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1. Introduction
The concept, framework, philosophy and processes of the stakeholder approach have become an integral part of organisations and management (Freeman, 2010). During the past three decades, stakeholder theory has been growing steadily on the solid foundations laid by experts like Freeman (1984) and Clarkson (1995). Applications of stakeholder concept have also become wide-ranging and diverse like watershed management (Leach et al., 2002), healthcare (Campbell et al., 2004), logistics (Narayana et al., 2014) and R&D management (Elias, 2015).
Stakeholders are also critical to the success of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) projects (Psychogios et al., 2012). The LSS literature has acknowledged the importance of reaching an agreement with the stakeholders for the effective management of LSS projects (Laureani et al., 2010). Researchers have also reported that successful LSS projects were found to increase stakeholder satisfaction (Panat et al., 2014).
In real-world situations, managers responsible for LSS projects are confronted with the task of balancing the competing demands of a number of stakeholders who may hold very different worldviews. When these projects are in the public domain, the stakeholders of the project believe that they have a right to be involved in the decision process, because they can be affected by the ultimate policy choice (Gregory and Keeney, 1994). This demanding situation faced by the managers of LSS projects could ease if they could use appropriate frameworks to identify and analyse the stakeholders affected by their projects. In this context, some researchers have reported about conducting a preliminary stakeholder analysis; however, the LSS literature has not yet provided a methodical tool for analysing stakeholders of LSS projects.
This article aims at addressing this gap by illustrating a framework for analysing stakeholders of LSS projects. Specifically, it aims at developing an appropriate stakeholder analysis framework for LSS projects using the tools available in the stakeholder management and other related literature. This article also illustrates the application of this ten-step stakeholder analysis framework using an LSS project in a public sector organisation in New Zealand.
2. Stakeholder analysis in Lean Six Sigma literature
2.1 Overview of stakeholder management
The development of the stakeholder concept in the management literature can be classified into different stages. The origin of the term “stakeholder” in management...