The term stakeholder refers to an individual or a group of people who are interested in the business and can be affected by its activities. A stake is a vital interest in the business or its activities. It can include ownership and property interests, legal interests and obligations, and moral rights. A legal obligation may be the duty to pay wages or to honor contracts. A moral right may include the right of a consumer not to be intentionally harmed by business activities. In conclusion, stakeholders can affect a business, be affected by a business or both.
A stakeholder is often contrasted against a shareholder, who has an ownership interest in the business. Regarding your business, there are internal and external stakeholders.
These are several types of stakeholders:
Owners. Owners are the people who are interested in the business and focused or interested in making the profit from the stakeholders.
Employees. Employees or workers are the people who are working for the business and are interested in earning the high wages.
Managers. These are the people who are in the assigned to control and look after at the business and they are also concerned about their salaries.
Customers. Customers are the people who are ready to buy the business’ products or services and they expect to receive the best quality at reasonable prices.
Suppliers are the people who are willing to give their products to the business and want the business to buy their products.
A business must also be responsible to society. A business provides a community with jobs, goods, and services. It also pays taxes that go to support schools, hospitals, and better roads.
Nowadays, we can discuss also about environmental protection as a main responsibility.
Companies’ relationship with investors also entail social responsibility. Although a company’s economic responsibility to make a profit might seem to be its main obligation to its shareholders, some investors are increasingly putting more emphasis on other aspects of social responsibility, as the ones stated above.
To conclude, stakeholders are the people who support the organization and accept all the business practices regarding the action that business takes, which can include corporate governance, strategic management, corporate social responsibility etc. Stakeholders can be affected if the business fails to meet their needs. Also, they can negotiate for their rights and can ask the company to change the strategies in future, if they are not happy or think that they are not getting enough benefits.
What makes a company be admired or perceived as socially responsible? Such a company meets its obligations to its stakeholders and assumes responsibilities in order to comply with the interests of every group of stakeholders.
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