The Stakeholder Theory of Corporation

INTRODUCTION; DEFINITION OF A STAKEHOLDER

To well define what a stakeholder is becomes a difficult subject mainly because there many controversial and confusing factors to first address (Friedman & Miles, 2006). First, in a typical organization or if you need, a company, there emerge various types of stakeholders who occur in different levels and playing quite distinct roles (Savage et al, 1991). Secondly, the meaning of the term stakeholder when it comes to a particular point of view is bleached such that it considers only the major parties. A good example is the most governments’ view of the companies that thrive under their respective roofs where only the shareholders or well put, the owners, are considered as stakeholders regardless of whether or not there are other key participants in the overall management of these companies. Here, a stakeholder is considered as a person who has invested in the company or the (Friedman &Miles, 2006) organization in question by either contributing monetary support or as a co-founder of the organization. Such a person is involved in the making of major decisions for the organization. However, it is important to note that there are other role players of importance. Such include those people who are indirectly affected by the presence of an organization, for example, the end users or the receivers of the impacts of any decisions made.

Some definitions have been in work, although some are quite narrow. Some say that stakeholders are those groups or individuals without whose support, an organization would die. Others say that stakeholders as any naturally occurring entity that is directly affected by the organizational performance (Roberts & Mahoney, 2004). The word ‘naturally’ denotes all natu...

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