An overview of stakeholder analysis.
A stakeholder analysis identifies everyone (here we will expand our analysis to include organizations) involved in a project or initiative.
To look into levels of participation, there are many actors from the companies that have direct and constant interaction with the interns. Those who have the most participation in my experience are intern coordinators who guide the interns with their group projects, give feedback, and are the direct representative from the companies. It’s important to make sure that you establish a close relationship with stakeholders since you will probably be directly collaborating with them during the course of the effort. This does not mean that those who are not directly involved have less power or influence with the outcome, because it is usually the higher executives who set the standards and expectations for the internship experience in the first place.
For interest, those who have high interest are usually stakeholders you have to keep informed and updated on the progress of the project. For our project, this would again be our intern coordinator from Parque Tecnologico who is in charge of guiding us through the entire process and giving constant feedback. Some individuals and groups may not be affected by or involved in an effort, but may nonetheless care enough about it that they are willing to work to influence its outcome (due to social issues, impact on society/market, etc.). These include advocates, activists, and the community at large. It is important to keep these stakeholders content as well since those with high interest in the effort will most likely have the most critical outlook on the project.
For influence/power, it’s important to understand that you ensure stakeholders who have high influence and power are satisfied at all times with your progress and project. They can either have high expectations for you, or indirectly influence the project by setting standards, guidelines, etc. Key stakeholders such as government officials and policy makers have immense power and influence since they are the people who can devise, pass, and enforce laws and regulations that may either fulfill the goals of your effort or directly cancel them out. Influence is also a key factor in many projects as public perception is often important for the success and approval of a project. Main actors include the media, people in positions of prestige/honor/power, and leaders. Those with less power are less focused on the prospects of the project but more of the contents itself and the process that the group experiences.
For best practice for participation and communication, it’s a method of interacting with different stakeholders in order to acquire their guidance, participation, or approval. Stakeholders have their own motivations in being a part of your effort, and thus you have to be aware and cater to those interests. For example, if you are going to be interacting with a stakeholder with economic interests, the preparation that comes before the interaction will be different than if you were interacting with a stakeholder with ideological/cultural interests. Regardless, if you enlist the help and approval of these different stakeholders early on, establish a clear line of communication, and have a good understanding of their motivations, you may turn many of these individuals into avid supporters of your initiatives and the project you are doing. By identifying all potential stakeholders and determining how best to earn their support, you are setting up your projects for success.
My Stakeholder Map (Organizations and Larger Actors):
Comments
Hi Josh! I found your response very compelling because I found very similar results. Each level of the map is dependent on the others for support and each level also wants to have an impact on both the levels below and above them. I was also very very impressed by your map because it was very detailed and you thought of a few levels that I did not like the universities and Campus B. The main difference between our maps is that you include clients and I included communities helped. I assume that this is because my company is an NGO and yours is private which makes sense, but it is interesting to see the similarities between our types of companies. - Giselle Soares
Hi Giselle! I agree with you. Although there might be a certain hierarchy for the stakeholders involved (in terms of capital, resources, prestige, power, etc.), they all still depend on each other in order to succeed. For example, a company’s executives relies on its workers in order to interact with the interns during the actual program while they deal with the higher-level decision-making; however, the workers rely on company executives to give them the opportunity to instruct the interns as well as provide them with the resources to do so. There is an interdependency between many of these stakeholders, meaning that compromises are probably made constantly so that both sides can benefit from something. That’s also another reason why these relationships are not only necessary but fragile at the same time. If you ruin your relationship with one, it could snowball as you lose reputation and credibility with the others as they’re all one connected network.
I included universities and CampusB in my diagram because they are institutions involved directly with the program and have something to gain from it. The universities gain connections by collaborating and sending their students to participate in the internship program, and CampusB gains something by being able to say they hosted students and facilitated professional development between the college students and the companies they’re partnered with (Azul, Pq. Tecnologico, etc.).
I totally agree with you with the NGO part. It makes sense that you looked more into the communities you would impact with your internship experience, because the main mission of an NGO is to assist communities and interact with the people within those communities directly. Unlike for private companies, while they might consider some of these aspects, it’s much more appropriate to categorize them as consumers and into one large group in order to simplify their role in the project. While that doesn’t mean private companies don’t impact the consumers directly, our main mission is to sell a product or introduce an innovation that could gain revenue. We do take into account the community we are targeting and the consumers we’d like to attract within the business model in order to gauge interest and see where the profits could come from. - Josh
Josh- excellent map- by far the most detailed I have seen thus far- wow. So I actually learned quite a bit more from your map and the layout than I knew previously (thanks!). It is laid out in a way that is somewhat hierarchical I suppose- but it gave me better insight into who is 'in the room' so to speak. This, at its essence is why I like this exercise- because it can confer a LOT of info and it is fairly easy to follow. Well done! Giselle obviously also benefited because of her insights shared too! One thing that occurred to me: the group of organizations involved are arguably innovation space or tech industries or can be categorized as STEM industries...the digital divide is especially relevant here because the industry has been criticized as lacking in diversity and ensuring accessibility and equity more generally (as a field, with industry partners etc)...so we have a rather large contradiction when it comes to the virtual space and tech more generally...my question is: How do we create more equity and how do we address these challenges (which seem) endemic in the STEM fields? - Kate Abney
Yeah! I did my best to try to expand the stakeholders I know for sure is involved directly, to others that could possibly impact the project if we were to see it through all the way to implementation. I tried to broaden my range of how projects develop at Parque Tecnologico itself, as well as what I’ve observed with the internship program itself. I think this exercise was a very important one for me because it helped me learn about the business world and help make clear how complicated this interconnected network is in the real world. There are so many steps and obstacles that one must take in order to create a major impact in the market and break through it. Yes, I would agree with you that the groups involved directly with the projects that we interns did were STEM industries.
I think this problem with the digital divide inequality in STEM fields is related to our problems with poverty; it’s simply difficult to allow students to have the same level of STEM education if we don’t give them the resources needed to succeed. Especially for STEM programs, that not only means a computer and a strong connection (which in itself is a challenge for many students), but also software programs and other specialized digital technology to emulate in-person technical skills. Institutions must provide these resources to level the playing field, and ask the government to help given the resources they need might not be available during these unfortunate times. Also, to address the lack of diversity in STEM fields, we should boost the tech talent pool by inspiring students early on from diverse backgrounds (especially underrepresented communities and females). This has always been a problem in the field, but I think we need to take more initiatives not only to encourage students but also their parents about the benefits of STEM education (since they have the most influence on their children at a young age). We need to be more proactive in our approach and pool in our resources to invest in these young minds with high potential and bright futures ahead of them. - Josh
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