A communication perspective on organisational stakeholder relationships: discursivity, relationality, and materiality

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to rethink the notion of stakeholder communication and articulate a distinct ‘communication perspective’ on stakeholder relationships, one that takes seriously the constitutive effects of language and human interaction in the ongoing social construction of various connections between and among organisations. This communication perspective involves rethinking three important aspects of stakeholder thinking: (1) stakeholder identification and salience, (2) the false separation of material and symbolic resources, and (3) the political production of meaning involved in stakeholder relationships. The article begins with a critical review of previous literature on stakeholder communication, situated within broader developments of stakeholder research. Key themes and trends in this literature are identified, revealing the need for an alternative notion of communication to ground future thinking about communication and stakeholder relationships. Next, the perspective of communication-as-constitutive is introduced, a meta-theoretical framework that can better capture the complex dynamics of organisational stakeholder relationships. From here, the article describes what a communication perspective of stakeholder relationships entails and how this conceptual shift provides a stronger foundation to understand key aspects of stakeholder thinking. The implications of a communication perspective on stakeholder relationships are explained and theoretical propositions to inform future empirical research are offered.

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