Stakeholders means strategic audience and describe all people or "interest group" that are impacted by the actions of an enterprise, project, company or business.
In English stake it means interest, participation, risk. Holder means the one who owns. Thus, stakeholder also means interested party or intervening party.
The term is widely used in the areas of Communication, management and information Technology, whose purpose is to designate the parts interested of a strategic plan or business plan.
They are the stakeholders that legitimize the actions of an organization and have an influencing role for the management and results of that organization.
Some examples of stakeholders of a company:
- employees
- managers
- managers
- owners
- Providers
- competitors
- NGOs
- customers
- the state
- creditors
- unions
- other people or companies that are related to the project.
By understanding the importance of stakeholders, the person responsible for planning can have a broader view of everyone involved and know how they can benefit and contribute to the improvement of the project.
The term stakeholder was created by a philosopher named Robert Edward Freeman and has become increasingly common in many areas, so that everyone involved in the process is valued.
It is a very important piece to contribute to the performance of an organization and influence attitudes, values and actions within the company.
In the area of information technology, for example, the stakeholders also play an important role, as for the architecture of software it is important to have the knowledge of all interested parties.
Stakeholders and Shareholders
There are two main and best known business models: the model based on stakeholders and the one based on shareholders (shareholders).
According to the model stakeholders, the company is seen as a social organization that should bring some kind of benefit to all the people involved in the process.
This model is also known as a social responsibility model, taking into account that this model aims at a social balance. The profit achieved by the company is proportionally divided according to the participation of each element: shareholders or owners (shareholders), customers, suppliers, etc.
This model not only privileges the financial aspect, but also gives value to the social and remuneration aspect. For this reason, it is considered a model of social or corporate responsibility.
The model of shareholders it is closely related to shareholders and was a model that was almost unique throughout the Industrial Age.
In this case, the company is seen as an economic entity that should bring benefits to the shareholders (owners or shareholders).
For this reason, it is known as a financial responsibility model, in which case the company's success is measured almost exclusively by its profit.
See more about the meaning of shareholder and rsocial responsibility.