Who Should Be Identified as Internal Stakeholders? An Internal Communication Practitioner and Consultant Perspective in the South African Corporate Context

Abstract Healthy, mutually beneficial relationships with internal stakeholders within an organisation are crucial for its survival, for achieving long-term goals, and for ensuring value for the organisation and the stakeholders. Organisations should therefore manage internal communication strategically. However, there is no practical or academic consensus as to how to identify “internal stakeholders”, which poses challenges in the diverse South African corporate context. This qualitative study attempted to clarify how best to identify internal stakeholder groupings as recipients of communication. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten internal communication practitioners employed by ten of the Top 500 companies in various sectors in South Africa and with eight independent internal communication consultants in South Africa. The participants were purposively selected for their achievements, responsibilities, knowledge, and experience in corporate internal communication. We found that the traditional view of internal stakeholders as comprising employees only has become obsolete, and that the volatile South African corporate environment requires a wider range of stakeholders to be included in the organisation's internal circle. The article concludes with recommendations for future research.