Employees and the community made it apparent that they didn’t believe the closure was made as suddenly as it was; rather it was a considered decision for some time. The Engie spokesperson also contradicted their statements about the closure, first saying the final decision was made suddenly late at night, but then after further questioning stated that management had been considering the closure for years.
The closure of Hazelwood Power Station in March 2017 is causing stakeholder uncertainty and distrust of the Engie brand. This is distrust is causing poor communication between Engie and the relevant stakeholders.
The closure is adversely affecting many stakeholders. Hazelwood workers believe they have been left in the dark about the closure and have received little support from Engie, coupled with no hope for future jobs in a small town with an already high unemployment rate. The Latrobe community are concerned the town will not be able to recover from the closure of a major industry. The Victorian government has come under fire for inadequate help to transition the town from coal industry, and spending it on a new pool instead of focusing on the community. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has blamed the Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews for the closure due to poor planning. These stakeholders are considered as secondary as they weren’t involved in the decision making …show more content…
Engie has a number of community consultation plans set in place, but so far they haven’t been successful. The figure below has been adapted from the process that the Victorian government uses to engage in community consultation (State of Victoria, Department of Environment and Primary Industries, 2017). Engie engaged in the lowest level of consultation, which is inform the public, however they should aim to use every level of engagement in the community.
Engie’s objective is to have an open exchange of importation between Engie and the public in general, to promote awareness of the rehabilitation process and to tenable the public to have meaningful input in the decision-making process. Table 3 highlights the framework Engie should follow for effective consultation
The community have already felt left in the dark about the closure, therefore, Engie must go above and beyond to keep them updated and involved in the closure of the plant. By doing this, Grunig and Hunt’s two way symmetrical model of communication will be fulfilled, leading to strengthened stakeholder