Prioritizing Stakeholder Needs in TAFE: A Structured Approach

Question 1

In prioritizing the needs of TAFE and its stakeholders; to establish urgency, it will first be necessary to calculate the different stakeholder's vested stakes in the school; that could either be reputational, emotional or financial. High vested stakes would imply that the group or person would have to lose or gain based on the project's outcome. It would then be necessary to establish the ‘importance to' the stakeholder of the project: there are stakeholders who have very little vested stakes in a project but perceive it to be of utmost importance to them: on the other hand, it is also possible that a stakeholder has high vested stakes but the attention they pay to the project is very little. The level of importance will be assessed based on the efforts each stakeholder willingly expends for purposes of achieving their objectives for TAFE.

Whenever any new project is being started in TAFE, there are always rampant project politics, whereby the interests if different stakeholders tend to conflict. A good example of instances where project politics could be witnessed is whereby TAFE engaged in the construction of an administration block. Such a project with no doubt involves big monies. In instances like this, it would first be necessary to identify all the relevant stakeholders because the project could be derailed by any of these stakeholders. Once the stakeholders are identified what follows is the determination of where true power lies. Additionally, who counts most in the vast cast of characters and whose actions would have the greatest impact on the project. Once the stakeholders have been determined, what follows is an identification of their goals and establishment of whether they have any hidden goals or agendas which are not articulated openly. It is necessary to give special attention to the stakeholders who hold power.

Question 2

If any organization is to achieve its goals it would be necessary that all the different departments and factions work together and in unison. There are different departments in a school that would need to work together to ensure that the experiences of customers who are the students are good. These are boarding, games, different academic departments, and even accommodation. For example, in the case of TAFE, I would have to properly coordinate my activities with the transport department as that would ensure that the school's buses are always available and on time to take students to any such places they would like to be in. In the past, through proper coordination of the transport department, I have ensured that students are always picked for school on time. To ensure such cooperation, working with other departmental heads, it is always necessary to create positive atmospheres for employees whereby they would willingly contribute ideas and also offer solutions that are creative and they also receive necessary credit for their input.

Whenever employees feel valued and needed their coordination with no doubt becomes easy. What is required is having a sit-down with them and explaining to them what would be required of them to ensure that the organization runs smoothly and also that it achieves its objectives. In instances where the atmospheres are negative, employees would be seen to focus their energies on winning small successes at the expense of cooperation for the achievement of the company`s goals. With negative atmospheres distrust is common and getting people to work together is hard. A negative atmosphere would make coordination with members of staff one does not directly manage quite hard.