Stakeholders are not passive, but have a huge impact on the functioning of organisations. The
fierce competition amongst companies to win stakeholdersâ interest and loyalty poses a
challenge to organisations to seek the means of strengthening long-term relationships with their
stakeholders. The Lesotho National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) is a
government department that, like any other organisation, has to take note of the challenges of
the stakeholder century. The relationship between the NMDS and its stakeholders has been
unfavourable. Regardless the cause, the situation affirms the impression that the NMDS is
failing to feature in the stakeholder century.
The aim of this study is to provide guidelines to improve the relationship between the NMDS
and its stakeholders. The aim will be achieved through a discussion of the environment in which
stakeholder relationships are pursued. A reflection on the stakeholder concept and an
exploration of the marketing communication activities that the NMDS embark on to establish
relationships with its stakeholders will be highlighted.
The stated goal will be achieved through the combination of qualitative and quantitative
research approaches. The grounded theory will be used to address the qualitative section,
whilst in the quantitative section a survey research strategy will be employed.
Firstly, the analysis revealed that the NMDSâ mission and brand are not well-known among
stakeholders. It was further extrapolated that communication between top management and the
employees of the NMDS was poor. It is also apparent that the organisationâs ability to
communicate with its stakeholders using various techniques has been very poor. Furthermore it
became clear that there is absolutely no message consistency within the organisation. The
causes thereof were poor internal communication, employees lacking knowledge of their work,
absence of policies and differences in perception. Stakeholders further lamented the
discrimination prevalent within the NMDS, particularly during the scholarship renewal period. It
was revealed that nepotism, favoritism, corruption and administrative irregularities are the major
causes. The NMDS employeesâ motivation is under suspicion. Suggestions such as increased
remuneration, training and counseling were put forward as possible correctional measures of
the status quo. The NMDSâ stakeholders suggested that information dissemination at the NMDS could be
improved through using different media, use of word of mouth, and empowering the public
relations office. It is imperative to mention that the challenges which faced the stakeholder of the
NMDS were information inaccessibility, employeesâ inefficiency and a total lack of stakeholder
consciousness. The results of the study revealed that the NMDSâ interaction with its
stakeholders can be enhanced through involving stakeholders on issues affecting them, using
various marketing communication techniques, and training staff on stakeholder care. Finally, the
use of ICT has been rated by stakeholders as being very low at the NMDS. Utilising ICT may be
of great assistance in improving the relations between the organisation and its stakeholders. In
the next chapter the conclusions drawn from the research findings of this study, together with
the recommendations, will be presented.
It is anticipated that this study will provide a theoretical framework for the NMDS to improve its
marketing communication activities to improve its relationship with its stakeholders. Improved
relationships will lead to improved service standards, which in turn will make stakeholders true
assets of the NMDS.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-12152010-113901 |
| Date | 15 December 2010 |
| Creators | Nchaka, Malefetsane |
| Contributors | Dr D Mulder |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-12152010-113901/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0424 seconds