STAKEHOLDER
ANALYSIS
by
Antonio C. Antonio
December
3, 2013
Stakeholder
analysis is part of Stakeholder Management which is supportive of any
organizational purpose and objective in establishing positive relationship with
the internal and external environments of the organization. Stakeholder
management is a process that establishes control through a planning methodology
with the aim that is beneficial to all stakeholders.
Stakeholder
management follows the following process:
1. Stakeholder Identification –
Considers all potential stakeholders that will be affected by and could
potentially affect a project. Provides a short list of all interested and
interest individuals and groups in both internal and external environments of
the organization. A stakeholder map or matrix will be a helpful tool in
identifying concerned stakeholders. Stakeholder identification could best
be done using brainstorming techniques procedures, with a representative group
of all stakeholders. Membership to brainstorming teams should be based on
the member’s intimate knowledge of the stakeholders they represent. It is
also helpful to create stakeholder categories such as: management; customers,
media, community, finance, etc.
2. Stakeholder Analysis (which will
be discussed in the latter part of this report).
3. Stakeholder Matrix – A tabular
management tool which classifies stakeholders according to the degree of
influence or impact to the project. Please see Table 1 - Stakeholder
Matrix.
4. Stakeholder Engagement – Are the
formal and informal face-to-face series of meetings between concerned
stakeholders. These interactions are opportunities aimed at establishing
expectations among stakeholders as it delineates problems, create solutions and
establishes the roles and responsibilities of individual stakeholders. A
Stakeholder Agreement is normally the result of stakeholder engagements that
gives details of the project, the importance of the initiative and the
objectives and purposes of the project which everyone concerned is expected to
abide by. This agreement is often signed by all the stakeholders or a
representative component representing all stakeholders.
5. Information Dissemination – A
critical aspect of stakeholder management where trust and confident is
developed depending on the quality, accuracy and truthfulness of the
information being shared by and to all stakeholders.
Stakeholder
analysis is a management tool used to identify and assess people, groups of
people, or organizations that should have critical and significant roles in the
success of a planned project or activity. It is a long-range technique to
measure and anticipate the kind of influence (be it positive or negative) that
these individuals or groups will have on the project. It is aimed at the
development of situational strategies and fitting such strategies to guarantee
the flow of support from these individuals or groups. Stakeholders
analysis can best be used in the planning and organizing stages… perhaps, also
critical in the pre-planning or project conceptualization stage. It could
also be used as a “mid-term” tool to validate the impact of the participation
of people or groups in the prosecution of the project although it should, at
best, be more effective in the early stage of the project. More importantly,
it could be used when the project halts to a stop because of opposition to the
project or non-cooperation from a good number of stakeholders.
Here are
some additional definitions and descriptions of Stakeholder Analysis:
·
Refers to
the action or process of analyzing attitudes of stakeholders towards a certain
project.
·
Is a key
part of stakeholder management.
·
The
process of identifying the individuals or groups that are likely to affect or
be affected by a proposed action, and sorting them according to their impact on
the action and the impact the action will have on them.
·
Can best
be used in conflict resolution, project management and business administration.
To better
understand what stakeholder analysis is all about, let’s go back to the basics.
Who are the stakeholders? A stakeholder is:
·
Someone
who has something to lose or gain with the failure or success of a planned
project;
·
Anyone
who could make use of, develop, or have an impact on any aspect of the
project; Those who have a stake in the project; and,
·
They
could be either direct (those whose actions can directly impact on the project
and are directly involved) or indirect stakeholders (those who have political
power to influence the project or those who are not directly involved but are
interested in the outcome of the project).
Assessing
the stakeholder/s could be summarized in a tool called a “interest-power” grid
which classifies stakeholders into groups depending on how much attention is
required for each particular group.
There are
many ways to gather information such as surveys, interviews and focus groups or
brainstorming groups. In the conduct of brainstorming activities, the
Stakeholder Matrix could be used as the basic tool in assessing individual
stakeholder:
·
For Column
No. 1 – Name of Stakeholder: Identify and list all the people, groups and
institutions that will affect or be affected by the project.
·
For
Column No. 2 – Stakeholder Interest/s in the Project: Identify and list the
specific interest/s of these stakeholders. Issues to be considered here
are (a) the project’s benefit/s to the individual stakeholder, (b) the changes
that the project might require the stakeholder to make, and (c) the activities
that might cause damage or conflict for the stakeholders.
·
For
Column No. 3 – Assessment of Impact: This column should ask the question:
“How important is the interest of the stakeholder/s to the success of the
project?” Issues to be considered here are (a) the role the stakeholder
must play to influence the success of the project and (b) the potential impact
if the stakeholder/s have negative response/s to the project. Values such
as A (important), B (fairly important) and C (not important) could be used.
·
For
Column No. 4 – Potential Strategies for Obtaining Support or Reducing Obstacles:
This column should be used to identify and list the kinds of things that will
guarantee the stakeholder’s/s’ cooperation and support to reduce opposition to
the project.
Interest-Power
Grid is a very effective matrix to analyze the degree of commitment and
interest a particular stakeholder has in a project. Before filling out the grid, the following
questions should be answered as guide in future decisions to be made and
identifying the stakeholder/s:
·
What
makes them stakeholders?
·
What is
their interest in the project?
·
What does
the project need from them?
·
What
information about the project should be given to them?
·
What is
the frequency of briefings to them?
From the manifested interest and
commitment of the stakeholders, they can be classified as: (a) Monitor with
minimum effort; (b) Manage closely; (c) Keep Satisfied; and, (d) Keep informed.
1. For the “Keep Satisfied”
box: Stakeholder/s is/are high in power but low in interest.
2. For the “Manage Closely”
box: Stakeholder/s is /are high in both power and interest.
3. For the “Monitor” box:
Stakeholders/s is/are low in both power and interest.
4. For the “Keep Informed”
box: Stakeholder/s is/are low in power and high in interest.
A
Stakeholder Report can be made out of the information collected from the two
tables. Ideally, this will have to communicate to all concerned
stakeholders. The frequency of reports should be as often as needed
although regular (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and yearly) will be ideal.
These reports should contain: (a) main issues and concerns; (b) update on the
status of the project; and (c) pipeline plans.
Information
and project updates must be tailor-made for specific audiences. These
could be disseminated in formal and informal meetings, newsletters, electronic
mail, bulletin boards, posters, individual briefings, public forums or media
release. This is intended to widen the understanding and knowledge of the
general public.
Information
on the project (especially the conceptual framework and updates) should be
communicated to the usual stakeholders. The following are largely the
stakeholder group and sub-groups:
Private
Sector Stakeholders:
·
Corporations
and Business Enterprises
·
Business
Associations
·
Professional
Organizations
·
Financial
Institutions
Public
Sector Stakeholders:
·
Cabinet
Secretaries
·
Department
Heads, Regional Directors, Provincial Heads, Municipal/City Heads
·
Congressional
Representatives
·
Local
Government Units
·
Judges
from Regional and Municipal/City Courts
·
Military
establishment
·
International
bodies (UN, JICA, etc.)
Civil
Society Stakeholders:
·
Media
·
Religious
Groups
·
Schools
·
Advocacy
and Social Movement Groups
·
Labor
Unions
·
Business,
Commerce and Trade Unions
·
Non-Governmental
Organizations
·
International
NGOs
There are
three types of stakeholders: (1) The Primary Stakeholders (those ultimate
affected positively or negatively) by the project; (2) Secondary Stakeholders
(persons or organizations that are indirectly affected by the project) and (3)
The Key Stakeholders (those who play important roles and have significant
influence within the organization and the project).
Although
there are still other forms of stakeholder analysis (some of which are commonly
called “shareholder mapping”), none of them could claim to be accurate.
The assessment procedures may largely depend on the mindset and background of
the “brainstorming” group or the personalities involved in the actual
assessment of the stakeholders. But with the many problems besetting our
uplands, anything and every conceivable management tool will be worth trying.
Just my
little thoughts…
References:
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