Who is a Stakeholder?

A stakeholder is a person who has a vested interest in a company, organisation, or project area and whose say impacts all of the decision making done about the said area, depending on the credibility of the person after stakeholder analysis. In all cases, however, whether the dependent conditions change or stay the same, the stakeholder is affected by all gains as well as losses.

What is Stakeholder Analysis?

Stakeholder analysis is essentially the process of a rigorous analysis of all the potential stakeholders and assessing them based on how relevant their involvement is and to what degree prior to the commencement of the project. All in all, to state a stakeholder analysis example, one could say that the stakeholders are grouped into small groups based on their level of influence, interest, participation, investment, etc., in the project. The process also includes the analysis for the determination of how to get the best of these stakeholders and how to communicate that within the premise of discussion throughout the duration of the project.

You must be wondering what is the importance of stakeholder analysis, and why go through all this trouble when what a company needs is capital investment, and that is being taken care of by having stakeholders, but no! There are many aspects to consider when the goal is to succeed and grow in every domain. Let’s see why stakeholder analysis is so important:

To identify the interest of the stakeholders involved, who could be affected by the project or affect the project in some way or the other.
To identify and resolve conflicts or potential conflicts that could serve as a jeopardy to the project.
To spot and encash opportunities and build lasting relationships along the way during the project or program.
To identify and assign authority to groups that must participate in the different stages of the project or program.
To also identify and troubleshoot the negative impacts on not so strong or vulnerable groups.
To identify the approach and strategies that need to be taken to ensure stakeholder engagement.

Yes, you read that right: strategies to ensure stakeholder engagement. Stakeholder analysis is not enough. So why is stakeholder engagement so important? Why can’t stakeholders just invest and let the rest take care of themselves? This is why:

Stakeholder participation gives the stakeholders insight into how projects or policies could affect their lives.
It is extremely necessary for sustainability. It provides opportunities for brainstorming, and brainstorming is the only stepping stone to better ideas and decision making.
It keeps the stakeholders encouraged and offers a sense of ownership, provided it started early in the process.
Offers a space where both stakeholders and the project teams can meet and learn about each other and themselves.
Stakeholder participation is also necessary to enhance responsibility and responsiveness.

Stakeholder Analysis Steps

According to the Stakeholder Analysis assignment help experts, there is an entire step by step process to conduct stakeholder analysis. For your ease, here are the points broken down for you to understand. Check them out:

Identify the pivotal stakeholders and what are their interests (both positive and negative).
Study and gather knowledge about different aspects of the stakeholders' interests.
Critically analyse and assess the role, impact, and importance of each stakeholder as well as the impact that the program or project could have on the involved stakeholders.
Identify and determine the strategies on how to have stakeholders engaged in the best possible way.
Review the entire process and identify points where improvements can be made.

Stakeholder Analysis Tools

So, after having learned about the basics of stakeholder analysis, engagement, and their importance, let us now look at a rather practical topic, and that is, what are the tools that can help us in stakeholder analysis. Our Stakeholder Analysis assignment help experts enlist some of the commonly used tools for stakeholder analysis. Check them out below:

Sociogram

A sociogram, in basic terms, is a chart that is used to map all stakeholders involved and how interlinked they are with each other in terms of support, level of influence, the direction of influence, and the relationship strength, and what are the other outliers and alliances there are.

Proximity Chart

This is a representation that helps determine which stakeholder is closest to the core of the said program or project. It can be made for any aspect, and it shows the proximity of each stakeholder with the core parameter which is being assessed at the moment.

Forcefield Analysis

This is another great visualisation tool that helps assess the strength and direction given by various stakeholders to the project or program. It is represented by demarcating arrows with varying thicknesses to the parameters like direction and strength of influence, and power - for instance, whether the stakeholder supports or opposes the project or decision and to what degree.

Persona Cards

This tool is essentially used for stakeholder analysis of large-scale and long-term projects. In this, a record is created about the stakeholder that contains all information in one place. Usually, this can be accomplished by using CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software tools.

Stakeholder Register

This is used when there are too many stakeholders to track. It serves as an entire repository of information about each stakeholder and is useful across a long campaign.

Stakeholder Strategy Planner

This is a simple one and this tool is representative of basic tabulated records about the analyses and communication planning about the respective stakeholders.

So, these were the tools and we hope that all this information on Stakeholder Analysis was helpful to you. If you need further assistance, you can contact us and we will help you out with all your academic issues.

Stakeholder Analysis Example

Given below is the example of stakeholder analysis, analyzed by our assignment experts. For the complete answer, you could register on our website and avail yourself of the free draft we offer.

Stakeholder Analysis Examples

Stakeholder Analysis

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Nick Johnson

Nick is a multi-faceted individual with diverse interests. I love teaching young students through coaching or writing who always gathered praise for a sharp calculative mind. I own a positive outlook towards life and also give motivational speeches for young kids and college students.