Identifying and managing internal and external stakeholder interests.

By Massawe Arkadi

Stakeholder is a person who has something to gain or lose through the
outcomes of a planning process, programme or project (Dialogue by Design 2008).

Stakeholder Engagement is the process of effectively eliciting
stakeholders views on their relationship with the
organisation/programme/project (Friedman and Miles 2006).

Stakeholder Analysis is a technique used to identify and assess the
influence and importance of key people, groups of people, or organisations that
may significantly impact the success of your activity or project (Friedman and
Miles 2006).

Stakeholder Management is essentially stakeholder relationship
management as it is the relationship and not the actual stakeholder groups that are managed (Friedman and Miles 2006).

As public participation becomes increasingly embedded in national and international public health policy, it becomes ever more crucial for decision-makers to understand who is affected by the decisions and actions they take, and who has the power to influence their outcome: the stakeholders. The stakeholder concept has achieved widespread popularity among academics, policy-makers, the media and corporate managers. Within the field of strategic
management the stakeholder concept has become firmly embedded. References to stakeholders are commonplace and the requirement to engage stakeholders in public sector organisational strategy and project design is a key priority in current government policy both within the NHS and local government sectors. Many of these organisations recognize that stakeholder engagement is not about giving the public a list of options to choose from its about drawing them in right from the start, so that their views, needs and ideas shape those options and the services that flow from them.

A technique to help identify which individuals or organisations to include in your programme /project is known as a stakeholder analysis. The following
stages have been identified to support the stakeholder analysis process:

1.      Identify and map internal and external stakeholders

2.    Assess the nature of each stakeholders influence and importance

3. Construct a matrix to identify stakeholder influence and importance

4.   Monitor and manage stakeholder relationships.

Identify and map internal and external stakeholders (and partnerships)

The start of any stakeholder engagement process is stakeholder mapping.
Stakeholder mapping identifies the target groups and pulls together as much information as possible about them. Stakeholders are by definition people who have a stake in a situation. Stakeholders can be described in organisation terms as, those who are maybe internal (e.g. employees and management) and those external (e.g. customers, competitors, suppliers
etc.).

However, within the field of public health the development of strategies, programmes and projects may well be undertaken on a cross-boundary, interdisciplinary way.  For example, a local health and well-being strategy may be developed by:

· Internal stakeholders who participate in the co-ordination, funding,
resourcing and publication of the strategy from a local health and
well-being partnership, the local Primary Care Trust and the local
authority;

· External stakeholders who are engaged in contributing their views and experiences in addressing the issues that are important to them as patients, service users, carers and members of the local community.