I’m studying and need help with a Management question to help me learn.
150 words each to discussion
apa format
Discussion 1
Week 5’s readings centered on Stakeholders and stakeholder management and engagement, which provide a vital aspect for any business, more so when it comes to project planning. Of utmost importance is the classification of various stakeholder groups after a well-informed analysis. The careful consideration of how each stakeholder plays a part in the organization’s activities and continuation is integral in ensuring that a good rapport is built with them to achieve business success.
The readings explain how an in-depth analysis of stakeholders is achieved, with the keen focus being placed on their wants, interests, and levels of participation throughout the project. Stakeholder management, as explained in the lesson, makes use of several tools. The power/interest matrix and the Cooperation-Threat matrix are especially crucial in deciding what actions to take up regarding a few dynamics around how different stakeholders affect the organization and its project planning and implementation phases.
In my opinion, stakeholder management is at the core of every organization’s functioning, survival, and eventual success. It is crucial to understand the different stakeholders and the public within and outside of the organization. This makes it possible to handle each of them differently and ensure that they are all satisfied with how operations, communication, and engagements are being carried out.
Different stakeholders have different levels of participation in an organization, and as such, urgency and importance is determined proportionately to the corresponding stakeholder’s involvement, importance, and several other determining factors. For instance, when project sponsors require feedback, it is prudent that the organization places a lot of importance and urgency on this matter to ensure that correspondence is swift. All matters concerning project planning and implementation are conducted with ease.
What I find particularly fascinating and useful is the simple classification of stakeholders under the power/interest matrix that also provides essential suggestions on how to handle the public/stakeholders depending on their levels of interest in the organization and project and the power/influence they have to influence the project’s undertakings.
In a nutshell, the four actions suggested are based on combining the parameters mentioned above that are put on the X and Y axes as Interest on the X-axis and Power on the Y-axis. The answers in the four quadrants therein show the level of stakeholder management required and the communication approaches to be employed for organizational success.
Stakeholders that rank high in both the Power and interest grid require closer management and attention than those who rank low in both. Stakeholders who rank high on Power but low on interest need to be kept satisfied at all times, whereas those with high Interest but little influential Power only require to be kept in the loop about what is happening with the project to ensure their continued support.
I intend to use this method to ensure that allocating time and resources to stakeholders is done effectively. This will have a ripple effect of focusing these crucial resources on stakeholders that have the most Power and Interest in the success of the project from the onset. This matrix will assist me in finding out which stakeholders I should follow closely and which ones I need to put the least effort into.
Discussion 2
The concepts, ideas, and methods that seemed relevant to my understanding are the definition of stakeholders and important players in the business entity (Berman et al., 1999) and the purpose and benefits of having stakeholders register. Further, the politics present in a project is illustrated, which is essential for a project manager to complete a project, i.e., with allocated time and cost. The significance of culture and its impact due to the differences, and the purpose of sharing a good professional relationship seem crucial for understanding and implementing a project. The five stakeholder tools, which are (i) power/interest matrix, (ii) cooperation threat matrix, (iii) stakeholder analysis template, (iv) stakeholder register, and (v) communication plan, seemed very interesting for understanding the relationship, influence among business players concerning communication, negotiation, and decision making.
Stakeholder management is essential to understand the people who have invested time, effort, and interest in the project planning and control. The understanding also extends to consider the stakeholders’ expectations and develop appropriate management strategies by involving the stakeholders in the planning and execution process. The stakeholder register concept is also quite essential as it helps to maintain all records relevant to project management and communication made to the stakeholder. This information generally includes project modules and interdependencies, interaction with other project players, and project actual and contingency plans.
Therefore, the stakeholder register can be considered as a project communication plan. Next, the politics of the project seems critical for the success of the project. The primary concern is the project environment, which includes resources such as material, human resources, and other factors that interest individual stakeholders. It is crucial as some agendas will be clearly stated in the project description, visible by all other project players. However, some information is not shared by stakeholders due to personal interest or professional gain. These need to be taken into consideration while planning project details. The cultural influence also seemed important, as, in project planning and management, it is imperative to establish effective communication among partners, collaborators, and stakeholders. These communications have the ability of a leader to alter the project’s details if required, establishing flexibility to consider. Further, effective communication implies a better position for negotiation (Suter, 2009).
This is important, as project requirements change over time that must be incorporated as per client requests, errors, etc. It also enables organizations to devise contingency plans to respond to uncertainties. The stakeholder management tools also help project managers and personnel establish a perspective of the type of working relationship based on power, interest corporation, threats, and engagement labels. These concepts seem crucial in context to project planning, with concerns for stakeholders in focus.
