Stakeholders are representatives from each affected group in an organization. Your organization may call them by different names, but their functions remain the same. Your initiative may not require all of these groups of stakeholders, but if you follow our model for determining the full scope of involvement, you will know which ones you need by the end of the Planning phase.

The various stakeholders we list, along with how to select them and their roles and responsibilities during each phase, are

1. Upper Management—Usually persons at the executive level who initiate or support the initiative with financial resources;

2. Supervisors—Line managers in charge of operational (staff ) groups;

3. Change Manager—The manager who will drive the initiative and lead the change steering committee;

4. Training/Performance Analysts—Members of the educational group who oversee learning, knowledge, skill improvement, and performance management for the organization;

5. Human Resources—Members from the group who deal with employee issues;

6. Staff—Employees from the areas of the organization that will be affected by the change; and

7. Management Information Services—Members of the group that oversees the technical infrastructure of the organization.

In addition, you will find:

• Change steering committee—The team that leads the change initiative in the organization;

• Financial analyst—A staff member who specializes in budgeting, cost/benefit projections, and return on investment (ROI);

• Communication specialist—A staff member who writes releases, memos, and articles about the change initiative for the organization, intranet, and media; and

• Organization development analyst—A person who specializes in analyzing the interaction of the change steering committee.