Publication Name

MINING FOR CLOSURE

Legitimacy

is generally based on contract, ex-

change, legal title, legal right, moral right, at-risk

status, or moral interest in the harms and benefits

generated by company actions (Mitchell, 1997).

Here, this term will generally imply a perception

or assumption that the actions of an entity are de-

sirable, proper or appropriate within some socially

constructed system of norms, values, beliefs or

definitions.

Individuals, organizations or socie-

ties can hold such norms.

Urgency

implies terms such as compelling, driving,

imperative and is related to two key conditions:

time sensitivity – the degree to which manage-

rial delay in attending to the claim or relation-

ship is unacceptable to the stakeholder, and

criticality – the importance of the claim or the

relationship to the stakeholder or as such, the

degree to which stakeholder claims call for im-

mediate attention.

A representation of stakeholder groups developed

for the context of this document is shown in Figure

3.1. These constellations, the manner in which they

have been derived, and some important implica-

tions of the model applied are discussed in the fol-

lowing pages. Note that for simplicity, the terms ap-

plied in Mitchell et al (1997) have been maintained

in the application of the model here. The descrip-

tors are

not

intended to be derogatory.

Figure 3.1

Stakeholder groups & attributes for min-

ing and environment

3.1.1

latent stakeholders

A first category of stakeholders to be addressed

in this discussion include powerful actors lying

“at rest” (dormant stakeholders), respected actors

who depend on support granted at the discretion

of others (discretionary stakeholders), and angry or

upset stakeholders who despite the importance of

the issue to them, lack power or a legitimate status

(demanding stakeholders). Members of this group

are described as latent stakeholders and form the

outer ring in Figure 3.1. More detailed delineation

of these categories and examples with a mining

context are included below.

Dormant stakeholders

can be said to be those who

possess power to impose their will upon an organi-

zation, but lack a legitimate relationship or an ur-

gent claim. Power can be held by those that have

significant financial resources (utilitarian power),

or can command the attention of the media (sym-

bolic/normative). If such actors acquire urgency

or legitimacy, or both, then they can quickly shift

to a status of great importance to an organization.

Stakeholders relevant to mining activities in this

regard include powerful international NGOs cur-

rently dealing with other issues, senior governmen-

tal actors currently satisfied with the status quo, or

not immediately responsible for mining activities,

internal actors with direct access to the media, and

so forth.

Discretionary stakeholders

can be said to be those

that possess the attribute of legitimacy but lack

power and urgent claims. Such groups are those

most likely to be the recipients of discretionary cor-

porate social responsibility (giving) activities. In a

mining context, actors in this category can include:

schools and similar institutions receiving material

resources from a mining actor, capacity building

activities supplied to ethnic or indigenous groups

from miners, sector NGOs or academic institu-

tions as recipients of research grants or other fund-

ing to support generation of “best environmental

practice” documentation, and so forth.

Dormant

e.g. international NGOs &

senior governmental actors

Demanding

e.g. anti-developers &

single interest groups

Discretionary

e.g capacity developers

welfare distributors

Dominant

resources

ministries &

social leaders

Dependent

e.g. affected

citizens/commun-

ities & nature

Dangerous

e.g. militant groups

radical NGOs

Definitive

Stakeholders

POWER

LEGITIMACY

URGENCY

Stakeholder groups for mining &

environment

after Mitchell, Agle & Wood, (1997)

64. As such, following Suchman (1995).

65.

Criticality

is an important concept where examples aid in

understanding. Examples of why a stakeholder might view its

relationship with an organisation to be critical include: the stake-

holder providing

firm-specific assets

that lose their value if used by

another firm or in a different way;

sentiment

due to the involve-

ment of family members in firm activities over several genera-

tions;

expectation

of continued great value such as employment

and benefits; and so forth.

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