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Skills Assignment: Exploring Stakeholders

This 3-sentence summary provides the high-level information about the skills assignment document: The document outlines a skills assignment for a final argument essay where students will analyze and propose solutions to current social issues by considering stakeholders involved in the issues and how solutions may affect different groups. Students are instructed to identify stakeholders, understand issues from their perspectives, and consider how vulnerable, dependent, or disempowered groups may be impacted. The goal is to practice skills for advancing conversations around complex topics.

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39 views5 pages

Skills Assignment: Exploring Stakeholders

This 3-sentence summary provides the high-level information about the skills assignment document: The document outlines a skills assignment for a final argument essay where students will analyze and propose solutions to current social issues by considering stakeholders involved in the issues and how solutions may affect different groups. Students are instructed to identify stakeholders, understand issues from their perspectives, and consider how vulnerable, dependent, or disempowered groups may be impacted. The goal is to practice skills for advancing conversations around complex topics.

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Copyright
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Skills Assignment: Exploring Stakeholders

Estimated Time to Complete: 2 hours


UNIV 111

For your final argument essay, you will need to bring together the sources you have read in unit 2 along
with the sources you will gather to investigate solutions to issues in American society. You will need to
“advance the conversation” in progress from the sources you used for your Literature Review by writing
an argument essay in which you use the sources from the literature review in addition to outside sources
and artifacts to analyze and propose solutions to current social, cultural, or economic issues. This
assignment will help you practice the skills necessary for considering the possible audiences of your
paper by considering the people who have a stake in the topic (stakeholders).

To start, we will consider the stakeholders involved in the issues you have considered from the readings
and if you are in our in-person class, from your service and the ethical issues this service/the
organization try to address. (This activity follows closely the University of Kansas’s discussion of
stakeholders,
https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involvement/identify-stakeholders/m
ain, and Nikki Fernandes’s “Expanding the Stakeholder Web” ethical reasoning assignment.)

Follow the directions below to complete each step of the assignment. Once you have finished all steps,
make a PDF of your document and upload it to Canvas.

Step 1: This first step depends slightly on if you are doing service for the in-person class or taking the
online class. If in-person, list the issues your organization tries to address. If online, first pick an
organization that works around one of the topics you considered in your literature review or personal
essay. For instance, let’s say you were interested in education or were already tutoring middle school
kids at Binford Middle School (one organization) with the Developing Men of Color (another possible
organization) group on campus. What does Developing Men of Color address? (You can check their
website, etc. also.) Something along the lines of support and mentoring for men of color enrolled in VCU.
What does the tutoring address? Academic support and mentoring for students at Binford Middle
School. List at least two issues and ideally more.

Step 2: Now, for each of the above issues, ask yourself “Why does the issue exist?” or “What has to be
true if that issue exists?” Ask yourself this five times, to drill into the various layers of the issue. You may
want to do quick research, but you can also just use your prior knowledge or make reasonable
inferences. The idea is to deepen and expand, not just repeat, your perspective on the issue. You may
find yourself making branching answers, too. For instance,
1) Why do Binford students need tutoring?
→ a) Richmond Public Schools do not have the resources to supply tutoring already.
→ b) The students are behind in some way.
2b) Why are the students behind in some way? → Probably don’t have the resources earlier to
learn.
3b) Why didn’t the students have the resources earlier to learn? …And so on…

You can do this activity as a list of questions, as above, or a concept web.


Why music can help victims of incarcerated individuals
Music can help people with incarcerated family members or even the incarcerated individuals
themselves because of the fact that they can learn something new and show them that they can change
for the better and then better themselves and help them stay out of the criminal system. With less
people in the criminal justice system we can then start to change and reform it for the better.
How does this organization help to make this possible
Kappa Kappa Psi (will be referred to as KKPsi forward) is a honorary Band Fraternity and with that helps
uplift and maintain the music community in and around where chapters are located and with that they
could send a few brothers out and help the incarcerated community and victims how to read and play
music.
How Does KKPsi help incarcerated communities
By teaching them music it can put a good role model in the youths eyes and help them develop
leadership and respect while at the same time showing incarcerated individuals ho the grow and change
for the better and use that skill of learning and leading into jobs and and a promising future out of the
criminal justice system

Step 3: Once you have a list of various issues connected to your service site, consider the stakeholders
and complete the table below. Add rows as necessary. Again, you can do some quick research or make
reasonable guesses at this stage and verify later.

Primary stakeholders: these are people/entities whom the activity/organization directly affects. (In
our example, these would be students from VCU providing the tutoring and students at Binford
receiving the tutoring.)

Name of stakeholder Stakes (things that stakeholder gains or loses by the


activity/organization or the lack of the activity/organization)

Kappa Kappa Psi National Gains


Honorary Band Fraternity Leadership experience and the great feeling of helping out people in
Inc. need and changing their lives
Loses
Time and energy if the program is run incorrectly and inconsistently
striping people of that chance to prosper

Incarcerated Individuals and Gains


their families Leadership and Business Development and the ability to play an
instrument and enjoy the pride of playing an instrument helping to
show them they can grow and prosper

Secondary stakeholders: these are people/entities directly involved with or responsible for the
primary stakeholders. (In our example, this could be parents and teachers at Binford as well as
friends, family, and professors of VCU students, etc.) It can also be people in some way directly
affected by the activity. (For instance, people near the school who have VCU students travel past
their homes, people who have to organize the tutoring, etc. One stakeholder could have different
stakes depending on the particular roles they have–a parent of a kid in tutoring, for instance, could
also be a neighbor of the school.)

Name of stakeholder Stakes (things that stakeholder gains or loses by the


activity/organization or the lack of the activity/organization)

National program of KKPsi Gains


the recognition of helping show people that anyone can learn to play
an instrument and learn to grow as a person for the better

Community of the Gains


incarcerated Lesser crime rates and have music and leaders in their communities

Key stakeholders: these are people/entities who have power (formal legal authority, informal social
clout, etc.) to make or break the organization/activity and might care enough to do so. (In our
example, this could be the Binford principal and VCU Dean of Student Affairs, in addition to other
powers above them, or outside forces, such as a local news outlet with some particular attention on
the schools.)

Name of stakeholder Stakes (things that stakeholder gains or loses by the


activity/organization or the lack of the activity/organization)

local news outlets Gains


A Story to tell of KKPsi and incarcerated individuals trials and
tribulations but eventually triumphing in the end

Criminal Justice System Gains


The ability to reform and shape our government system for the better
making changes to stop racial discrimination and inequalityzzz

Step 4: Finally, consider specific categories of stakeholders that are often overlooked or may have
particularly sensitive stakes. Answer the questions for each in the boxes below.

The Vulnerable, The Dependent:


Care ethics encourages us to pay particular attention to those who are the most vulnerable or the
most dependent. Considering your organization/activity, answer:
1. Who might be particularly vulnerable and/or dependent in the situation?
a. The incarcerated population and their communities
2. In what ways might a decision made by the organization or the activity leave someone unsafe,
unheard, or in danger?
a. If teaching program is ran incorrectly and inappropriately then the incarcerated
community could fail to grow
3. In what ways might a decision interfere with an individual or group's room to grow?
a. If some is rude or not disciplined enough to learn and gives up they will not be able to
see the end

The Disempowered:
Liberation theology–as discussed by Cheryl J. Sanders in Empowerment Ethics for a Liberated People–
emphasizes “a critique of oppression, affirmation of the humanity of the oppressed, and the
evaluation of the experience of the oppressed as a source and criterion for truth” (1). Considering your
organization/activity, answer:
1. Are there any systems of injustice that this organization/activity might perpetuate or fortify?
○ No because they are trying to help change those injustices that have occurred
2. How do other stakeholders view those stakeholders who are most disempowered in this
situation? What stories have you heard from them or about them?
○ That maybe this organization is not the right one for this program
3. What can you learn from the voices of those who have been disempowered? What might you
learn from them about other unseen stakeholders?
○ Learn the respect their opinions but show leadership and responsibility to show that
this organization is right for the job

The Nonhuman World:


While utilitarianism might disregard non-sentient beings in its analysis of benefits and cost, Michael
Picard, in Philosophy: From Morality to Metaphysics, notes that ecocentric rights-based views seek to
grant respect to all life regardless of its sentience and regardless of its utility to humans (Picard 73).
Considering your organization/activity, answer:
1. What nonhumans might be involved in this organization/activity?
a. The prison and criminal justice system as well as KKPsi
2. Considering my answers above, have I overly focused on the nonhumans who are of utility to
humans (e.g., food crops)? What about the nonhumans that are not of natural utility to
humans (e.g., weeds)?
a. The communities will get better and crime rates will go down
3. Have I overly focused on nonhumans that are sentient (e.g., birds)? What about the
nonhumans that are not sentient (e.g., rocks)?
a. Less violence, less destruction

The Next Generation(s):


William MacAskill’s What We Owe the Future seeks to identify future populations as stakeholders
worthy of consideration in our ethical decision making. But MacAskill’s ideas are not new. The Iroquois
Seventh Generation Value positioned chiefs to make decisions in reference to future generations. In
light of these long-termism considerations, considering your organization/activity, answer:
1. How might a decision made by the organization/participants today affect future generations?
a. The legacy of KKPsi and reciting as well as the communities around America and finally
the criminal justice system
2. What resources will be left for future generations in light of the organization/activity today?
a. The ways to lead and hold yourself to certain standards as well as how to play
instruments and communicate through music
3. What precedents will we set for future generations in light of the organization/activity today?
a. Hold yourself responsible and accountable and you can do anything you put your mind
to
4. What changes could make this organization/activity more sustainable over the next seven
generations?
a. Feel honored to join such and organization and always strive for the highest

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