The ‘Leadership–Stakeholder Involvement Capacity’ nexus in stakeholder management

It is increasingly accepted that stakeholders affect the achievement of organisational plans and that ineffective ‘stakeholder involvement’ in developmental initiatives can hinder the achievement of business objectives. Using the context of sustainability, case study research demonstrated that ‘stakeholder involvement’ (how stakeholders become active or inactive) is a complex process influenced by a range of interlinked personal and externally driven factors. Principally, the process is influenced by the type of leadership (leadership quality) and the capability of stakeholders to become involved (stakeholder involvement capacity). These two forces play a significant role in stakeholder involvement and constitute the main part of the ‘Leadership–Stakeholder Involvement Capacity’ (LSIC) nexus that is presented in this paper. The LSIC nexus sheds light on our understanding of key complex issues that underpin the lack of, or ineffective, stakeholder participation in developmental initiatives including stakeholder relationships, stakeholder mind-sets, information quality and accessibility, contextual circumstances and implementation priorities.