders, making the process heavily reliant on evaluating attribute weights. The present assessment methods are based on Analytical Hierarchy Process, Analytical Network Process, and pairwise comparisons that heavily rely on decision-makers’ skills and knowledge. An objective evaluation of attribute weight needs to be done to overcome this challenge.

A Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) based approach, through the combined use of Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods has been incorporated to objectively evaluate the weights of the stakeholder attributes and their ranking with a specific focus on construction megaprojects. Five stakeholder attributes and twelve commonly associated stakeholders with megaprojects were considered to achieve this.

The new model presented power, durability and legitimacy as three important stakeholder attributes, further used to determine stakeholder importance. The client, contractor and project manager were identified as the top three internal stakeholders, and customers, local community and utility service providers as three crucial external stakeholders.

The findings from the proposed method provide the practitioners with updated information about the attributes they need to look into when planning stakeholder involvement and management. Further, it also leads them to the established framework for the provided stakeholder ranking when planning their management strategies.

The use of CRITIC method allowed to address the possibility of any correlation between the attributes in their weight determination. This was one of the advantages as co-relation between the attributes during their weight determination has not been addressed in previous methods.