Understanding the high stakes of stakeholders [ABSTRACT]
Jinfo Blog

By Scott Brown

Abstract

Every department, and every business, has customers: the people who directly use the services of that department or business. In library and information services, we know who our customers are – those who use our services, databases and sources to get the information they need to do their work effectively.

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"Stakeholder" is a buzz word we hear a lot these days. Before we get started on identifying stakeholders, let’s establish what we mean. BusinessDictionary provides a good working definition of stakeholder: “A person, group, or organisation that has direct or indirect stake in (a department) because it can affect or be affected by the (department’s) actions, objectives, and policies”. (To keep things clear, for the purposes of this article, I’ll use “department” for any group within an organisation, and “organisation” to refer to the organisation as a whole.)

Every department, and every business, has customers: the people who directly use the services of that department or business. In library and information services, we know who our customers are – those who use our services, databases and sources to get the information they need to do their work effectively.

Of course, there is no question that our customers are important. They certainly have a direct stake in our work. However, we sometimes become so focused on our customers that we forget that our other stakeholders are also crucial to our survival.

Our stakeholders can certainly be our customers as well – they often need the information services that we provide. But in addition, they can also be our funders, our champions and our supporters within the organisation. They might be the department heads to whom we report directly. They might be the heads of other departments to whom we provide the majority of our services. Each stakeholder has a different and unique set of needs, and a set of needs that is broader than those of our customers.

We typically think of our stakeholders as our immediate management chain: the head of the department, whom that person reports to, and so on up the organisational chart. Helen Clegg, Knowledge Team Director within the global Procurement & Analytic Solutions unit of A.T. Kearney, defines a stakeholder as anyone who has an interest in the way an organisation or department provides products and services, and their successes and failures. Regarded in this way, stakeholders can be internal or external, senior or junior people. Stakeholders can also be individuals or groups within an organisation.

How do we identify our stakeholders? Helen suggests using a simple mind map. You don’t need technology to do this – you can simply use sticky notes or a flip chart, and brainstorm with your team.

When Helen’s Knowledge Team conducted this type of brainstorming, they identified key stakeholders, including the department’s leadership team, internal and external customers, external research partners, the department’s technical team, and the wider external research and knowledge community, among others. Stakeholders can span quite a spectrum.

Once you have a list of your individual and departmental stakeholders, and it’s likely to be a long list, you will need to prioritise them.

When thinking about your stakeholders and building relationships with them, you can think along two dimensions: the “power” of the stakeholder (influence/visibility) and the “interest” of the stakeholder (the awareness and/or support of the department’s services by the stakeholder).

While identifying and starting to connect with your stakeholders – and tending to their needs – can certainly help prevent downsizing and redundancy, ideally your stakeholder connections and relationships will grow your value and your department’s influence within the organisation. In the next article, we’ll look at how you can approach building your communication plan with your stakeholders, and start on the road to stronger stakeholder relations.

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