A relational bureaucracy framework for meaningful internal stakeholder engagement post-Covid 19

Abstract

Orientation: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced organisations to rapidly redesign workplace structures to adapt to a changed and disrupted business world and improve stakeholder relationships. The relational bureaucracy theory (RBT) provides a valuable foundation for increasing stakeholder participation.

Research purpose: We investigate how a relational bureaucracy’s organisational structure promotes internal stakeholders’ involvement in a post-Covid workplace.

Motivation for the study: Limited frameworks illustrate how a newly emergent relational bureaucratic structure can enhance stakeholder involvement and engagement in the new world of work.

Research approach/design and method: The researchers followed a literature review to derive shared meanings in constructing an RBT framework for promoting stakeholder involvement.

Main findings: According to our preliminary research, the organisational type known as the engaged ambassador could be named the relational bureaucratic stakeholder prototype. Seven zones crucial to the business’s overall operation are identified in the stakeholder landscape. Additionally, we illustrate the relational bureaucracy design ideas that promote stakeholder participation.

Practical/managerial implications: We propose that organisations could benefit from stakeholder engagement through interpersonal coordination mechanisms that create, maintain and improve stakeholder relationships through strategic human resource management (HRM) frameworks and RBT. We further argue that a relational bureaucracy’s structure raises stakeholder participation for organisational leadership, coordination and coproduction.

Contribution/value-add: This article integrates some main effects of relational bureaucratic theory to provide a landscape for the needs of internal stakeholders in a disrupted workplace.