Stakeholder Analysis in the Context of Project Management


Seminar Paper, 2009

19 Pages, Grade: 1,3


Excerpt


Table of contents

List of figures

Management Summary

1. Introduction

2. What is a stakeholder?

3. Classification in project management
3.1 Stakeholder analysis as part of a project environment analysis
3.2 Stakeholder analysis as part of stakeholder management

4. Procedure of a stakeholder analysis
4.1 Identifying stakeholders
4.2 Classification of stakeholders
4.3 Assessment of stakeholders

5. Critical consideration

6. Stakeholder analysis - A critical success factor for Projects?

8. Conclusion

Bibliography

List of figures

Figure 1: Simplified stakeholder map according to Gomez

Management Summary

Due to the change of our society from an industrial society to an information society, the number of projects in companies and at the same time their degree of complexity is increasing. This complexity of projects brings with it some problems. One of them is the number of stakeholders, which also increases as the size of the project increases. A stakeholder is a person or group of people who is positively or negatively affected by the project or its product. in short: A person who has an interest in the project. With the number of stakeholders, the diversity of interests also increases. If there is a variety of interests, sooner or later conflicts naturally arise. These conflicts can significantly jeopardize the success of the project.

To counter this problem, there is stakeholder analysis. It is typically divided into the steps of identification, classification and assessment and is carried out either as part of a project environment analysis or as part of a stakeholder management.

Due to the importance of the stakeholders or their incongruent interests with regard to the project already described above, she argues that a stakeholder analysis is a critical success factor for projects. On the basis of the results of three studies from the years 2006-2008 by the German Society for Project Management e.V. (GPM), this was examined for its truthfulness.

The thesis could not be easily substantiated. Although the results of the studies suggest a high importance of communication in the project and stakeholder management, it cannot be concluded beyond doubt that stakeholder analysis is a critical success factor for projects. Nevertheless, it can at least be recognized that stakeholder analysis plays an important role for recognized critical success factors such as project communication or stakeholder management. Stakeholder analysis lays the foundation here.

1. Introduction

We are in the midst of economic change. Our society is changing from an industrial society to an information society. But this change is not only of a social and cultural nature. Above all, it is also an economic one. As a result of this economic change, companies also have to change or inevitably have to change in order to keep up with this development. These revolutionary changes within companies sometimes require very complex projects. A successful implementation of such projects can therefore be seen as a success factor.1

As the complexity of a project increases, so does the influence of the human factor on the success of this project.2 An important part of this human factor is made up of the stakeholders of the project. The concept of stakeholder is examined and defined in more detail in Chapter 2. Due to the importance of the human factor, i.e. above all the stakeholders in projects, one could assume that the recording and assessment of these stakeholders, i.e. the stakeholder analysis, is a critical success factor for the projectmanagement in today's world. It is precisely this thesis that is to be tested in this work.

Before that, however, it takes a closer look at stakeholder analysis. In Chapter 3, stakeholder analysis is classified in project management. Chapter 4 deals with the typical process of a stakeholder analysis. Here it is shown which steps are carried out in a stakeholder analysis. This is followed by a critical consideration of a stakeholder analysis in Chapter 5. Possible problems with the implementation are shown here. The actual thesis of this work is presented in Chapter 6 on the basis of three recent studies by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement e.V. (GPM) in cooperation with the PA Consulting Group from the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. On the basis of the results of these studies, an attempt is made to check whether stakeholder analysis is a critical success factor for projects.

2. What is a stakeholder?

To understand how a stakeholder analysis works and what benefits it has for a project, you first have to be clear about what a stakeholder actually is. The term stakeholder originally comes from business administration. In German, it is usually equated with claims or interest groups. In the Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon you will find the following definition for groups of appeals:

"Stakeholder groups are all internal and external groups of persons who are directly or indirectly affected by the entrepreneurial activities now or in the future."3

For the term stakeholder in the context of project management, the definition is similar:

"Person or group of people involved in the project, in the Projis interested in the course of the project or is affected by the impact of the project."4

As the above definitions show, entire groups of people can be stakeholders in both the business and project management contexts.

3. Classification in project management

In the previous section, the concept of stakeholder was used in particular in the context of Projectmanagement defined. The definition there shows that it is not possible to define in general which persons are stakeholders for ProjEc. — (EC) For each project, it must be checked individually which persons have an interest in the project or are influenced by it in any way. This is where stakeholder analysis comes into play as a tool. In the following, it will be shown when and in what context the stakeholder analysis is carried out in the project.

3.1 Stakeholder analysis as part of a project environment analysis

The project environment analysis serves the project manager as an early warning system in order to identify negative influencing factors from the project environment as early as possible and to find measures to reduce or eliminate the effect of these influences.5 In order to achieve this main objective, several sub-objectives must be pursued.

All boundary conditions of the project must be recognized and recorded, e.g. Standards, laws, regulations to be observed. All stakeholders of the project, i.e. the stakeholders, as well as the nature of their interests must be recognized. Furthermore, the opportunities, potentials and risks of the project must be identified as early as possible. In addition, possibilities for action must be shown how the project environment can be influenced in favor of the project. Another goal of the project environment analysis is the documentation of the results obtained.6

These goals reflect the importance of early recognition of the situation in the project environment. Therefore, it is obvious that the project environment analysis usually before the actual project planning7 or at the beginning of which is carried out8. After that, it should be carried out iterating or at certain points in the project, e.B milestones, in order to check whether new influencing factors in the projor whether any measures to influence the project environment have had an effect.9

3.2 Stakeholder analysis as part of stakeholder management

Stakeholder management focuses on the stakeholders of the project and the interplay of their different interests in the project.

Thus, stakeholder management focuses on the communicative and social component of a projektes.

The main goal of stakeholder management is to identify the various stakeholders and to capture their interests and needs so that they can then be incorporated into the project planning and execution. Thus, it should be achieved that the Project goals and stakeholder goals are as congruent as possible.10 At the beginning of a project, the Project targets and the objectives of some stakeholders can be indifferent. In the course of stakeholder management, measures are sought to reconcile the goals of the stakeholders with those of the project. As a result, the highest possible target congruence is sought. To keep stakeholder resistance to the project as low as possible.

On the basis of the above explanations, it can be seen that stakeholder analysis plays an essential role in stakeholder management.

4. Procedure of a stakeholder analysis

After the stakeholder analysis has been classified in the course of a project in the last section, it is now necessary to clarify how a stakeholder analysis takes place in a project. The stakeholder analysis is usually divided into three steps: Identification of stakeholders, classification of stakeholders and assessment of stakeholders11 These three steps will be explained in more detail below.

4.1 Identifying stakeholders

The first step of stakeholder analysis is obvious. In order to be able to analyze stakeholders, they must be identified beforehand. Section 2 defined what constitutes a stakeholder, especially in the context of a project. Consequently, the project itself, as well as the environment of the ProjTo be searched for persons and groups of people who have an interest in projor be positively or negatively influenced by the project during implementation or after its completion.

It is important to note that you can have both positive and negative attitudes towards the project. Therefore, it is first of all necessary to identify the opponents of the project. Because this group has the power of the projto prevent ecterfolg.12

In addition, you should not only look for stakeholders internally, but also expand your view beyond the company's boundaries in order to find any external stakeholders. This is particularly important if the end product of the project leaves the boundaries of the company.13

Once all relevant stakeholders of the Project have been identified, it is important to classify them.

4.2 Classification of stakeholders

In the stakeholder analysis, the identification of the stakeholders is followed by the classification of the found stakeholders as a second step. This is primarily about finding out how strong the stakeholders of the Project are affected. Another important aspect is the attitude of stakeholders to the project. It is therefore important to clarify which stakeholders are positive, neutral or negative towards the project. Gomez has developed a so-called stakeholder map to visualize the results.14 Figure 2 shows such a stakeholder map in a simplified way.

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Figure 1: Simplified stakeholder map according to Gomez

Source: Oechtering,R., Proiektrisiken, 2003, p.3.

Stakeholders are allocated according to their attitude to one of four groups (promoters, proponents, neutrals, opponents). Their position in the map expresses their concern from the projekt. The closer they are to the center, the more affected they are. An important factor that is not included in Gomez's stakeholder map is the influence of stakeholders on the project. It should be noted that power is played out more strongly in a negative attitude of the stakeholder than in a positive attitude.15 By estimating for each stakeholder his concern and attitude to the project, as well as his power to influence the project, you get a first differentiated picture from each stakeholder for which measures for communication can be derived.

[...]


1 cf. Gomez, P., Komplexe, 2002, p.31f.

2 cf. ibid., p.76.

3 Gabler Verlag (ed.), Wirtschaftslexikon, 2000, p.140.

4 Motzel, E., Projekt-Management Lexikon, 2006, p. 202.

5 cf. Hillebrand, N., Projektumfeldanalyse, 2000, p.26f.

6 cf. Angermeier, G., Projectumfeldanalyse, 2009.

7 cf. Hillebrand, N., Projektumfeldanalyse, 2000, p.27.

8 cf. Kuster, J., Handbook, 2008, p.176.

9 cf. Hillebrand, N., Projektumfeldanalyse, 2000, p.27 and Angermeier, G., Projectumfeldanalyse, 2009.

10 cf. Weilacher, S., Stakeholdermanagement, 2005, p. 1.

11 cf. Gomez, P., Komplexe, 2002, p. 88ff.

12 cf. Gomez, P., Komplexe, 2002, p.88.

13 cf. ibid., p.89f.

14 cf. Gomez, P., Komplexe, 2002, p. 91f.

15 cf. Weilacher, S., StakeholderManagement, 2005, p.3.

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Details

Title
Stakeholder Analysis in the Context of Project Management
College
Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences
Grade
1,3
Author
Year
2009
Pages
19
Catalog Number
V1150466
ISBN (eBook)
9783346527547
Language
English
Keywords
stakeholder, analysis, context, project, management
Quote paper
Christian Lang (Author), 2009, Stakeholder Analysis in the Context of Project Management, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1150466

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