TABLE 3.2: Stakeholder Checklist

Diversity

To what extent:

Are the key stakeholders diverse in terms of their professions or worldviews?

Have leaders adopted a common language for implementing the change that is familiar to most or all stakeholders?

Are efforts being made toward building trust regarding the change initiative?

Perceptions

To what extent:

Do stakeholders feel intensely that the proposed change will adversely affect them?

Are resistant stakeholders likely to negatively affect timelines or the overall success of the change?

Is the change initiative likely to gain the support of stakeholders who perceive they will gain from the change?

Collaborative Networks

To what extent:

Are explicit, multidirectional, regular communication and collaboration structures and processes in place to facilitate the sharing of accurate information and feedback?

Are organizational performance plans and individual performance appraisals used as tools for communicating about and collaborating on planning and implementing changes in operations?

Are conflict resolution techniques available to address disagreements or misgivings about the change initiative?

Are stakeholder interests managed through a network of key stakeholders and program managers, rather than through a separate function (e.g., public affairs)?

Sociopolitical Environment

The sociopolitical environment is the context in which the change takes place. This includes legal and policy mandates and constraints, economic and fiscal conditions, and the levels of support and trust the agencies receive from key political actors and the general public.

External demands on public organizations include legal and regulatory constraints and initiatives, catastrophic events (such as 9/11) that expand agency requirements, and political and citizen support that may influence what is possible. Critical external actors can be supportive, express opposition, or remain neutral regarding an organization and its change initiative. A public organization’s credibility or image, its legal flexibility, and its budgetary resources are a function of both the external environment and the internal capabilities of leadership.

Change leaders must assess the environment to identify potential opportunities and problem areas, as well as their organization’s capacity to respond to environmental factors. In assessing organizational capacity, leaders must first determine whether the organization has an ongoing process for monitoring the external environment to identify potential problem areas and opportunities that may affect the change initiative. Second, leaders must determine whether the organization has developed structures and processes that can influence the external environment (to the extent possible) to support the change initiative.

Two approaches to addressing the sociopolitical environment are environmental scanning and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. Environmental scanning is “the internal communication of external information about issues that may potentially influence an organization’s decision-making process. Environmental scanning focuses on the identification of emerging issues, situations, and potential pitfalls that may affect an organization’s future” (Albright 2004). Information gathered through environmental scanning is provided to key leaders and managers within the organization and is used to guide future plans and change efforts.

SWOT analysis generally involves a group planning exercise that may include both internal and external stakeholders, to ensure that all views are available to the organization. Both SWOT analysis and environmental scanning are used to evaluate an organization’s strengths and weaknesses in response to external opportunities and threats. Successful change organizations are adept at both analyzing and reacting to their sociopolitical environments.

Based on our research, we have developed a list of issues that change leaders should consider when assessing the impact of the external environment on a change effort and the capacity of the organization to address the changing environment. These issues are listed in Table 3.3.