A SEQUENTIAL INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE ORGANISATION-STAKEHOLDER RELATIONSHIP (SISOSR) PROCESS FOR BUILDING ORGANISATION-STAKEHOLDER PARTNERSHIPS: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Although the concept ‘organisation-stakeholder relationship (OSR)’ is not new and has been researched extensively in the literature, limited attempts have been made to critically analyse existing viewpoints and propose a unified conceptual framework. The main research problem of this paper is to address this lack of a commonly accepted conceptual framework for organisational stakeholder relationships. This is done through a critical analysis of the different perspectives and existing conceptual frameworks by using a qualitative method whereby strategic stakeholder identification, OSR development and OSR maintenance are integrated to propose a conceptual framework, subsequently termed SISOSR to build organisation-stakeholder partnerships (OSP) with strategic stakeholders. This article is structured as follows: Firstly, the key concepts are defined; secondly the building blocks of the framework is presented based on sound theoretical constructs; and thirdly the SISOSR framework is graphically presented and discussed to elaborate on the proposed process of OSR building; followed by concluding arguments.