The Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands provides lessons for business
11 maart 2008
The added value of the SER is in reaching consensus by trade-offs between opposing interests. This has traditionally worked well for employers’ and employees’ interests. However, the SER has experimented by inviting special interest groups, such as environmental organisations, into its arena. And this experiment is about to fail, concludes Groot. Shareholders and environmentalists have little to offer to each other. The rank and file of environmental NGO’s is not interested in balancing environmental and ecological dimensions. They hold their spokesmen accountable for the purity of their commitment to a clean environment.
The article struck me because it has lessons for the stakeholder dialogue more and more companies seem to be looking for. I believe this dialogue is crucial and can help companies to develop their ‘social antenna’ for (emerging) societal issues (see our book “Better than Brundtland” and shortly we will publish an new article on stakeholder dialogue).
However, if the dialogue proofs difficult for the SER, which is built on consensus and trade-offs, shouldn’t both companies and NGO’s be ever more realistic about what a stakeholder dialogue has to offer? Success is possible, but so is failure. Is that a shame if the SER can’t climb this mountain?
By all means stick to a wise proverb of Sioux Indians: “When you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount”.
Deel dit artikel via :
Reacties op deze blog
Er zijn geen reacties op deze blog