Stakeholder Influences on Programs Paper
Melanie Bolanger
HSM/270
July 5, 2015
Dennis Cooper
Stakeholder Influences on Programs Paper
Stakeholders can be defined as all entities that are impacted through an organization running its operations and conducting other activities related to its existence. Stakeholders range from individual people to large-scale public and private organizations. In general, the organization’s most prominent stakeholders include owners and investors, personnel, customers, suppliers, creditors, host communities and the governments of those communities. An evaluation plan is a guide for a program and also shows stakeholders what is to be evaluated and how the evaluation will be conducted. Before a program can consider the needs and expectations of its stakeholders in the course of its planning they first need to identify those stakeholders and sort them in their order of importance to the program. Once the organization identifies its stakeholders and the importance that stakeholder has to the program, they can then begin to plan based on the needs and expectations of the stakeholder. Each stakeholder will have some concerns that they expect to be met by the organization. “The impact of stakeholder needs and expectations on businesses is inescapable and ubiquitous. Businesses exist to meet the expectations of one specific stakeholder in the sense that businesses are set up and operated to produce profit for their owners and investors. Businesses also must consider the needs and expectations of other stakeholders because of their ability to help and hinder their operations. For example, a business should be considerate of its host communities because that improves its reputation and strengthens its market presence. On the other hand, if the business chooses to ignore its host communities, that disregard becomes a black mark on its reputation and can result in other sanctions if relations become bad enough. The only stakeholders that businesses can ignore are the ones with little interest and influence on their operations.” (Li, 2015)
Staff members are very important stakeholders. Everything starts with the staff. The staff members need to be individuals who enjoy the work that they do every day. Staff must work together as a team in an honest, open, friendly environment. Everyone must do their part to enhance every possibility of success. Careful observation and well-documented evaluation must be undergone at all times. Audits can happen without notice at any given time, so the organization must always be prepared. Any potential problems need to be recognized and re-evaluated immediately to ensure that everything is on the right track that it should be, and that nothing will get in the way of the program running properly.
Financial institutions, large or small expect the program to follow the guide and do what it has stated that it was going to do. Proposals for grants are full of promises and guidelines that must be met at all costs. Not only will adhering to the program display professionalism, but it will also show that the organization becomes reputable and that further funding can be granted by other financial institutions for future programs or the continuation of the original one. There may be deadlines that are given for usage of the funds or guidelines that are given as to how, where, or when the funds are to be utilized. For obvious reasons, these expectations must be understood by everyone involved who is involved in the program.
The Continental Senior Center has decided to create a program plan that addresses the need within the community to help the elderly who are living at poverty level and get them more involved with the community. The mission of the Continental Senior Center is to “provide a balanced, diverse, and coordinated program and promotes the senior center as a model for the aging and aged. The Continental Senior Center promotes successful aging. The organization’s
