Traditional usage
The concept of
stakeholders is complicated by different meanings and uses dependent
upon both context and association. In traditional usage a
stakeholder is a third party who temporarily holds money or property
while the issue of ownership is being resolved between two other
parties e.g a bet on a race, litigation on ownership of property.
(Further information at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder)
Business usage
The Concise Oxford Dictionary
describes a stakeholder as a person with an interest or concern
in something, especially. a business. This definition is somewhat
unhelpful as it takes no account of those whose only interests are
directly opposed to those of the organization and would make
cooperation between them an absurdity.
The definition postulated by
Post, Preston, and Sachs amalgamates the idea of contributors,
beneficiaries, risk takers, voluntary and involuntary parties thus
indicating that there is mutuality between stakeholders and
organizations.
“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”
If we settle
on stakeholders being the parties that contribute to an organization’s
wealth-creation capacity and benefit from it, we cannot dismiss all
the other interested parties because they don’t qualify as stakeholder
as we have defined it above. Their influence needs to be managed. For
example
-
It is
important to win support from the media as bad press can destroy
reputations
-
It is
important to keep co-workers on your side as their cooperation might
be essential to your success
-
It is
important not to alienate other managers as they might limit the
availability of resources you need
-
It is
important to build rapport with Trade Associations, Unions and other
organizations from which you might need help
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