Analyzing Stakeholders Using Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping

Stakeholder analysis was first explored as a methodology to assist business leaders with their strategic management functions. Stakeholder analysis has since expanded beyond the corporate arena. Stakeholders are a vital element in all complex systems problems; they are the customers, users, clients, suppliers, employees, regulators, and team members of a system. They fund a system, design it, build it, operate it, maintain it, and dispose of it. Each stakeholder contributes their own value-added perspective, as described by the systems principle known as complementarity. While many approaches exist for classifying and determining their attitudes, these approaches stop short of evaluating stakeholders in a holistic and dynamic manner. This paper closes this research gap by discussing an approach to managing stakeholders using fuzzy cognitive mapping, an approach which allows for qualitative and quantitative evaluation of stakeholders on a given problem. The developed approach extends previous work by the author to showcase how stakeholders may be mapped holistically and dynamically. © 2015 The Authors.