44 Engagement with stakeholders plays a number of roles. It enables an enterprise to identify whether stakeholders have the same or different perspectives (than the enterprise and than each other) on what constitutes an impact on their human rights and on how significant an impact may be. For instance, damage to land that belongs to an indigenous community but is not farmed or otherwise used for economic purposes might seem to the enterprise to represent a low-level impact on the right to property that can easily be addressed through financial compensation or the provision of alternative land; whereas an indigenous community may consider that there is a far greater impact related to the role of that land in its culture, traditions and beliefs. Changes to factory shift hours that seem to make sense to the management of an enterprise may have a particular impact on women with childcare responsibilities or individuals with whose religious practices the new hours would interfere. It is often only through talking to those who may be affected that these issues come to light and can be addressed. This Guiding Principle also recognizes that, for many small and medium-sized enterprises, consultations with directly affected stakeholders may not be feasible, owing to legitimate financial, geographical or other constraints. The Guiding Principles point to other ways of maximizing the information the company can obtain about its human rights impact and how it is perceived, including through sources of external expertise, as discussed under question 41. BOX 5 Engagement with potentially affected groups and other relevant stakeholders Engaging with potentially affected groups and other relevant stakeholders provides important insights into their perspectives and concerns regarding the enterprise’s operations and the implications these have for human rights. Effective engagement can also help demonstrate that the enterprise takes stakeholders’ views and their dignity, welfare and human rights seriously. This can help to build trust and make it easier to find ways to address impact in an agreed and sustainable way, avoiding unnecessary grievances and disputes. Consultation with potentially affected stakeholders can require particular sensitivity. It necessitates attention to any barriers—linguistic, cultural, gender or other—that stakeholders may face in speaking openly to the enterprise’s representatives. It requires sensitivity to cultural differences and perceived power imbalances, where these exist.