Stakeholder Classification

Question 1

5 Questions when identifying stakeholders

Answer 1

i. Who are the stakeholders?
ii. What are their stakes?
iii. What opportunities and challenges do the stakes and the stakeholders represent?
iv. What economic, social, political, environmental, and technological responsibilities does the organization have?
v. What strategies or actions should organizations take to best manage stakeholder challenges and opportunities?

Question 2

4 Steps of identifying stakeholders

Answer 2

Step 1
- Organize group brainstorming. Identify all the people, groups, and institutions that will affect or be affected by your project and list them in the column under “stakeholder”

Step 2
- Once you have a list of potential stakeholders, review the list and identify the specific interests these stakeholders have in your project. Consider issues like: benefits to the stakeholder, the changes that the project might require the stakeholder to make, and the organizational activities that might cause damage or conflict for the stakeholder. Record these under “Stakeholder Interests”.

Step 3

 - Review each stakeholder listed in column one.  Ask the question: “How important are the stakeholder’s interests to the success of the organization?” Consider:
     - The role the key stakeholder must play for the organization to be successful.
     - The likelihood and impact of a stakeholder’s negative response to the project.
             - Assign “A” for extremely important, “B” for fairly important, and “c” for not very important.  Record these letters in the column “Power”. 

Step 4
- Consider the kinds of things that you could do to get stakeholder support and reduce opposition. Consider how you might approach each of the stakeholders. What kind of information will they need? How important is it to involve the stakeholder in the planning process? Are there other groups or individuals that might influence the stakeholder to support your organization? Record your strategies for obtaining support or reducing obstacles to your project in the column of the matrix.

Question 3

Stakeholder Attributes

Answer 3

• Legitimacy- refers to the perceived validity of the stakeholder’s claim to a stake
• Power- refers to the ability or capacity of a stakeholder to produce an effect
• Urgency- refers to the degree to which stakeholders claim demands immediate attention