This isn’t rocket science! A blueprint for engaging with stakeholders in public sector based on evidence from local government

Abstract

Stakeholder engagement is a critical area of interest for local government particularly as local government plays a key role to enable local decision-making to achieve local outcomes. An essential aspect of local government management is ‘value for money’ which implies greater expectations and increased accountability from various stakeholders. Our research examined existing literature on stakeholder engagement and identified that the most effective ways of determining stakeholder relevance are based on both ‘stakeholder salience’ and ‘issue salience’. By applying an engaged scholarship approach at a local council in Asia-Pacific, this research makes a contribution towards enhancing stakeholder engagement. We propose a blueprint based on determining salience of stakeholders and issues that matter to these stakeholders as an approach to reducing disruption.