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Stakeholder mapping – stakeholder analysis

It goes without saying that it is important for organisations to understand the expectations of their stakeholders. According to Johnson, Scholes, and Whittington (2006), stakeholders refer to individuals or groups who depend on an organisation to fulfill their own goals and on whom, in turn, the organisation depends.

Types of stakeholders

Stakeholders can be divided into different groups. According to BPP Learning Media (2010), there are three broad types of stakeholders in an organisation as follows:

Internal stakeholders

Connected stakeholders

External stakeholders

Examples of internal stakeholders are employees and management. Customers, suppliers, shareholders, fanciers, and shareholders are the examples of connected stakeholders. And finally, the community, government, pressure groups and so on are the examples of external stakeholders.

Definition of stakeholder mapping/analysis

Stakeholder mapping/analysis is the process of understanding the stakeholders. It identifies stakeholder expectations and power and helps business planners in understanding political priorities (Johnson, Scholes, and Whittington, 2006). The following is a stakeholder map:

(Source: Mendelow, 1991 cited in Johnson, Scholes, and Whittington, 2006)

As seen above, all stakeholders are not the same in terms of power and interest. Therefore, companies should develop a variety of communication strategies in line with the power and the interest of their stakeholders.

Benefits of stakeholder mapping/analysis

Indeed, stakeholder analysis benefits organisations in a number of ways. For example, organisations can identify the most and the least important stakeholders through a stakeholder analysis. They can also identify negative stakeholders and their potentially adverse effect on a project  through the analysis.

Different stakeholders have different expectations. For example, the shareholders are interested in profits and dividends, whereas the employees are interested in welfare, high salary and promotion.  Likewise, the local community will be interested in the employment opportunities created for the local people by the company.

To sum-up, it is certainly important for organisations to identify stakeholders and their expectations. The expectations of stakeholders are sometimes in conflict with each other. A stakeholder analysis is therefore very useful for all organisations.

We hope the article has helped you explore the stakeholder mapping/analysis. You may also like reading Stakeholders in tourism development. If you liked this article, please share it by clicking on the icons below.

The article publication date: 30 October2017

Further reading/references

BPP Learning Media (2010) Business Essentials: Business Strategy, 2nd Edition, London: BPP Learning Media Ltd

Johnson, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R. (2006) Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases, 7th Edition, UK: Prentice Hall

Photo credit: The Open University

Author: M Rahman

M Rahman writes extensively online and offline with an emphasis on business management, marketing, and tourism. He is a lecturer in Management and Marketing. He holds an MSc in Tourism & Hospitality from the University of Sunderland. Also, graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University with a BA in Business & Management Studies and completed a DTLLS (Diploma in Teaching in the Life-Long Learning Sector) from London South Bank University.

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