Author: Peter Bruce-iri
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Engaging stories: Fairtrade cotton
I mostly drink Fairtrade coffee, sometimes eat Fairtrade chocolate, but must confess, I don’t wear Fairtrade cotton. That will change now that I am reading Harriet Lamb’s Fighting the Banana Wars and Other Fairtrade Battles. Struggling to stay above the poverty line Harriet Lamb tells of cotton grower’s subsistence existence in Africa, where cotton supports…
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Engagement explosion
If you consider the relatively recent development of stakeholder engagement, its fair to say that there has been an engagement explosion. Edward Freeman first articulated stakeholder theory in his 1984 book Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. It took a decade or so to emerge from obscurity and the concept had to survive criticism from those…
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Staff engagement – more evidence
The evidence for the vital role of staff engagement continues to mount. The July/August 2011 Harvard Business Review includes a series of articles on collaboration. Yochai Benkler’s article The Unselfish Gene explores the fundamentals of human nature, challenging concepts of rational self-interest promulgated for so long. Scientists, psychologists and economists are now stating that people…
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Stakeholder engagement drivers – Part 5: altruism
In earlier blogs in this series we looked at self-interest and enlightened self-interest as sustainability and stakeholder engagement drivers. This post explores altruism as a driver. It seems natural that business leaders who prosper seek ways to give back to the community. The survival imperative driving the earlier days of their careers may have prompted…
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Stakeholder engagement drivers – Part 4: enlightened self-interest
In the last post in this series we looked at enlightened self-interest, illustrating the concepts with examples of Walmart’s sustainability initiatives. This blog explores McDonald’s journey towards sustainability. McDonalds is one of the many companies that have embarked on a journey towards sustainability following negative publicity. In 1990 a group of protestors in London distributed…
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Stakeholder engagement drivers – Part 3: enlightened self-interest
The first part of this series of blogs outlined three three drivers for stakeholder engagement, self-interest, enlightened self-interest and altruism. In this blog we will look at enlightened self-interest using Walmart for illustration. Such companies want to make money and be more sustainable. They attempt to operate in ways that are not just financially sustainable,…
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Building capacity for employee engagement
The great thing about building engagement capability is the broad range of benefits. Engagement reshapes the nature of the relationship the organisation has with its stakeholders, be they customers, suppliers, owners, employees or the community. Reshaping the relationship with employees appears to have significant potential. It doesn’t take long to find a damming array of…
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More engagement lessons from the Canterbury earthquakes
Recently, John Hamilton, the Director of Civil Defence Emergency Management, New Zealand, spoke about the Canterbury earthquakes at the National Board meeting of Neighbourhood Support. Resilience and personal fortitude John was effusive in his praise for the “personal fortitude” of Cantabrians and the resilience of their communities. Their response has negated the myth of weak…
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Stakeholder engagement drivers – Part 2: Self-interested organisations
In the first part of this series of posts we looked at three levels of commitment to stakeholder engagement, self-interest, enlightened self-interest and altruism. This, and the following posts will expand on these and illustrate them with examples. The antithesis of engagement Lets start by looking at an extreme level of disengagement – methamphetamine (P)…
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