Stakeholder engagement: the role of facilitators and gender in ‘opening up’ conversations and enabling participation

ABSTRACT

A successful global transition to net-zero emissions requires complex transformational change involving stakeholders from across society. Traditionally, stakeholder engagement has been debated predominantly from a pragmatic, functionalist and instrumental perspective. Recent approaches in business communication, sustainability, energy and environmental management show that meaningful and ‘sustainable’ stakeholder engagement is helpful in maintaining an organisation’s social licence to operate. We problematise the notion of participation in deliberative processes and analyse whether the outcomes of an online Australian citizens’ panel are truly representative of all participants or whether specific cultural and demographic factors, particularly gender, influence participation, potentially shaping the outcome. The study shows how gender need to be considered and managed as part of a legitimate deliberation process. Applying Gastil’s input-process-outcome model as a framework, we examine the engagement achieved through deliberations conducted on Zoom. We focus on gender as a variable and the role of the facilitator in managing participation. The results suggest that participants’ contributions to discussions vary based on gender of both participants and facilitators. Based on findings, the challenges of achieving equality in participatory processes are identified. The facilitator’s role is re-defined as a curator of the stakeholder engagement processes, complementing existing theory on stakeholder participation and engagement.

KEYWORDS:

• Deliberation
• stakeholders
• facilitators
• engagement
• gender
• change

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Future Fuels Cooperative Research Centre under the Research Program 2 Social Acceptance, Public Safety and Security of Supply project RP2.1-07 Deliberative engagement processes on the role of future fuels in the future low-carbon energy mix in Australia. Ethics approval was sought and obtained prior to commencement of work (Approval number: 2020/HE002473).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of interest statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Future Fuels Cooperative Research Centre under the Research Program 2 Social Acceptance, Public Safety and Security of Supply project RP2.1-07 Deliberative engagement processes on the role of future fuels in the future low-carbon energy mix in Australia.