Yme Inc. is a small retail chain with 5 branches in Ohio. Recently Yme Inc. has been facing many inventory related problems such as over ordering of certain items while other items are under stocked. Missing inventory items, inability to locate the available inventory and damaged inventory have been some of the other problems faced by Yme Inc. You have been hired by Yme Inc. as a business analyst to analyze the situation and recommend solutions to address the inventory related problems.

On completing the stakeholder analysis, you realize that a big number of line employees will be greatly impacted (line employees could be fired, reassigned to other tasks, or might be forced to change their current work practices significantly) by the investigation on inventory problems. These line employees have absolutely no formal authority to influence the solutions to the inventory related problems. However, you need to gather critical and in depth information from the line employees to successfully implement the solution. Without the cooperation of the line employees you will be unable to understand the root causes for the problems and hence, may develop an inappropriate solution. So you conclude that the line employees have a great deal of informal authority. Drawing from the literature on stakeholder analysis and stakeholder matrix, select your approach to deal with the line employees?

Keep the line employees informed as you recognize that they are likely to be very concerned and may feel anxious about lack of formal control.

Monitor to ensure that the line employees’ interest or influence does not change.

Work closely with line employees to ensure that they are in agreement with and support the business analysis process and the proposed solution.

Ensure line employees remain satisfied.