Circles of Stakeholders

An analysis of the first key element of CSR may be concerned with the well-being and financial gain of the company in the long run as a value creating entity, with the well-being of the people that work for the company or happen to be part of its social environment, and with the well-being of the natural environment. These issues are presently changing because corporations increasingly conduct their business in a globalising world. In this article we focus on the second key element and will contribute to what may be termed: the relational approach to CSR. In particular we will look at the role that NGOs can play. After a brief theoretical introduction several distinctions of stakeholder groups are presented and analysed, drawn from scientific theory as well as from corporate practice. We propose that the level of involvement of stakeholders with corporations and their core business is an important feature of corporation-stakeholder relationships and that circles of stakeholders are a good way of representing this feature. Typically, NGOs are found in the outer circles. Bringing them inward - developing partnerships between the corporate sector and NGOs - can be seen as an emerging strategy for corporations to deal with the complexities of a globalising context for their enterprises. Interestingly enough, this is also a promising approach for NGOs looking to realise their objectives in a globalising world. At the same time the public sector is exploring new kinds of government roles and interventions capable of dealing with sustainability issues that transcend their natural jurisdiction. 2 Partnerships between the private, the public and the civil sector present a mutual gain situation as will become clear at the end of this article when we focus on the dynamics of stakeholder relationships.