Critically analyse stakeholder theory in a real-life business or a project setting, with specific emphasis on relevant internal and external environment factors. In doing so, you are required to employ a stakeholder matrix and mapping techniques to determine the extent of stakeholder influence and interest.
Stakeholder analysis is a technique for identifying stakeholders and analysing their roles in a given business or project scenario. The aim of the analysis is to map out and manage the stakeholders’ level of influence and degree of interest. Stakeholder analysis can also be used to assess the relationships between different stakeholders, as well as the issues they care about in the internal and external business environments.
Internal stakeholders are individuals or groups who are directly involved in a business/project and include owners, board members, managers, employees, and investors.
External stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, competitors, society and government are stakeholders who are indirectly impacted and influenced by the business or project activities. Understanding both internal and external stakeholders of a business/project is important as it helps to:
• engage and enhance communication with relevant stakeholders
• reduce/prevent/manage risks, and identify opportunities
• improve internal stakeholder commitment, and
• improve business reputation amongst external stakeholders.
1. Selection of the business or a project scenario
2. Assessment 2 Discussion Forum activity
3. Based on the selected business organisation or project, you are required to write an up to 2500-word report on its internal and external stakeholder analysis.
4. The stakeholder analysis report should address the following points:
Identify and analyse the functional areas of the business/project.
• Scan the macroeconomy for recent developments and comment on the future economic outlook of the business. Based on verifiable evidence, discussion MUST include the current macroeconomic environment, industry outlook and competition landscape.
• Identify the important internal and external stakeholders, and comment on their interests and level of engagement in the business/project.
• Create a stakeholder matrix, and corresponding stakeholder mappings.
• From the discussion forums, choose a peer’s contribution, which MUST be in an unrelated industry and business/project to yours. Then, compare your industry and business/project against that of your chosen peer’s.
NOTE: if your assessment is on a project, it MUST be compared against another project in an unrelated industry.
• You are required to support your observations, statements and claims with relevant theoretical and conceptual frameworks, including evidence from credible sources.
• Note: PESTEL and Porter’s 5 Forces are good tools to help you identify most of the external stakeholders.
5. Structure and format of the report
Your individual stakeholder analysis should follow standard report structure and include the following:
• Cover page: You may use the formal Torrens University coversheet. Or a simple one with student details (student name, ID, Subject code & name, Assessment number and title, Lecturer/LF).
• Executive Summary: Provide a concise summary of the report in bullet points.
• Introduction: The aim of the report, and background information about the selected business/project.
• Main body:
• Identify the functional areas of the business/project.
• Present the macroeconomic scenario and outlook.
• Identify internal and external stakeholders, and their roles.
• Identify the nature and degree of main stakeholders’ interests, and implications of conflicting interests.
• Identify the level of the main stakeholders’ influence.
• Create a stakeholder matrix, and corresponding stakeholder mappings.
• From the discussion forums, choose a peer’s contribution, which MUST be in a dissimilar industry and business/project to yours. Against your peer’s:
- Compare your industry and business/project operations; analyse the competition landscape, and
- Identify the main points of stakeholder dissimilarities, and analyse the differences in their interests and influences.
• Conclusion: summarise the aim and findings of the report. There should not be any new information that was not captured in the introduction and main body in the conclusion
• References
• Appendices
You are REQUIRED to include the responses of the Discussion Forum activities (i.e., your responses, and critique of your peer’s responses) as Appendix. (Note: You can copy/screenshot and paste your Discussion Forum activities in the appendices).
• This report consists of a stakeholder analysis of Anytime Fitness which is one of the leading fitness organizations in Australia.
• It has been identified that stakeholders are a very important part of a business as they can impact and get impacted by a business. MBA Assignment Expert
• Different functional departments of Anytime Fitness are human resource management, marketing, board of directors, etc.
• It has been identified that employees, the board of directors, managers etc are internal stakeholders of Anytime Fitness.
• External stakeholders of Anytime Fitness are government, consumers, suppliers, etc.
Anytime Fitness is a fitness-related organization that operates in Australia. The organization has stated that it will make the way of being fit easier for common people. Around Australia, it has opened multiple fitness clubs and gym where people can train themselves according to their needs and desires. The organization has established more than 500 clubs in Australia and those clubs are open 24*7 (Anytime fitness Australia 2022). The organization is one of the leading fitness-related organizations in Australia. The organization has arranged high security and security services for its members. One of the biggest USPs of Anytime Fitness is that it has included diversity. In Anytime Fitness an individual can do weight lifting, cardio, and group workouts, and also can have a personal trainer. The organization has more than 500,000 members. Different members have different success stories to outline. The organization has also decided to help its members by suggesting different tips such as how to make nutritious meals, how to ensure better and quality sleeping, etc. The organization has included sustainability in the business (Anytime fitness Australia 2022). According to the organization, anyone can achieve fitness goals, therefore these clubs are for anyone and at any time. As different people have different kinds of fitness needs, therefore the organization has managed to provide different kinds of services to different people. An individual by entering the organization can ensure access to 500 clubs around Australia and can-do fitness activities at any time. Objectives of the organization make it unique and different from others as the organization has stated anyone can achieve any kind of fitness goal at any time.
Administrative department's activities-
• The administrative department refers to the administration of different tasks performed and completed by different operational departments in the organization.
• Supervising different tasks performed by different operational teams and the progress toward the goal is one of the main activities of the administration team (Nguyen et al., 2018).
• Ensuring good communication between workers and different operational departments to ensure objective-oriented performance is another activity of the administrative department.
• Inspiring workers while controlling and supervising different organizational tasks to ensure the fulfillment of organizational goals is another important task of the administration department.
• Stimulating a disciplined environment to ensure proper discipline and maintenance of the work environment is another task of the administration department (Nguyen et al., 2018).
Human resource management's activities-
• Hiring, recruiting, selecting new employees, and training them to achieve organizational goals is one of the tasks of the HRM department.
• Ensuring cultural development and helping workers to do their tasks which will ensure the fulfillment of organizational goals is another task of the HRM department.
• Supervising direct hiring, development considerations, training procedures, etc are also part of HRM activities in Anytime Fitness (Nguyen et al., 2018).
Marketing team's activities-
• Promoting the brand is one of the main activities of the marketing department. Nowadays, a brand has multiple ways to promote itself. In Anytime Fitness the marketing team decides what will be the ways of promoting the organization and the brand to get the attention of the maximum number of people.
• Conducting market research is also a marketing activity. Conducting research about various factors such as the taste of consumers, etc is also a marketing activity.
• Offering consumer service is also a marketing activity. In an organization consumers can face different problems; marketing team tries to resolve those issues.
Finance department's activities-
• Supervising every financial transaction within the organization is one of the tasks of the finance department at Anytime Fitness.
• Controlling the cash flow and paying according to the paying capacity of the organization is also a task of the finance department.
Production team's activities-
• Offering sustainable and effective service to members of the organization.
• Including the latest innovations, and technologies to increase customer satisfaction Frue, 202019.
External and internal stakeholders of Anytime Fitness and their roles
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Political factors |
Anytime Fitness mainly operates in Australia, therefore different tariffs might not impact the organization at the highest level. Australia has a close relationship with the United States of America, but still, there are trade barriers that impact various organizations with great intensity. Anytime Fitness is a fitness-related organization, therefore sometimes imports various kinds of fitness types of equipment from various countries. As there are very strict rules and regulations regulated in these areas, therefore it appears as a tough issue that might impact the business of Anytime Fitness (Frue, 2019). |
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Economic factors |
Different economic factors such as inflation rate, and foreign exchange rate have a great impact on any organization's economic climate. These factors can directly impact the net demand, net value, net profit net investment of the organization. Therefore, these economic factors can impact the business of Anytime Fitness heavily. The impact can be both negative and positive side as fluctuations can take part in the economy (Frue, 2019). |
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Social factors |
The pandemic has taken many lives. Due to minimal immunity power, and bad food habits many people have suffered from the pandemic. Therefore, a large number of people transferred their lifestyle to a healthy lifestyle, where they exercise and have healthy meals. This fact has impacted the business of Anytime Fitness positively and it will impact positively in the future also (Chen & Wang, 2021). |
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Technological factors |
Technological advancements were always part of Australian culture. The nation has always spent on technologies to ensure efficiency and success in different areas (Murray & Williams, 2021). Anytime Fitness is a fitness club that includes various clubs within it, therefore the organization has emphasized technologies that can increase the level of efficiency in exercises and that can impact the business of the organization positively. |
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Environmental factors |
The Australian government has regulated very strict rules related to sustainability. If an organization performs business in Australia then it will have to maintain those rules regulated by the government. These rules can impact the business of Anytime Fitness. If the organization does not obey these rules then the organization can be penalized for disobedience. These factors can impact the business of Anytime Fitness (Marques et al.,2019). |
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Legal factors |
The Australian government has regulated various legislations that can impact the business of Anytime Fitness. Legislations such as consumer safety laws, codes of conduct, business ethics, child labor laws, etc can impact a business if these laws are not maintained properly. Henceforth, Anytime Fitness can get impacted by these laws if these laws are not maintained properly (Frue, 2019). |
External stakeholders of Anytime Fitness:
The main external stakeholders of Anytime Fitness are members of the club, suppliers, competitors, government
Members of the club refer to consumers of the club. These consumers are an important part of the whole business is around them. Consumers can impact the business of Anytime Fitness by impacting the financial turnover, the profitability of the organization, etc. Therefore, Anytime Fitness always tries to satisfy its consumers by offering good profitable services and looking to increase the consumer base to ensure the betterment of the organization (Hochstein & Bolander, 2017). Anytime Fitness has launched a feedback and help desk for consumers where they can share their feedback and get solutions to problems related to Anytime Fitness.
Suppliers are also important stakeholders of Anytime Fitness. The organization operates in Australia, therefore suppliers are mainly from Australia and some types of equipment come from other countries. Suppliers can impact the supply chain and other activities of Anytime Fitness, therefore Anytime Fitness tries to maintain a good relationship with existing suppliers and also try to make a diversified supply chain to minimize the impact of a single supplier.
Competitors are also considered important stakeholders in Anytime Fitness. Anytime Fitness faces competition from other small and big fitness clubs such as Goodlife, World Gym and Plus Fitness (Canstar Blue, 2022). These clubs try to offer better services to consumers, try to offer more affordable prices, etc. To minimize the impact of competitors the organization tries to offer high-quality service at a possible minimum cost. The organization tries to offer the best customer service to ensure the minimum impact of competitors in the business.
The government regulates rules and regulations that can impact the business of Anytime Fitness extremely (Lehtinen & Aaltonen, 2020). Therefore, the organization tries to obey regulations that are regulated by the government to ensure the minimum impact of regulations on the business.
Internal stakeholders of Anytime Fitness:
The Board of directors, employees, franchise owners, and managers are the main internal stakeholders of Anytime Fitness:
The Board of directors of Anytime Fitness refers to the higher authority of the organization. The higher authority has an extreme level of power in the business. The higher authority takes strategic decisions, makes strategies, etc. The board of directors supervises different functional areas of the business to find out the progress toward organizational goals. As the authority is capable of running the business according to its will, therefore it has great power and can impact the business of Anytime Fitness extremely.
Employees are the most valuable asset of an organization. An organization can achieve higher levels with the efficiency of workers. In Anytime Fitness workers are divided into various functional groups that work together to achieve business objectives. From developing the website of the organization to training a member of the group everything is dependent on the employees of the organization. Therefore, workers have also a significant impact on the business as they are the main pillars behind running the organization.
Franchise Owners are also a kind of internal stakeholders. Without them, the organization cannot expand business activities as a business requires capital to run the business. Franchise owners help the brand to promote in the international market.
Managers are also very important stakeholders of Anytime Fitness. The organization has multiple functional departments that help the organization run the business successfully. These functional departments have line managers who manage tasks of different departments and ensure they fulfill organizational objectives. Therefore, the role of these managers is significant as they help to align tasks with organizational objectives. The contribution of managers helps them to appear as valuable stakeholders of Anytime Fitness.
The concept of degree and nature of different stakeholders is categorized into various groups. Those groups are such as social change, economic environment, physical health, time, etc. For example, the development and training of workers in Anytime Fitness can help them to appear as more compact and updated workers in the workplace. Not just that training and development of workers also can help workers to train members of the organization rightly. That training can bring changes in the life of members of Anytime Fitness. It can also increase the engagement of workers in the workplace as they will find more interest in working with new features. On the other hand, changing the lifestyle of members and helping them to become fit can help the organization make social changes. Fitness can be a regular part of life and it that also be beneficial for various reasons. All these factors can be favorable for Anytime Fitness to ensure increased stakeholders' interest in the business.
Anytime Fitness has multiple stakeholders and all these stakeholders have different interests and which can bring conflict in the organizational environment. Investors in Anytime Fitness believe that they can take important decisions as they fund the business. On the other hand, employees expect the organization to create a flexible working life that also can help to live a personal life. Managers of the organization believe that they can be addressed as individual leaders in different functional groups. According to the act of Constitutions and Corporation 2001, an organization’s board of directors needs to address it clearly if anyone has any kind of interest related to the company's benefit then the person should communicate with the board of directors directly (Svensson & Hambrick, 2019). As Anytime Fitness includes various kinds of stakeholders in the business, therefore the organization should manage these stakeholders according to their ways of interest and should make the most of these stakeholders to ensure the betterment of the business.
There are different stakeholders of Anytime Fitness that have been discussed previously in the study. All these stakeholders have different interests and also have different power and authority in the business. Some stakeholders have great power and authority, some stakeholders have relatively less power and authority in the business (Fusch Hall & Fusch, 2018). All these stakeholders of Anytime Fitness have a different level of ability to influence the business. The board of directors’ end managers have the power to dictate the strategic direction of the organization. On the other hand, franchise owners also invest in the business. Competitors of Anytime Fitness have great influential power as competitors' pricing strategies, marketing strategies can create great pressure on Anytime Fitness. Employees have less influential power in the organizational environment. Consumers have also highly influential powers as they can impact the financial figures of the organization.
The stakeholder matrix is one of the important analyses that help to categorize different stakeholders into different groups. There are different kinds of stakeholders that have different kinds of power. There are stakeholders that have high power and also have high interest, some stakeholders have high power but have less interest, some stakeholders have low power and high interest, and some stakeholders have low power and low interest also (Golestaneh et al., 2021).
Figure: Stakeholders' Matrix
Source: Created by the author
High power with high interest (manage closely):
The Board of directors and competitors have great power in the business of Anytime Fitness. Both of these stakeholders can impact the business of Anytime Fitness immensely. Therefore, the organization will try to manage these stakeholders closely. Therefore, the strategy of competitors will be looked at closely and the board of directors will be managed closely (Panwar & Garg, 2022).
High power, low interest (keep satisfied) :
Consumers of Anytime Fitness have great power but consumers do not have too much interest in the business consumers can impact the financial figures of the organization but they don't have the interest to interfere in any part of the business. Henceforth, Anytime Fitness will keep its consumers satisfied to ensure the proper function of the business.
Low power, high interest (keep informed):
In Anytime Fitness workers have low power but have a great interest in the business. Therefore, the organization will keep informed these workers about various areas of the business to ensure the proper function of the business (Panwar & Garg, 2022).
Low power and low interest (monitor):
Suppliers of Anytime Fitness can be addressed as stakeholders that have less power and less interest. These stakeholders will be monitored by the organization to ensure the proper function of the business (Nguyen et al., 2018).
A comparison of Anytime Fitness can be conducted with the food industry. Stakeholders of the food industry are:
Employees are the internal stakeholders of this industry. In this industry, workers are significant as they design strategies and also imply those strategies to get objective-oriented results.
Customers also play a significant role as stakeholders. In the food industry consumers define the success of an organization, therefore they are also very important stakeholders.
The community needs to be pleased if an organization offers food to its consumers. As food is the most necessary thing an individual needs, therefore the community needs to be satisfied.
The government also plays an important part as a stakeholder because various rules are formed by the government to ensure the proper function of every business organization. Therefore, the government also plays a significant role as a stakeholder.
Conclusively it can be stated that stakeholders are an important part of any business organization. This report has discussed different kinds of stakeholders and also find out different areas of the business that can be cherished by stakeholders or can be impacted by stakeholders. Different kinds of stakeholders such as internal stakeholders, external stakeholders, etc. A stakeholder matrix was also conducted in the report to find out the impact of different stakeholders in the business. Finally, a comparison between food industry organizations and Anytime Fitness has been outlined where it has been identified that both organizations' stakeholders have similar roles to run the business successfully.
Anytime Fitness. (2022, September 14). 540+ clubs: 24/7 access: Anytime fitness australia. from https://www.anytimefitness.com.au/
Canstar Blue. (2022). Best Gyms & Fitness Clubs | Gym Chain Review & Ratings. from https://www.canstarblue.com.au/stores-services/gyms/
Chen, Y., & Wang, H. (2021). Analysis of Perfect World Co., Ltd’s international business using PESTLE. Academic Journal of Business & Management, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.25236/ajbm.2021.030215
Frue, K. (2019, February 20). Pest analysis of Australia: A brief look into politics, economy, Society and Technology. PESTLE Analysis. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://pestleanalysis.com/pest-analysis-of-australia/
Fusch, P. I., Hall, J. A., & Fusch, G. E. (2018). Empowering internal stakeholders through the dissemination of useful information: A review of crisis management concepts. Journal of Social Change, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.5590/josc.2018.10.1.12
Golestaneh, H., Guerreiro, M., Pinto, P., & Mosaddad, S. H. (2021). On the role of internal stakeholders in place branding. Journal of Place Management and Development, 15(2), 202–228. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpmd-05-2020-0041
Hochstein, B. W., & Bolander, W. (2017). The disruptive impact of customer engagement on the business-to-consumer sales force. Customer Engagement Marketing, 203–218. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61985-9_9
Lehtinen, J., & Aaltonen, K. (2020). Organizing external stakeholder engagement in inter-organizational projects: Opening the black box. International Journal of Project Management, 38(2), 85-98.
Marques, P., Bernardo, M., Presas, P., & Simon, A. (2019). Corporate Social Responsibility in a local subsidiary: Internal and external stakeholders’ power. EuroMed Journal of Business, 15(3), 377–393. https://doi.org/10.1108/emjb-01-2019-0013
Murray, D., & Williams, K. (2021). The Australian Fitness Industry: Trends, disruption and positioning. The Global Private Health & Fitness Business: A Marketing Perspective, 111–117. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-850-720211019
Nguyen, T. S., Mohamed, S., & Panuwatwanich, K. (2018). Stakeholder management in complex project: Review of Contemporary Literature. Journal of Engineering, Project, and Production Management, 8(2), 75–89. https://doi.org/10.32738/jeppm.201807.0003
Panwar, M., & Garg, R. K. (2022). Online learning: A stakeholders' analysis using structural equation modelling. International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 14(3), 243. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijtel.2022.123650
Svensson, P. G., & Hambrick, M. E. (2019). Exploring how external stakeholders shape social innovation in sport for development and peace. Sport Management Review, 22(4), 540–552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2018.07.002
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