Stakeholder Engagement and Communication Plan

The success of an organization’s project or a program depends on the extent to which all stakeholders get involved in the whole planning and implementation process. According to Jones, Wicks, and Freeman (2017), stakeholders are persons or parties who have an interest in the day to day running of an organization and they can either affect or get affected by the business. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), founded in 1929 as an Australia’s national broadcaster has some stakeholders including investors, customers, employees, and suppliers (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2018). ABC has a variety of services ranging from general radio broadcasting services to TV broadcasting. Although ABC has been operational for many decades, still programs can be created and executed as far as a successful stakeholder engagement and communication plan is developed. This paper provides the design of a TV program by succinctly analyzing the involvement of internal and external stakeholders, sponsors and developing an effective implementation plan to achieve the outcomes of the program.

Program Overview Statement

‘Area Code’ is the television program we intend to create and execute in ABC.

Problems/ Opportunities of the Program

1. Evidence of incompetence in the journalists’ ability to collect and analyze data.

2.  Public’s ignorance on issues concerning the history of different areas in the country.

3. Require extensive planning

4. Discrimination in development by the Australian government.

5. Increased crime rates and illegal business in remote areas in Australia

Program Goal

The goal of the “Area Code” program is to address the origin, history, and issues occurring in local regions in Australia. Other minor goals include;

1. To foster team members’ development of necessary competence as researchers, scholars, and activists, including their knowledge of the manner in which practice influences journalism.

2. To assist the public, know the history of the areas which they live

3. To foster developments in remote and local areas where people and the government has less concern in developing and improving life

4. To expose the secrets, harmful things and issues of underdevelopment which are hidden in remote areas where nobody thinks.

Project Objectives

The project will include;

1. Use of scientific research methods to collect information from different areas of the region

2. Application of analytic data procedures to analyze and compose news on ‘Area Code.’

3. Implementation of ethical research practice in gathering information from different regions

4. Succinct understanding of the role of science, psychological theories and intervention models in the collection of journalism data and information.

Program’s Success Criteria

As Kerzner and Kerzner (2017) cite, the program’s success criteria are those standards by which the program will be judged, and they decide whether the program is successful in the eyes of all stakeholders. For our program, the success criteria are based on two strategies, the in projects audits and the post-project review to ascertain the success of the program.

Assumptions, risks, and Obstacles

Perhaps it is assumed that during project execution, the planned cost for the program will remain constant. The project is subject to the risk of economic upheavals. Lack of monetary resources and time remains a significant obstacle for the program.

Establishing Project Lifecycle

Current and Future State of the Program

Currently, the program is in its initiation/introduction stage. Efforts are invested in ensuring necessary resources are gathered for the program’s effectiveness. Efforts are also made to ensure our personnel is well trained and equipped for the tasks. We intend to establish copyrights and trademarks or licenses in the near futures. We are also planning to build a strong workforce that will ensure the program remains relevant even at its optimal or declining stages.

Changes Required

            Recruitments:

Recruitment of journalists is required to achieve our immediate and future goals. Large workforce helps in easy collection of information and hence translates to the success of the program.

            Employee Training:

Members need to be equipped with skills in journalism research for the general success of the program.

Analysis of the Business Case Scenario

‘Area Code’ Television program for ABC comes with business opportunities to ABC, the government and even the members of the public.

            Benefits:

1. Creates awareness to the public concerning the history of their area

2. Source of income to project planners and implementers

3. Source of income to ABC as far as Australia’s media companies’ remuneration is concerned.

4. Exposure of risk cases, injustices, and issues of underdevelopment, and hence makes the general public aware

Challenges

1. Cost implications

2. Risk of terrorism during field surveys

3. Language barrier during actual data collection

4. The question of the scope creep in project management

Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholders

Evident Gaps

Change To Address The Gap

Involved Stakeholder

Stakeholder’s Name

Type of the Stakeholder

Innovation Director

Angela Clark

Internal

Permissions not yet granted

Documentation of the program

Television Director

Richard Finlayson

Internal

News and Current Affairs Director

Gaven Morris

Internal

Communications Director

Michael Millet

Internal

Activities are not scheduled effectively

Timely scheduling of activities

Program Manager

N/A

Internal

Team members are not well organized and informed of what they require

Training through seminars and conferences concerning the program

Chair of the Steering committee

N/A

Internal

Project Team members

N/A

Internal

Society

Australian

External

Unsecured legislations regarding copyright & Trademarks for the program

Prior application of licenses to the government

Government

Australia

External

Unable to purchase relevant machines, i.e. cameras

Prior establishment of financial security for the program

Sponsors

ABC

External

Policies and Procedures of Categorizing the Stakeholders

            Power and Influence policy: The stakeholders are grouped according to their power and level of interest to the program’s outcome. In this category, we have the program’ manager, steering committee, a television director and the innovation director.

            Power, Urgency and legitimacy Policy (The Salience Model): Stakeholders are classified as per their level of influence on the program, and how fast and legal their control has an impact on the program’s outcome. These stakeholders include the News and current affairs director, the government, the society, and the sponsors.

            Information Share

Information Shared

Involved Stakeholder

How Information is Shared

The cost of the Project

Sponsor

Email

Planning and scheduling of the Project

Project Manager

Email/Phone Call

Information for planning meetings

Communication Director

Email/Internal messaging system

Information on legislation and copyright issues

Government

Email/Memo/Official letter

Program Planning

 The Program’s Work Breakdown Structure

            Factors needed for Program Assessment;

1. Australian Environment Scan

2. Journalism material and literature review

3. Qualitative and quantities research methodology

4. Tools for analyzing collected data

Policy Recommendations;

1. Adopt a qualitative approach to the critical planning procedure of the program.

2. Allow all the activities documented in the WBS to be timely scheduled with set completion times.

Program Execution

Pre-Implementation

            Technical issues/Needs Assessment;

1. Need for research-based journalism practice

2. Need for accuracy in data collection

3. Accuracy in reporting

4. Skill in analyzing collected data

Sponsor Organization: ABC sponsors the project.

Implementation and Post Implementation Plan

Projected Risk

Mitigation/Change Management strategy

Involved Stakeholder

Economic upheavals

Perform periodic economic analysis and forecasting

Sponsor (ABC)

Political Instability

Ensure security is provided

Government

 Technical Issues

Ensure machines and information collection process is serviced

Communication Director

Scope Creep issues

Schedule operations effectively

Project Manager

Increased cost/financial risks

Perform periodic accounting & cost forecasting

Chair of Steering committee

Monitoring and Evaluation

Monitoring

According to Aguilar (1967), business environment refers to all those aspects or factors (controllable or uncontrollable) that affect the existence and operations of a business or an organization. The ‘Area Code’ program is subjected to the external business environment which includes those factors origination from outside the program, and they are uncontrollable.  Therefore, is necessary to monitor this external environment referred to PESTEL9 Political, Economic, social, technological, ecological and legal factors).

Perhaps the PESTEL factors are monitored through periodic scanning of the environment and potential risks originating from the environment. The industry environment is dynamic and is controlled through constant analysis of competitors in comparison to ABC. Stakeholder appraisal is done to monitor stakeholders such as suppliers and creditors. Internal auditing is done to control the internal environment. Also, accounting and frequent evaluation of the outcomes of the program is done to track cost and time.

Recording and Documenting Information

Print media will be essential in documenting information. The information will be recorded using digital cameras and digital audio capture. The data will be stored in the printed form, either as a soft copy or hard copy document. The printed copies will be supplied to external stakeholders for review through online delivery or a direct office delivery system.

Decision Making

Although the project is unique and essential, it has some shortcomings that require corrective action. Inability to collect data and analyze it by our team members and poor scheduling techniques are the major challenge. Perhaps intense training on schedule using the CPM (Critical Path Method) or PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) method is essential to correct these problems. Also, the members require training before beginning their duties.

References

Aguilar, F. J. (1967). Scanning the business environment. Macmillan.

 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), (2018): Retrieved October 7, 2018, from https://www.abc.net.au/

Jones, T. M., Wicks, A. C., & Freeman, R. E. (2017). Stakeholder theory: The state of the art. The Blackwell guide to business ethics, 17-37.

Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Appendix

PERT and CPM Methods in Project Scheduling

CPM

PERT