Introduction to Stakeholder Management

Stakeholder management is the process by which you organise, monitor and improve your relationships with your stakeholders. It involves systematically identifying stakeholder; analysing their needs and expectations; and planning and implementing various tasks to engage with them. A good stakeholder management process will be the means through which you are able to coordinate your interactions and asses the status and quality of your relationship with various stakeholders. Most definitions of stakeholder management tend to focus around the idea that you can “manage your stakeholders (in order to get them to do what you want)”. The emphasis is placed on creating a stakeholder management plan that maps the level of interest and influence of stakeholders and list various levels of engagement for the different groups. A plan that is usually created at the start of the project and then filed away to gather dust. This course takes a different focus. We’re not going to show you how to herd sheep, put them in neat little pens and then pretend that they are all heading in the direction you want. In most cases there is a legal and a strategic objective to undertaking stakeholder engagement/consultation/management. You might have a statutory or legal requirement to consult. And you hopefully have a clear idea of the strategic benefits you might derive from doing it well. This course will show you how you can achieve both those objectives.

Completing this course should take you approximately 5 hours. Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• • Explain what Stakeholder management involves;
  • Describe and identify different principles of Stakeholder management
  • Describe the role of leadership in Stakeholder management.

Course Curriculum