Stakeholder voice in decision making
How the voice of influential stakeholder groups is reflected in the decision making by sports organisations will reflect how seriously a stakeholder-inclusive approach is taken. Just because there are statements made by an organisation that stakeholder groups sit on certain committees or are consulted prior to decisions being taken, this does not mean that the input is in any way meaningful when it comes to decision making and governance. You must ensure that stakeholders have a genuine opportunity to contribute. Therefore, the rights of influential stakeholder groups should be entrenched in key constitutional documents.
In 2017, The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland and the Investment Association published a paper titled to help boards think about how to ensure they understand and weigh up the interests of their key stakeholders when taking strategic decisions. The ‘core principles’ of this approach were stated as follows:
- Boards should identify, and keep under regular review, who they consider their key stakeholders to be and why.
- Boards should determine which stakeholders they need to engage with directly, as opposed to relying solely on information from management.
- When evaluating their composition and effectiveness, boards should identify what stakeholder expertise is needed in the boardroom and decide whether they have, or would benefit from, directors with directly relevant experience or understanding.
- When recruiting any director, the stakeholder perspective should be taken into ac
