| One of the most pressing changes for the oil industry, according to industry insiders, is the demand for corporate responsiveness to environmental and social concerns, especially the requirement for public participation/consultation with stakeholders. Using a combination of public hearing transcripts, reports, participant observation and interview methodologies I collected data on a public consultation process involving Syncrude Canada Ltd., Alberta Environmental Protection, and the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board. In this thesis I explore the public consultation process from the points of view of organizational strategy, stakeholder relations, institutional theory and organizational cultures. The findings coalesce around a central theme---strategic action. Stakeholder dynamics and the institutional responses that I highlight, drive and are driven by organizational culture as a "toolkit" of and for strategic responses that have strategic implications. Stakeholder dynamics include positioning strategies which are influenced by stakeholder status from the focal organizations' points of view and stakeholder relationships that are informed by the network of stakeholder relationships. Strategic outcomes include the management of organizational culture and the creation of an institutional field to generate and maintain values across the relational field of focal organizations which, in turn, reduces conflict and costs. Further results are the elaboration and extension of elements of stakeholder and institutional theories, and an integrated understanding of the dynamic interconnectedness of organizational cultures, stakeholders and strategies in an environmental public consultation process. |
