Importance and Necessity of Stakeholder Engagement

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter addresses the importance and necessity of stakeholder engagement for ethics governance. It starts with a more general look at stakeholder engagement and describes how a comprehensive definition of the otherwise commonly used catch-all term of stakeholders is important for successful stakeholder engagement. This is followed by a description of the ETHNA System’s stakeholder engagement strategy. A step-by-step approach serves as a guide for stakeholder engagement in responsible research and innovation (RRI) activities. This chapter offers guidance on how to find answers to the questions of who relevant stakeholders are, why they should be involved, what their contribution can be and how they can be involved in the most effective way. It also explains how to identify stakeholders’ values, needs and expectations using different tools. Finally, lessons learned from implementing the stakeholder engagement strategy are discussed to make the ETHNA System more useful to others. Specific guidelines on stakeholder engagement are used as a reference in this text.