Synthesizing Stakeholder Management: Cutting Through the Jungle of Concepts

Stakeholder management’s popularity is a double-edged sword: while the approach has established itself in research fields such as business communication, the myriad of different definitions and frameworks makes it difficult to capture its essence. Based on a review of literature, we therefore provide a communication-oriented synthesis of stakeholder management in terms of its underlying assumptions and practical implications. We argue that developing an appropriate communication strategy tailored to the attitudes of an organization’s relevant interest groups lies at the heart of stakeholder management. Drawing on a process perspective, we show that the reviewed stakeholder management concepts all converge regarding three core phases. Moreover, we discover that these concepts can be categorized into two different proceeding methods. We also state that communication is a critical factor for strategy implementation outcomes. Dealing with the application fields of stakeholder management, we further identify three lines of argumentation and their implications for organizational communication.