What To Do When Stakeholders Matter: A Guide to Stakeholder Identification and Analysis Techniques

Abstract

This article focuses specifically on how and why managers might go about using stakeholder identification and analysis techniques in order to help their organizations meet their mandates, fulfill their missions, and create public value. A range of stakeholder identification and analysis techniques is reviewed. The techniques cover: organizing participation; creating ideas for strategic interventions, including problem formulation and solution search; building a winning coalition around proposal development, review, and adoption; and implementing, monitoring, and evaluating strategic interventions. The paper argues that wise use of stakeholder analyses can help frame issues that are solvable in ways that are technically feasible and politically acceptable and that advance the common good. The paper’s concludes with a number of recommendations for management research, education, and practice. 10 September 2003. “What To Do When Stakeholders Matter: A Guide to Stakeholder Identification and Analysis Techniques.” © John M. Bryson, 2003. A paper presented at the National Public Management Research Conference, 9-11 October 2003, The Georgetown University Public Policy Institute, Washington, D.C. To be published in Public Management Review, 2004. 3 WHAT TO DO WHEN STAKEHOLDERS MATTER A Guide to Stakeholder Identification and Analysis Techniques