21926 Chap.13 Stakeholder Analysis and Engagement Planning
Stakeholder Analysis and Engagement Planning
Who counts as a stakeholder
The Week 9 lecture starts from stakeholder theory: an organisation is a set of relationships with groups that have a legitimate interest in its activities, and it should create value for all of them rather than for shareholders alone.
In a change, the practical questions are who is affected and how, who resists most, and who can help or block the initiative.
Mapping power and interest
Stakeholder mapping places each group by its interest in the change and its power over it.
The resulting grid gives four engagement approaches, from managing a group closely to monitoring it with minimal effort, and each approach suggests different channels, from workshops and personal briefings to newsletters and a website.
From map to plan
A recommended sequence segments stakeholders, lists their impacts, analyses commitment and influence, identifies concerns and designs responses.
The tutorial then turns the analysis into an action plan with named roles and priorities and a communication plan with messages, modes, frequency and senders. The lecture also warns that mapping is exposed to bias and that positions shift as an issue develops. Treated well, a stakeholder’s objection is evidence about the change, not an obstacle to it.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Stakeholder theory of the firm
- 02
Five questions for a change initiative
- 03
The power and interest grid
- 04
Six steps of stakeholder analysis
- 05
Action plans and communication plans
- 06
Bias and limits in stakeholder mapping
Worked example · free
Place four stakeholders on the power and interest grid
- 1Member families: they hold a vote, which is formal authority, and their income depends on the change, so power and interest are both high. Approach: manage closely, with workshops and personal briefings before the vote.
- 1Restaurant buyers: interest is high but their power over the decision is low. Approach: keep informed, through a regular newsletter and a page explaining how to register for the auction.
- 1Port authority: it controls the wharf lease, a key resource, so power is high, yet its interest in sales methods is low. Approach: keep satisfied, using an existing lease meeting to brief it.
- 1Tourism group: low power and low interest. Approach: monitor with minimal effort, watching for any concern it raises later.
Key terms
- Stakeholder
- Any individual or group that relies on an organisation to reach its own goals and on which the organisation relies in return.
- Stakeholder Theory
- A view of the firm as a set of value-creating relationships whose purpose is to serve every legitimate stakeholder, not shareholders alone.
- Stakeholder Mapping
- Plotting stakeholders by their power over and interest in a change to set priorities and choose how to engage each one.
- Priority of Engagement
- A rating of how much attention a stakeholder should receive, derived from its interest and influence and recorded in the action plan.
- Communication Plan
- A table stating, for each stakeholder, the message to share, the mode, the frequency and the person responsible for sending it.
Stakeholder Analysis and Engagement Planning FAQ
How do I decide whether a stakeholder has high power?
Look for three signs the lecture highlights: control over resources the change needs, formal authority over decisions, and the ability to build broad coalitions across the organisation. A group with any of these can shape the outcome even if it says little, so record which source of power you relied on when you place it on the grid.
What should I do with stakeholders in each quadrant?
Manage high power, high interest groups closely through personal briefings, workshops and consultation. Keep high power, low interest groups satisfied using existing meetings and organisational briefings. Keep low power, high interest groups informed with newsletters, posters or a website, and monitor the rest with minimal effort.
Are stakeholder concerns just resistance to be overcome?
No. The recommended steps ask you to validate and expand the concerns stakeholders raise, because they often point to real issues that must be addressed before the change can deliver its benefits. Treating concerns as information also builds the commitment the final step of the analysis is meant to raise.
What goes into a stakeholder action plan?
Each row names a stakeholder and its status, a contact person, its key interests, its level of interest and of influence, the priority of engagement, its role in the change and the phase when it is engaged. The communication plan then adds the message, the mode of sharing, how often, and who sends it.
What are the limits of stakeholder mapping?
Deciding whose expectations come first is a judgement the grid cannot make, and assessments of stakeholders are open to biases such as halo or horn effects, social desirability, proximity and recency. It is also unclear whether competitors count, recognising stakeholders can have legal implications, and positions change as the issue develops.
Assessment move
Pick a change you know well and list at least eight stakeholders, internal and external. Write one sentence on the impact for each, then place them on the grid, naming the source of power for every high rating. Ask a classmate to challenge two placements, since the lecture warns that bias distorts these judgements.
Then build the two tables the tutorial uses: an action plan with priority, role and phase, and a communication plan with message, mode, frequency and sender. Finally, check that each concern you recorded has a matching response in the plan, because the analysis is only finished when commitment has somewhere to come from. Keep both tables, because the folio asks for stakeholder analysis among its recommendations.
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