Stakeholder Analysis

This is step 2 of a guide to Stakeholder Management covering 4 steps. If you haven't read step 1 you can access it here Step 1 Stakeholder Definition.

Often the process of identifying stakeholders will result in a long list of individuals and groups. After listing all of the stakeholders for a large building project for a University I found that I had identified nearly 20,000 stakeholders. However, once I analysed the list I found that a significant proportion were made up of clearly identifiable groups of people with similar interests. The snap shot of my stakeholder analysis is shown below. It shows the stakeholder groups and their interest areas mapped onto a matrix.

Completing an interest matrix will help you develop a communication plan that is aligned to each stakeholder's focus and concerns.

Once you have mapped the interests of your stakeholders you need to prioritise them in order of importance. Different methodologies suggest different ways of analysing stakeholders some complex and some very simple. A common approach is to map the interest and power or influence of each stakeholder group on a quadrant (Bryson 1995: 71 -5).

This stakeholder analysis uses a Power/Interest grid. The OGC suggest three columns and rows with interest/influence either high, medium and low (see Managing Successful Programmes). Other variations on this quadrant include power, impact, support and attitude.

You can complete your stakeholder analysis by drawing the quadrant on a flipchart or using a simple table in Word. Click here for blank stakeholder analysis template.

Once you have mapped your stakeholders you can focus your efforts on the highest priority groups while providing sufficient information to keep the less powerful groups happy.

The table below shows an example engagement strategy based on the interest/influence stakeholder map.

Stakeholder analysis strategy
Power versus interest grid adapted from Eden and Ackermann (1998: 121-5, 344-6).

Identifying Key Players is crucial if your project is to succeed. They have a high political interest and are powerful enough to either stop work completely or to move mountains to make your project a success. Continuing our guide to Stakeholder Analysis here are some tips to on recognising the key players on your project.

Adding influence to the Stakeholder Analysis

Adding influences to the Power and Interest matrix lend a subtlety and depth to your analysis by revealing the importance of stakeholders within each box in the matrix. It also reveals lines of communication between stakeholders predicting the path which potential issues will follow as they flow along influence lines to become an important concern for a key player. The technique is taken from Eden and Ackermann (1998: 349-50). As a group review the matrix and think about who influences who. Draw lines between stakeholders to illustrate the influences between them, the lines can be in two directions, but you should try to identify the strongest direction of the influence.

The next page takes stakeholder analysis techniques we have discussed and put them together using a real example. Putting it all together - stakeholder analysis example.

Resources

Interest matrix
Stakeholder analysis template in Word, Visio and Excel.
Stakeholder map

Stakeholder Analysis

Adding influence to the Stakeholder Analysis

Resources

Further reading and Biblography