Understanding Stakeholders

Understanding Stakeholders

What is a stakeholder?  According to Cambridge Dictionary “A stakeholder can be an employee, customer, or citizen who is involved with an organization, society, etc. and therefore has responsibilities towards it and an interest in its success.”

While this definition appears generally broad, the stakeholders involved with an implementation can be numerous. This section reviews different types of stakeholders, introduces tools for both stakeholder identification and analysis towards both priorities and stakeholder support.

There are two different types of stakeholders, internal and external.  Internal stakeholders are those involved day to day in the program. These are individuals associated with the actual project or specific problem.  External stakeholders are those outside of the organization who are influenced or impacted by the project or issue.  There may also be external stakeholders that may be part of the project depending on the issue.

There are many different stakeholders and it is important to understand the interest and influence of each. The first step is to brainstorm and identify all the potential stakeholders. Figure 1 is an example of a stakeholder diagram depicting the target audience call center quality issue. The second ring of circles represents the individuals or organizations that have a direct connection with the interests of the primary stakeholder impacted by the initiative. The other rings around the secondary group are tertiary stakeholders who have a direct connection with the interest of the secondary stakeholders in support of the primary stakeholders. 

The key purpose of this brainstorming tool is to ensure that you have not missed a stakeholder group.  First you must revisit the problem statement to ensure that you have the focus of the issue. Below the example problem statement is an example of brainstorming for internal and external stakeholders.

Problem: Strategies for Working with problem Employees

● Why don’t problem employees fulfill their responsibilities

Once the stakeholder individuals or organizations are identified, they require analysis for interest and support. The other critical aspects of this analysis are to understand what the stakeholder is contributing and identification of an action plan.