Stakeholder management and human resources: development and implementation of a performance measurement system

Purpose – The premise on which the stakeholder approach toward employees is based is that stakeholder management actions bring a strengthening of internal legitimacy and therefore the possibility of creating better working conditions that will lead to improved company competitiveness in terms of intangible resources developed by company employees. The aims of the paper are: to determine and to measure the system of resources of value developed by employees of a company that has developed a stakeholder management policy; to create a model that permits the company to evaluate the factors which have a major effect on the development of such a system; and to define the applications of the tool as a company's performance measurement and control system. Design/methodology/approach – In order to pursue these aims two surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2006 on the employees of a leading Italian company in the agricultural food sector. Structural equation model methodology and multivariate analysis were used to define the quantitative measures of the system of resources and to determine the role played by stakeholder management policies in the development of the intangible resources. Findings – The authors found that the company's social policies have a significant influence, even though its intensity varies, on most of the resources analyzed, and in particular on trust, job satisfaction, networking and communication, ability to work in a group and low turnover propensity. These results confirm the strong link between the resources of value developed by employees and the social strategy of the company. Originality/value – The measurement system developed in this research can be used in any firm that wants to measure the intangible resources related to employees and represents a control tool that may support managers in planning and control the social investments of the firm.