Mechanisms for stakeholder integration: Bringing virtual stakeholder dialogue into organizations

The growing use of Web 2.0 applications (social media) has led to easier communication with more and more interconnected stakeholders. The result is a stakeholder dialogue with high intensity and richness, which organizations should match by suitable coordination mechanisms. This conceptual article extends stakeholder theory by opening up the organizational black box through exploring and describing organizational structures and systems to coordinate issues emerging from virtual stakeholder dialogue. The authors identify two organizational outcomes – achievement of task-related objectives and organizational identification by stakeholders – and present propositions. Structures with high bandwidth increase both outcomes. Structures with high dispersion of control decrease achievement of task-related objectives and increase organizational identification. While routine-based systems increase achievement of task-related objectives, communication-based systems increase organizational identification. Redundancy in systems increases both outcomes. Finally, the authors discuss implications for further research.