Credits

  • MOOC coordinators Manuel Gértrudix Barrio & Rubén Arcos Martín
  • Content written by Rubén Arcos Martín
  • Multimedia design by Alejandro Carbonell Alcocer
  • Visual Identity by Juan Romero Luis

Stakeholder analysis technique

Strategic planning of communication, Publics/stakeholders analysis, RACE/ROPE Process, Communication tactics

Stakeholder analysis can assist decision-making and is an important tool for the strategic planning of strategic communication campaigns. Fleisher and Bensoussan (2003) have described the following steps for analyzing stakeholders, which in practice involves answering to the following questions:

  1. Who are the stakeholders of the organization? (Identification of generic and specific stakeholders)
  2. What are their stakes in relation to the organization? (single/multiple; social/economic; symbolic; local/national/international)
  3. What opportunities, challenges, and risks do the stakeholders present?
  4. What strategies and actions should be taken?

Stakeholder

Interests or needs

Impact of our initiative (+ or -)

Relative Degree of interest (0-10)

Relative Degree of Influence (power)

Strengths

Weaknesses

1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

#

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Adapted from Fleisher and Bensoussan (2003: 303)

Power/Interest grids and influence diagrams can be used to provide an analytical visualization of the stakeholders and their influence relationships (Bryson 2003). As explained by Bryson (2003) four different categories of stakeholders are represented in Power/Interest grids: “players who have both an interest and significant power; subjects who have an interest but little power; context setters who have power but little direct interest; and the crowd which consists of stakeholders with little interest or power” (p. 14). From the resulting power/interest grid, lines are drawn (from stakeholders to other stakeholders suggesting the direction of the influence (Ibid.)

Loading...

Loading...

Power/Interest grid. Adapted from Bryson (2003: 42) based on Eden and Ackermann (1998)

Methodology and Resources

  • Bryson, John M. (2003). “What To Do When Stakeholders Matter: A Guide to Stakeholder Identification and Analysis Techniques,” Paper presented at the National Public Management Research Conference, 9–11 October 2003, The Georgetown University Public Policy Institute, Washington, D.C., Available at: Citeserrx
  • Fleisher, Craig. S. and Bensoussan, Babette. E. (2003). Strategic and competitive intelligence analysis: methods and techniques for analyzing business competition. UpperSaddle River, NJ: Pearson.