Stakeholder Salience Model: Power, Legitimacy, and Urgency

Stakeholder Salience Model Attributes

Classes of stakeholders can be identified based on the possession of one, two, or all three of the attributes: power, legitimacy, and urgency.

Four Propositions of Stakeholder Classes

There are four propositions of the classes of stakeholders.

• Proposition 1: Stakeholder salience will be positively related to the cumulative number of stakeholder attributes.
• Proposition 2: Stakeholder salience will be low where only one of the stakeholder attributes—power, legitimacy, and urgency—is perceived by managers to be present (called Latent Stakeholders).
• Proposition 3: Stakeholder salience will be medium where two of the stakeholder attributes—power, legitimacy, and urgency—are perceived by managers to be present (called Expectant Stakeholders).
• Proposition 4: Stakeholder salience will be high where all three of the stakeholder attributes—power, legitimacy, and urgency—are perceived by managers to be present (called Definitive Stakeholders).

Detailed Stakeholder Classifications

1. Dormant Stakeholders: They have little or no interaction with the project, but the project manager should be aware of them.
2. Discretionary Stakeholders: They are unable to influence the project. There is no need for the project manager to interact with these stakeholders.
3. Demanding Stakeholders: These stakeholders are unable to enforce their demands and so can waste project resources. Be careful to respond appropriately to these stakeholder claims.
4. Dominant Stakeholders: With a combination of power and legitimacy, these stakeholders are important to the project; do not ignore them.
5. Dangerous Stakeholders: No legitimacy means these stakeholders can negatively affect project outcomes. Treat with caution.
6. Dependent Stakeholders: These stakeholders need others to help them reach their project objectives, collaborating with others as a vehicle for their claims.
7. Definitive Stakeholders: They can expect their project demands to be given priority, the highest degree of salience. Ideally, this will be the project sponsor.

Non-stakeholders: No project salience.