Who Are Your Stakeholders

Imagine that you have taken two weeks off from work for a vacation. When you get back, you will likely have a lot of messages to respond to and people to call back. To whom do you respond first? You will likely have to check in with some of the internal managers and external clients, and you will have to see how certain projects and initiatives progressed while you were away. Which do you check first and why? Your response to these questions likely identifies and ranks some of the key stakeholders within your organization. Your responses may also identify your own biases regarding who you determine is a key stakeholder versus who is not. For this week’s Individual Reflection, you examine the relationship and influence certain stakeholders have on financial decisions.

To prepare for this Individual Reflection, select the firm where you work or a firm with which you are familiar. Then, take a few minutes to list the top stakeholders of the organization, industry, or firm you have selected. Be sure the list has at least five stakeholders, but stop when you reach 10. After making the list, put it away for about an hour.

After the hour has passed, take a look at your list and begin to categorize the stakeholders according to the table provided in the “Who Are Your Stakeholders?” document, located in this week’s Learning Resources area.

Categorize each stakeholder as an internal stakeholder, one of the main external stakeholders, or an “other” external.

Note: The table has three columns labeled “Internal,” “Main External,“ and “Other External.

After placing the stakeholders from your original list into the three categories, review the firm’s mission, vision, and values. Now, examine your table and continue adding stakeholders in each category until you have listed at least four stakeholders for each category.

Next, review your table and write a 2 page paper that addresses the following:

1-A determination of whether you think the list you have created is a balanced representation of stakeholders. Provide a rationale as to why it is or is not.
2-A reflection on why you identified the stakeholders you did and a consideration of the potential biases, based on experiences or roles that you play in your organization, that narrow or widen whom you identify as stakeholders.
3-An explanation of whether this exercise informed your understanding of the financial decisions being made at the organization and why.