Stakeholder Analysis as a tool  for working with  Social Responsibility : Developing a stakeholder analysis  method for ISO 26000

This thesis aims to develop a stakeholder analysis method for the upcoming standard on social responsibility (SR) ISO 26000. The goal is a method that, by adhering to three criteria regarding comprehensibility, flexibility and ease of use, can be used and applied by organizations regardless of type (corporation, NGO, municipality etc.) and value chain size. The method consists of six different steps which, when completed, will produce a situation map of the organization’s key SR issues and stakeholders for those issues. The method is practically applied and perfected through two case studies on the respective Swedish branches of the Nordic corporations ICA (grocery store chain) and Eniro (online and printed information services. Although sharing similar characteristics in organization size, there are big differences in value chain size and services provided. The study contributes to providing practical experience with stakeholder analysis for ISO 26000 and as a point of departure for further studies on how to identify key issues and stakeholders; the generalizability of the results suggests applicability not just for ISO 26000 but for other preconditions as well. The results of the case studies suggest that the model developed fulfils the three criteria set up for it, thus having great practical value for all kinds of organizations that want to work with ISO 26000. It is suggested that the model could be improved by applying it on organizations dissimilar to the ones used in the case studies in this thesis, and fine tuning it to those organization’s specific resources and needs