Who are Stakeholders in an Organization?

Stakeholders

• Multiple definitions of stakeholders exist, including:
  • Those groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist
  • Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization's objectives

Common Stakeholder Groups

• Managers
• Employees
• Customers
• Investors
• Shareholders
• Suppliers
• Government
• Society at large
• Local community

Extended Stakeholder Groups

• The environment, which can be affected by organizational activities, such as:
  • Utilization of natural resources
  • Effects of competition
  • Transformation of the landscape
  • Distribution of wealth
  • Pollution
• The future, as an organization's actions have a big effect on future possibilities

Multiple Stakeholding

• Each person may belong to multiple stakeholder groups simultaneously, such as:
  • Customer, employee, local community member, and shareholder
  • This complexity makes it unhelpful to consider each stakeholder group in isolation

Classification of Stakeholders

• Two main ways to classify stakeholders:
  • Internal vs external stakeholders
    • Internal stakeholders: employees, managers
    • External stakeholders: suppliers, customers, etc.
  • Voluntary vs involuntary stakeholders
    • Voluntary stakeholders: choose to be a stakeholder
    • Involuntary stakeholders: cannot choose (e.g. local community affected by pollution)