MGT 815

 Stakeholder Management Tool

Introduction

As companies attempt to maximize stakeholder value, much of the focus on stakeholders and stakeholder value creation remains focused on theory and, to a lesser extent, its application for value creation for the organization. At the same time there is a need for tools and approaches to enable managers and leaders to identify stakeholders, analyze how to add value, align stakeholders, and measure the impact to the stakeholders and the organization in which they have a stake. Maul (2007) provides one model of a tool to address this need.

Stakeholder Management Tool: Overview (Figure 1)

This tool (Maul, 2007) has been developed to identify stakeholders; align them around an initiative, strategy, or organization; and develop an engagement and communications plan to ensure the ongoing.

Step 1: Identify Potential Stakeholders

• • • Who might have a stake in the initiative, strategy, or organization?

Step 2: Assess Stakeholder Position and Interests

• • • What is their position on the initiative, strategy, or organization?
    • What do you think are their interests relative to the initiative, strategy, or organization?
    • What do they value relative to the initiative, strategy, or organization?

Step 3: Meet With and Align Stakeholders

• • • Uncover their true interests and values.
    • If not aligned with your position, move them toward alignment.

Step 4: Create a Stakeholder-based Balanced Scorecard

• • • Use this to measure the stakeholder value you want to create.

Step 5: Develop Engagement and Communications Plan

• • • The plan will ensure the ongoing alignment of the stakeholder.

Step 1: Identify Potential Stakeholders (Figure 2)

Identify and define who the potential key stakeholders are for a particular initiative, strategy, or organization.

• Focus on including all possibilities at this step rather than on ensuring they have a major stake.
• There are potential external stakeholders, for example: customers, clients, unions, shareholders or owners, financial backers, suppliers, community, or government.
• There are potential internal stakeholders, for example: Board of Trustees, CEO, executives, managers, employees, one’s own team, peers, one’s boss, and even the organization as a whole.

Step 2: Assess Stakeholder Position and Interests (Figure 3)

• What is their current position on the initiative, strategy, or organization?
• What position do you want them to hold?
• What do you perceive to be their interests in the initiative, strategy, or organization?
• What do they value relative to the initiative, strategy, or organization?
• At this stage these interests or values are merely perceptions, not reality.

Step 3: Meet With and Align Stakeholders (Figure 4)

Align the stakeholders’ position with your position, that is, the position in which you want them to be. To accomplish this, you must do the following;

• Meet with the stakeholders to understand their actual interests and values as they apply to the particular initiative, strategy, or organization.
• Begin to negotiate a win-win situation relative to the initiative, strategy, or organization.
• Identify how they want to be involved over time.

Step 4: Create Stakeholder-based Balanced Scorecard (Figure 5)

Design a Stakeholder-based Balanced Scorecard to measure the stakeholder value to be created. Do the following to design the scorecard:

• List each stakeholder in a column heading.
• Identify or develop the measure for each of the stakeholder’s values and record it.
• Identify or develop the metric to assess each measure and record it.

Step 5: Develop Engagement and Communications Plan (Figure 6)

The final step is to develop a communications and engagement plan to ensure the ongoing alignment of the stakeholder.

• Develop a tactical plan for engaging and communicating to the various key stakeholder groups.
• Engagement and communications techniques can include: status reports, meetings for input on key issues and options, inclusion in key meetings, providing recognition for their contributions, and communicating Balanced Scorecard™ results/impact.

It is important to continue engaging stakeholders in the same manner committed to them previously.

References

Maul, J. P. (2007). A stakeholder management tool for creating stakeholder value. Unpublished presentation.