Stakeholders
Stakeholders are people, groups of people or entities that are connected to a business in one or other way. Stakeholders are influenced or influence activities, procedures and policies implemented by the organization. Stakeholders can either be internal or external. Internal stakeholders are people, groups of people or entities who are actively involved in the activities, procedures and policies of the organization (Cardwell, Williams & Pyle, 2017). Internal stakeholders include the employees, the business owners and investors. Also called primary stakeholders, internal stakeholders are directly engaged in the running of the business, and heavily vested in the business and therefore, impact or are directly affected by the success or failures of the business. Internal stakeholders have a massive impact on the operations of the business. For instance, the owners make critical business decisions while managers and employees are actively involved in the routine operations of the business (Cardwell, Williams & Pyle, 2017). Managers and employees make daily decisions regarding business activities and the best ways of achieving success.
External stakeholders, on the other hand, are people, organizations, groups or entities that are not directly affected by the performance of the business (Jungnitsch, Stoffers & Neessen, 2016). They are outside parties connected to the business or organization due to shared interests. Examples of external stakeholders are competitors, suppliers, the government and customers. Also described as secondary stakeholders, external stakeholders may be interested in the success and performance of the company but are not directly impacted by it (Weiss, 2014). They are not directly involved in the daily activities and operations of the company, but these activities affect them. For example, customers are not involved in the daily running of a manufacturing plant. Still, the latest designer shoe produced by the company could attract them, which means they are affected. The external stakeholder does not have a clue on the internal issues of the company; it only deals with it from the outside.