Understanding Stakeholders

Stakeholder engagement is the process of understanding and involving stakeholders in an organisation's objectives. The emphasis of this book is on understanding stakeholders through five organisational lenses: senior leadership, the HR function, project management, marketing and communications and customer services. As the author experienced firsthand, stakeholders are considered slightly differently by each of these functional perspectives. By visiting each perspective we will pick up additional approaches and stakeholder methods and reduce potential confusion when working across functions.

Content

1. Define ‘stakeholder’
   
   1. A very brief history of stakeholder theory 
      
   2. Your own perspective on stakeholders 
      
   3. What stakeholders are not 
      
   4. Engagement, involvement, management 
      
2. Why stakeholders matter 
   
   1. The need for organisations to understand stakeholders 
      
   2. Functional perspectives on stakeholders 
      
   3. The case for understanding stakeholders in summary 
      
3. Identifying stakeholders 
   
   1. Listing stakeholders 
      
   2. Stakeholders per functional group 
      
   3. Getting specific 
      
   4. Who ‘owns’ the stakeholder? 
      
4. Analysing stakeholders 
   
   1. Stakeholder attitudes 
      
   2. Stakeholder mapping 
      
   3. Stakeholder coalitions 
      
5. Involving stakeholders 
   
   1. Creating a stakeholder involvement vision and approach 
      
   2. What level of stakeholder involvement is needed? 
      
   3. Involvement methods and approaches 
      
   4. Stakeholder communications 
      
   5. Fair and ethical stakeholder engagement 
      
6. Learning on the job 
   
   1. Top Tips for successful stakeholder engagement 
      
   2. Learning from the experts