Repositioning of a stakeholder issue applied at Pfizer Switzerland

Repositioning of a stakeholder issue applied at Pfizer Switzerland

[Abstract]How can a company implement its stakeholder orientation in the interaction with its stakeholders via the media? The study is a descriptive analysis of the starting point for a campaign-oriented approach using Pfizer Switzerland as a case study. In this paper, a framework is developed on the basis of the stakeholder and the campaigning approach. This allows a company to identify how its declared stakeholder orientation is perceived within the company, by the population and the media, in order to initiate a comprehensive stakeholder communication and encourage the stakeholders to communicate with the company in appropriate fields of interaction. To achieve this, the social-economic survey research was used as a process instrument. This is generally accepted as an objectification function. On a comprehensive structural level, it should enable management to understand its environment pertaining to a specific issue, and to communicate in such a way as to achieve the desired effect. The framework was applied to the issue of trust at Pfizer.

The study concludes that the role of the media, in its primary function and in its role as a platform for initiating dialogues on appropriate interaction fields, contains potential for Pfizer. At the same time, a distinction was made between the relevance of the media, and the difference between the reports published by the media and the actual perception in the population. In particular, political orientation appears to be significant for the question of having trust in Pfizer. The framework, developed on the basis of empirical opinion research, has contributed toward the management of Pfizer seeing how the company is actually perceived in the population, thereby providing a basis for further critical reflection and decision making.

At Pfizer, one is convinced that the media play an important role in the communicative implementation of a stakeholder-oriented vision. Challenges need to be met so that in the future a direct and mutual exchange with the relevant stakeholders will lead to the goal of actually being perceived by the population as a trustworthy company.