What is a Salience Model?
The salience model classifies stakeholders on three attributes: power (can they impose their will?), legitimacy (is their involvement appropriate?), and urgency (do they need attention now?). Stakeholders with all three are "definitive" — drop everything. One or two attributes produce the interesting middle categories (dominant, dangerous, dependent…).
Use it over the simpler power/interest grid when the stakeholder landscape is crowded and political — the third dimension catches actors the 2×2 flattens.
Worked example
On an airport expansion: the regulator holds power + legitimacy (dominant — engage formally, always). A residents' association has legitimacy + urgency but little power (dependent — they need allies, and if ignored, they'll find them, adding power). The model tells the PM which relationship to invest in before it escalates itself.