In a corporation, a stakeholder is a member of "groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist",[1] as defined in the first usage of the word in a 1963 internal memorandum at the Stanford Research Institute. The theory was later developed and championed by R. Edward Freeman in the 1980s. Since then it has gained wide acceptance in business practice and in theorizing relating to strategic management, corporate governance, business purpose and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The definition of corporate responsibilities through a classification of stakeholders to consider has been criticized as creating a false dichotomy between the "shareholder model" and the "stakeholder model",[2] or a false analogy of the obligations towards shareholders and other interested parties.[3]
Any action taken by any organization or any group might affect those people who are linked with them in the private sector. For examples these are parents, children, customers, owners, employees, associates, partners, contractors, and suppliers, people that are related or located nearby. Broadly speaking there are three types of stakeholders:
A narrow mapping of a company's stakeholders might identify the following stakeholders:[4]
A broader mapping of a company's stakeholders may also include:
See main article: Corporate responsibility. In the field of corporate governance and corporate responsibility, a debate[5] [6] is ongoing about whether the firm or company should be managed primarily for stakeholders, stockholders (shareholders), customers, or others.[7] Proponents in favor of stakeholders may base their arguments on the following four key assertions:
A corporate stakeholder can affect or be affected by the actions of a business as a whole. Whereas shareholders are often the party with the most direct and obvious interest at stake in business decisions, they are one of various subsets of stakeholders, as customers and employees also have stakes in the outcome. In the most developed sense of stakeholders in terms of real corporate responsibility, the bearers of externalities are included in stakeholdership.
In the last decades of the 20th century, the word "stakeholder" became more commonly used to mean a person or organization that has a legitimate interest in a project or entity. In discussing the decision-making process for institutions—including large business corporations, government agencies, and non-profit organizations—the concept has been broadened to include everyone with an interest (or "stake") in what the entity does. This includes not only vendors, employees, and customers, but even members of a community where its offices or factory may affect the local economy or environment. In this context, a "stakeholder" includes not only the directors or trustees on its governing board (who are stakeholders in the traditional sense of the word) but also all persons who paid into the figurative stake and the persons to whom it may be "paid out" (in the sense of a "payoff" in game theory, meaning the outcome of the transaction). Therefore, in order to effectively engage with a community of stakeholders, the organisation's management needs to be aware of the stakeholders, understand their wants and expectations, understand their attitude (supportive, neutral or opposed), and be able to prioritize the members of the overall community to focus the organisation's scarce resources on the most significant stakeholders.[8]
Example
The holders of each separate kind of interest in the entity's affairs are called a constituency, so there may be a constituency of stockholders, a constituency of adjoining property owners, a constituency of banks the entity owes money to, and so on. In that usage, "constituent" is a synonym for "stakeholder".[9]
See main article: Stakeholder theory. Post, Preston, Sachs (2002), use the following definition of the term "stakeholder":"A person, group or organization that has interest or concern in an organization.Stakeholders can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives and policies. Some examples of key stakeholders are creditors, directors, employees, government (and its agencies), owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions, and the community from which the business draws its resources.
Not all stakeholders are equal. A company's customers are entitled to fair trading practices but they are not entitled to the same consideration as the company's employees. The stakeholders in a corporation are the individuals and constituencies that contribute, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to its wealth-creating capacity and activities, and that are therefore its potential beneficiaries and/or risk bearers."[10] This definition differs from the older definition of the term stakeholder in Stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1983) that also includes competitors as stakeholders of a corporation. Robert Allen Phillips provides a moral foundation for stakeholder theory in Stakeholder Theory and Organizational Ethics. There he defends a "principle of stakeholder fairness" based on the work of John Rawls, as well as a distinction between normative and derivative legitimate stakeholders. Real stakeholders, labelled stakeholders: genuine stakeholders with a legitimate stake, the loyal partners who strive for mutual benefits. Stake owners own and deserve a stake in the firm. Stakeholder reciprocity could be an innovative criterion in the corporate governance debate as to who should be accorded representation on the board. Corporate social responsibility should imply a corporate stakeholder responsibility.
| Stakeholders: | Stakeholder's concerns:[11] | |
|---|---|---|
| Government | taxation, VAT, legislation, employment, truthful reporting, legalities, externalities... | |
| Employees | rates of pay, job security, compensation, respect, truthful communication, appreciation, acknowledgement, recognition. | |
| Customers | value, quality, customer care, ethical products. | |
| Suppliers | providers of products and services used in the end product for the customer, equitable business opportunities. | |
| Creditors | credit score, new contracts, liquidity. | |
| Community | jobs, involvement, environmental protection, shares, truthful communication. | |
| Trade unions | quality, worker protection, jobs. | |
| Owner(s) | profitability, longevity, market share, market standing, succession planning, raising capital, growth, social goals. | |
| Investors | return on investment, income. |