Stakeholder

10 Key excerpts on "Stakeholder"

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  Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

  Why Giants Fall

  • Ronald R. Sims(Author)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  The economic viability of competing organizations can be at stake when one organization threatens entry into or competition in a market. The phys- ical health of a community can be at stake when a corporation decides to dump toxic wastes in nearby waterways illegally. Stakes also can be present, past, or future oriented. For example, Stakeholders may seek compensation for an organization's past actions, as occurred when lawyers recently argued that certain organizations owed their employ- ees monetary compensation for years of discriminating against them (i.e., denying them promotions and the like). Stakeholders may seek future claims, that is, they may seek injunctions against organizations that announce plans to close down a plant or move a baseball team, as Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig recently tried to do in the case of the Minnesota Twins. For our purposes, a Stakeholder is an individual or a group that has one or more of the various kinds of stakes in a business. The individual or groups can affect or be affected by the actions, decisions, policies, practices, or goals of the organization. 2 With Stakeholders, therefore, there is a potential two-way interaction or exchange of influence. In today's complex global environment, many individuals and groups come under the umbrella of an organization's Stakeholders. From the company point of view, certain individuals and groups have legitimacy in the eyes of management. That is, they have a legitimate interest in or claim on the operations of the business. The most obvious are stockholders, employees, and customers. From the point of view of a highly pluralistic society, Stakeholders include not only these groups, but other groups like competitors, suppliers, the community, special- interest groups, the media, and society or the public at large as well.

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  Handbook of Organizational Consultation, Second Editon

  • Robert Golembiewski(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  An employee asserts a moral right when he or she claims “I’ve got a right not to be fired because I’ve worked here 30 years and I’ve given this company the best years of my life,” or a consumer might claim “I’ve got a right to a safe product after all I’ve paid for this” (Carroll, 1996). Given this discussion of what constitutes a stake, how might a Stakeholder be defined? A Stakeholder is an individual or group that claims to have one or more of the various kinds of stakes described above. Just as Stakeholders may be affected by the actions, decisions, policies, or practices of a firm, these Stakeholders also may affect the organization’s actions, decisions, policies, or practices. With Stakeholders, therefore, there is a potential two-way interaction or exchange of influence, In short, a Stakeholder may be thought of as any individual or group who can affect or is affected by the actions, decisions, policies, practices, or goals of the organization (Carroll, 1996, p. 74). B. Who Are Business’s Stakeholders? In today’s business environment, there are many individuals and groups who are business’s Stakeholders. From the business point of view, there are certain individuals and groups that have legitimacy in the eyes of management; that is, they have a legitimate interest in or claim on the operations or practices of the firm. The most obvious of these groups are shareholders, employees, and customers. From the standpoint of competitive strategy, competitors might be added to this list, and from the vantage point of strategic alliances, suppliers might also be added. Considering the highly pluralistic society that characterizes the modern business environment, Stakeholders might include not only these groups, but others as well, such as the community, the government, special interest groups, the media, society, or the public at large.

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  Making Projects Work

  Effective Stakeholder and Communication Management

  • Lynda Bourne(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Auerbach Publications

    (Publisher)

  24 • Making Projects Work descriptions of communication approaches to engage them. * The fourth section looks at ways to analyze the Stakeholder community (and the potential Stakeholder community) and critiquing some of the methods used to analyze and map it. The final section discusses the value of effec-tive Stakeholder engagement, with some approaches to assist in identify-ing both intangible and, to a lesser extent, tangible value. WHAT IS A Stakeholder? The concept of Stakeholder existed long before management writers took up the cause and adapted the word and concept for an organizational purpose. The term Stakeholder is defined (http://www.dictionary.com) in the following ways: 1. The holder of the stakes of a wager (this was the original meaning of the word). 2. A person or group that has an investment, share, or interest in some-thing, such as a business or industry. (This is now the generally accepted usage in the English-speaking business world.) 3. Law: A person holding money or property for two or more persons making rival claims. Research and writing about Stakeholders has been primarily in English, with the focus on the meaning and concept of Stakeholder in the English-speaking world. In interviews with Spanish-speaking managers in countries in South America and then later with managers from other language groups, I discovered that when “Stakeholder” is translated into other languages, it acquires subtly different meanings. Often, the focus is on just one attri-bute rather than the more inclusive definition developed more recently, such as this one from A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) (Project Management Institute [PMI], 2012:563): Stakeholders are individuals, groups, or organizations who may affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project, program, or portfolio.

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  New Venture Creation NQF3 SB

  TVET FIRST

  • B Brown(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Stakeholders can include: • family members • business owners and shareholders • employees • customers and potential customers • suppliers • investors and lenders • specialist service providers • professional advisers • unions • government agencies, such as the South African Revenue Services (SARS). This list includes the individuals who are direct Stakeholders of a business. However, there can also be more remote, or indirect, Stakeholders, such as: • people who are sponsored by an organisation • the families of employees who are dependent on the organisation for household income • media representatives. Did you know? It is possible to view everyone as a Stakeholder of South Africa, since we are all interested in the continuing success of the country’s economy! 9 Module 1: Learning about Stakeholders AW 1.7 We are all Stakeholders of our country, South Africa! If you benefit from an activity in any way, then you are a Stakeholder in that activity. The requirement for any Stakeholder is that he or she has an interest in the well-being and success of the organisation. Each Stakeholder’s relationship with the business will be different. Stakeholders can have the following very different requirements from a business: • Employees want the business to continue to provide them with jobs at a fair wage. • Owners and shareholders want the business to operate profitably so that they can receive their share of the profits. • Customers want the business to provide them with quality products or services at a price they are willing to pay. • Suppliers want the business to grow so that it orders more materials or services. • Banks and other financial institutions want the business to grow successfully. • The local community want the business to support other businesses and residents in the community by providing employment and buying products locally. All Stakeholders want the business to grow profitably, since that will support their individual and communal interests.

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  Corporate Responsibility and Stakeholding

  • David Crowther, Shahla Seifi(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Emerald Group Publishing Limited

    (Publisher)

  The most common groups who we consider to be Stakeholders include managers, employees, customers, investors, share-holders and suppliers. Then there are also some more generic groups who are often included such as government plus society at large and the local community. Many people consider that only people can be Stakeholders to an organi-sation. Some people extend this and say that the environment can be affected by organisational activity. These effects of the organisation’s activ-ities can take many forms, such as: • The utilisation of natural resources as a part of its production processes • The effects of competition between itself and other organisations in the same market • The enrichment of a local community through the creation of employ-ment opportunities • Transformation of the landscape due to raw material extraction or waste product storage • The distribution of wealth created within the firm to the owners of that firm (via dividends) and the workers of that firm (through wages) and the effect of this upon the welfare of individuals • Pollution caused by increased volumes of traffic and increased journey times because of those increased volumes of traffic Thus many people also consider that there is an additional Stakeholder to an organisation, namely the environment. The environment cannot of course exert its own pressure as a Stakeholder and therefore rely upon x INTRODUCTION proxy Stakeholders to represent its interests. There are many environmental groups as well as concerned individuals which fulfil this role. Crowther (2002) provides a detailed analysis of such pressure groups and their effec-tiveness, categorising them into six groupings: international organisations; specific purpose organisations; illegitimate instruments of terrorism; local groups; and individuals acting through either interests or as customers. This analysis gives a very different understanding of Stakeholders and their roles.

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  Business Ethics and Continental Philosophy

  • Mollie Painter-Morland, René ten Bos(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Here we do not seek to replicate this scholarly work, nor offer such a variety in detail. Rather, we shall present in this chapter a critical review of a range of positions offered by business ethics regarding Stakeholder theory. At the same time we shall introduce a selection of apparent mainstream critics of the 37 38 David Bevan and Patricia Werhane Stakeholder concept. We then review and discuss the organizing potential, of Stakeholder theory as a mental model. The Stakeholder concept is central to, and facilitative of, developing a pluralist model of social responsibility across business activities (or CSR), which we interpret as responsibility for others. Finally, and to offset mainstream views from a continental perspective, we shall consider the meaning of Stakeholder in terms of this responsibility to others by particular reference to the work of Zygmunt Bauman and Emmanuel Levinas. Mainstream views of Stakeholder theory Freeman’s initial account of the Stakeholder concept is not claimed as a personal innovation. It is made quite clear that threads of the concept can be found in Adam Smith as well as Berle and Means. 3 Freeman suggests that its contem-porary meaning arises from the work of Igor Ansoff at Stanford in the early 1960s: The actual word ‘Stakeholder’ first appeared in the management literature in an internal memorandum at the Stanford Research Institute . . . in 1963. The term was meant to generalize the notion of stockholder as the only group to whom management need be responsive. 4 The concept suggests a means of identifying persons or groups other than (but not excluding) shareholders without which an organization could not exist or function. These persons or groups ‘originally included shareowners, employees, customers, suppliers, lenders and society’.

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  Governance and Social Responsibility

  International Perspectives

  • Güler Aras, David Crowther(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  7 Stakeholders Learning objectives After studying this chapter you should be able to: • Identify a range of Stakeholders and describe their interests in the organisation. • Understand and explain proxy Stakeholders. • Outline a typology of pressure groups. • Consider the relationship between Stakeholders. • Explain the environment as a Stakeholder. • Discuss analysing Stakeholder relationships. Introduction In the first chapter we considered the social contract as a way of explaining the relationship between corporations and individual and society. We now need to expand upon that and consider it in relationship to Stakeholders and to Stakeholder theory. This theory 1 is one of the major influences on CSR. It was created by Freeman in his 1984 book. So we need to start by describing exactly what a Stakeholder is. There are several definitions. The most common ones are: • Those groups without whose support the organisation would cease to exist. • Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organisation’s objectives. 125 126 GOVERNANCE AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY We can see from these definitions that a lot of people can be a Stakeholder to an organisation. The most common groups who we consider to be Stakeholders include: • Managers • Employees • Customers • Investors • Shareholders • Suppliers Then there are also some more generic groups who are often included: • Government • Society at large • The local community Many people consider that only people can be Stakeholders to an organisa-tion. Some people extend this and say that the environment can be affected by organisational activity.

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  Stakeholder Theory

  Concepts and Strategies

  • R. Edward Freeman, Jeffrey S. Harrison, Stelios Zyglidopoulos(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Stakeholders (i.e., Bettinazzi and Zollo, 2017; Choi and Wang, 2009; Henisz et al., 2014; Sisodia et al., 2007). 3.3 Stakeholders Are People Stakeholders are people. They have emotions, biases, desires, needs, and interests. They also have varied experiences, cognitive capabilities, perspec- tives, skills, and backgrounds. In other words, people are complicated, although much of the popular thinking about business seems to assume the opposite. For example, many economics-based business models are founded on an assumption that humans are consistently rational, even though both research and anecdotal evidence suggests they are not. Closely associated with this notion is the assumption that people are completely self-interested (Bosse and Phillips, 2016). Following from this assumption, firms should feel com- pelled to use numerous safeguards when they interact with Stakeholders in the form of long, detailed contracts and tight security on everything, including carefully guarded information and restricted access to other value-creating resources. These sorts of constraints, however, also reduce the ability of Stakeholders to contribute to value-creating processes because they may not have access to the information and other resources needed to do so, or the freedom to do things that are not specified by a contract (Davis et al., 1997). They are limited. Also, the assumption of narrow self-interest can be self- reinforcing – when people are treated as though they are self-interested they begin to act that way. We are not suggesting that people do not have any degree of self-interest, and that all information and resources should be shared with everyone, nor are we suggesting that contracts are never necessary. But what if we started with the assumption that people have an urge to create things of value for and with other people? Indeed, voluntary effort is the only reason that capitalism works as well as it does (Freeman et al., 2007b).

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  Stakeholder Theory

  The State of the Art

  • R. Edward Freeman, Jeffrey S. Harrison, Andrew C. Wicks, Bidhan L. Parmar, Simone de Colle(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Environmental analysis included many Stakeholder groups. Even Porter ’ s ( 1985 ) fi ve forces model, from a Stakeholder perspective, is an evaluation of the power of three critical Stakeholders: customers, suppliers, and competitors. Most recently, the rela-tional approach has emerged (Dyer and Singh 1998 ). With some very notable and important exceptions, the strategic management discipline has tended to view Stakeholder theory as the domain of business ethics and social respon-sibility, and efforts to apply Stakeholder theory to strategic management have been undercut by the widely held belief that there is a con fl ict between serving shareholders and serving a broad group of Stakeholders (Argenti 1997 ), as well as a misconception that Stakeholder theory advocates equal treatment of all Stakeholders (Gioia 1999 ). What is most interesting in this debate is that the fi eld of strategic manage-ment now seems to be moving towards Stakeholder theory in a more deliberate way, possibly out of necessity. Corporate scandals have created more interest in the problem of the ethics of capitalism and “ ethical management processes. ” Also, the sheer complexity and volatility of the business environment – what we have called the problem of value creation and trade – calls for newer and more comprehensive models (Lowendahl and Revang 1998 ; Hitt, Keats, and DeMarie 1998 ). External Stakeholders have become much more proactive in exerting pressure on organizations, and scholars are struggling to fi nd ways to incorpo-rate these multiple in fl uences into their theories and planning models. Of course, it is also obvious that companies are not likely to survive unless they deliver value to a fairly broad group of Stakeholders (Campbell 1997 ). Finally, Stakeholder management concepts have found their way into the planning processes of many, or perhaps the most highly visible, business organizations in the USA and many other countries.

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  Sustainable Success with Stakeholders

  The Untapped Potential

  • Sybille Sachs, Edwin Rühli, Isabelle Kern(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  A ladder to Stakeholder potential For a systematic analysis of the particularly important Stakeholders, in your case there are a series of questions: Stakeholders – your co-strategists There are a great many possible Stakeholders. The diagram in Figure 2.3 below is provided to help you choose the most relevant ones in a first round. Ecological system Societal system Economic system Company Strategy Culture Structure Edu- cational institutions Employees Capital providers Interest groups Manage- ment Potent. employees Employee org. Employer org. Suppliers Owners Public opinion Compe- titors State Legal groups Customers Media Figure 2.3 Possible strategically relevant Stakeholders 36 Sustainable Success with Stakeholders In our work with corporations, we have found that in clarifying the question of which are the really important Stakeholders, discus- sions have been very productive. In other words, you need to speak with your executive management or departments about which stake- holders are relevant in their eyes. Discuss, for instance, whether all customers are equally relevant, or whether you should form subgroups of various kinds, such as private and business clients. In a second round, you could additionally submit your findings to either an external or internal specialist for critical review. Often this results in further insights, so that at the end of the round of discussions there is a reassessed joint understanding of who the really relevant Stakeholders are, and which one to concentrate on. Enhancing benefit or reducing risk potentials After you have surveyed your Stakeholders and their general impor- tance, in a second step you need to focus on analysing which roles they play in the value creation process. In so doing, there are four basic possibilities: 1. Benefit providers: These Stakeholders render services to the corpo- ration by contributing in some way to the value creation process. Employees contribute by providing specialized knowledge.

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