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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Stakeholder analysis and organisational social responsibility

Brightwater Utilities has used Mendelow's matrix to map stakeholders for a tariff increase. The board wants to know about a limitation of relying on the matrix alone for its stakeholder strategy. Which statement is the most valid limitation?

A key limitation is that the matrix is a snapshot of power and interest only. It does not show whether stakeholders are supportive or hostile, nor their legitimacy or urgency, and positions change over time, so the mapping must be updated and supplemented with other analysis.

  1. AIt ignores the level of stakeholder power altogether
  2. BIt provides a snapshot and does not by itself show stakeholder attitudes or legitimacy, nor how positions will change as events unfoldCorrect
  3. CIt only applies to external stakeholders
  4. DIt requires stakeholders to be classed as either shareholders or non-shareholders

Explanation

The matrix plots only power and interest at a point in time. It says nothing about whether a stakeholder is supportive or hostile, or about legitimacy and urgency (addressed by Mitchell's salience model), and it must be revisited as circumstances change. The other options misstate the model, which covers both internal and external stakeholders.

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