Mendelow Model

It is important for organisations to understand which groups of stakeholders can influence them the most as these stakeholders probably cannot be ignored. 

The Mendelow framework is used to understand the influence that each stakeholder has over the organisation’s strategy and objectives.

The organisation’s strategy for relating to its stakeholders depends on which part of the map the stakeholder falls into. This enables organisations to prioritise which stakeholders are more important than others.

1. Clearly, those stakeholders with high power and high interest are the most importance. They cannot be ignored and need to be actively managed by an organisation. It may be difficult if there are a several stakeholders in that section of the map as they may have competing claims and it will be difficult for the organisation to please all of them.
2. Stakeholders with high power and low interest must be kept satisfied as if they are concerned about the organisation’s operations it would be easy for them to take an interest and suddenly be influential.
3. Stakeholders with low power and high interest are interested in the organisation but have little power. They may be able to increase that power by forming alliances with other stakeholders. The organisation must keep them informed and watch their power base.
4. Stakeholders with low power and low interest can largely be ignored, although this strategy does not take into account any ethical considerations towards those stakeholders.