Stakeholders are those who may
be affected by or have an effect on an effort.
They may also include people who have a strong interest in the effort
for academic, philosophical, or political reasons, even though they and their
families, friends, and associates are not directly affected by it.
One way to characterize
stakeholders is by their relationship to the effort in question.
Primary stakeholders are the
people or groups that stand to be directly affected, either positively or
negatively, by an effort or the actions of an agency, institution, or
organization. In some cases, there are
primary stakeholders on both sides of the equation: a regulation that benefits
one group may have a negative effect on another. A rent control policy, for example, benefits
tenants, but may hurt landlords.
Secondary stakeholders are
people or groups that are indirectly affected, either positively or negatively,
by an effort or the actions of an agency, institution, or organization. A program to reduce domestic violence, for
instance, could have a positive effect on emergency room personnel by reducing
the number of cases they see. It might
require more training for police to help them handle domestic violence calls in
a different way. Both of these groups
would be secondary stakeholders.
Key stakeholders, who might
belong to either or neither of the first two groups, are those who can have a
positive or negative effect on an effort, or who are important within or to an
organization, agency, or institution engaged in an effort. The director of an organization might be an
obvious key stakeholder, but so might the line staff – those who work directly
with participants – who carry out the work of the effort. If they don’t believe in what they’re doing
or don’t do it well, it might as well not have begun. Other examples of key stakeholders might be
founders, elected or appointed government officials, heads of businesses, or
clergy and other community figures who wield a significant amount of influence.
So how do you produce a coherent list? Answer the following questions about each contender you’ve
identified in your brainstorming session. They’ll help you direct your
organization’s energy and resources to the right relationships and activities.
The questions and examples are drawn from my years of experience working with a
large variety of organizations and management teams.
1. Does the stakeholder have a
fundamental impact on your organization’s performance? (Required response:
yes.)
Example: A manufacturer of
trusses and frames for houses decided, on reflection, that a local council
wasn’t a key stakeholder. Though the council set regulations that the company
had to follow, those rules didn’t have much of an effect on sales or profits
the way, for instance, customers did.
2. Can you clearly identify what
you want from the stakeholder? (Required response: yes.)
Example: Members of a law firm’s
strategic-planning team knew they wanted revenue from clients, productivity and
innovation from employees, and continued funding from partners — yet they
couldn’t specify what they wanted from the community, so that relationship
wasn’t deemed key.
3. Is the relationship dynamic —
that is, do you want it to grow? (Required response: yes.)
Example: A company that ran 17
retirement villages had a dynamic, strategic relationship with current and
potential residents. It wanted increased
occupancy and more fees for services used.
The company’s relationship with a university, by contrast, was static
and operationally focused. It involved a fixed amount of research funding and
co-branding each year. That’s all that
was needed. Though the co-branding generated broader awareness and may have
indirectly yielded more residents and revenue, the university itself didn’t
achieve key stakeholder status.
4. Can you exist without or
easily replace the stakeholder? (Required response: no.)
Example: A professional services
firm in HR that had taken out a loan initially listed the bank as a
stakeholder. But ultimately, that relationship didn’t qualify as key, because
the loan could be easily refinanced with another source.
5. Has the stakeholder already
been identified through another relationship? (Required response: no.)
Example: A government department
involved in planning and infrastructure listed both employers and unions as key
stakeholders. But this amounted to double counting: The unions represented
employees’ interests, and the organization’s primary relationship was with its
employees.
After you’ve applied the above
criteria, your list will certainly be shorter, but it may still feel a bit
unwieldy. If that’s the case, see if you can combine categories.
Working
With Stakeholders
To successfully work with
stakeholders, you will need to answer the following questions:
- What do the stakeholders know, feel, want,
believe, and value in relation to the problem or issue?
- What are the threats, risks, costs, and
benefits for the stakeholders?
- Who are the community opinion leaders for
groups within your stakeholder network?
- What are stakeholders’ main concerns about the
issues? What are the differences in the stakeholders’ concerns about
issues? What are the areas of common ground and benefits for various
stakeholder groups?
- What roles do you want stakeholders to play,
or what types of involvement do you want stakeholders to have in the
initiative?
Involving
Stakeholders
- Stakeholders may be involved through:
- steering or advisory committees - groups that
guide the work of the initiative, usually comprised of working group
chairs.
- working groups - groups with responsibility
for specific aspects of the work, e.g. assessing community needs and
priorities.
- surveys – provide an opportunity to reach
very large segments of the community, while requiring limited commitment.
- newsletters – provide a mechanism for keeping
constituents informed; they should include a feedback mechanism.
- personal meetings – may be used by project
managers to engage opinion leaders or by intermediary community groups to
engage citizens at the community level.
- Identify the key players or main stakeholders
to fill specific positions within the project. Designate in advance some
of the potential positions you want these key players to fill.
- Make stakeholders your allies. Set up your
project as a partnership with the key stakeholders. You can do this in a
variety of ways, from keeping the stakeholders involved in every step of
the process as a partner to simply ensuring that they are kept informed
and given the opportunity to comment.
Roles
for Select Stakeholder Groups
Think creatively about the
multiple roles that some stakeholder groups may play in the initiative. Some of
these groups are public agencies, nonprofits, business, and
colleges/universities. Below are a few examples of the ways these groups can
help.
References:
1) Phil Rabinowitz
A description of Stakeholder
Analysis from the Guide to Managing for Quality, a joint effort of Management
Sciences for Health and UNICEF.
2) GRAHAM KENNY
Graham Kenny is the managing
director of Strategic Factors, a Sydney, Australia–based consultancy that
specializes in strategic planning and performance measurement. He is the author of Crack Strategy’s Code
(President Press, 2013)
3) Corporation for National and Community Service
