Chapter
Three
Identifying Stakeholders and Issues
Canadian Business and Society:
Canadian Business and Society:
Ethics & Responsibilities
Chapter Outline
Stakeholder: Definition Identifying Stakeholders
Managers’ Responsibilities
Opposition to Stakeholder Concept
Argument for Stakeholder Concept
Issues Management
Stakeholder: Defnition
An individual, or group, who can
influence and/or is influenced by
the achievement of an
organization’s purpose.
Discussion Questions
Why are stakeholders important to a firm?
What can happen to the firm if managers do
not properly identify and satisfy the interests of their firm’s stakeholders?
Do stakeholders have differing goals and
Identifying Stakeholders
Owners
Directors
Employees
Customers or consumers
Lenders and creditors
Identifying Stakeholders
Service professionals
Dealers, distributors, and franchisees
Business organizations
Competitors
Joint-venture participants
Non-governmental organizations
Identifying Stakeholders
Educational institutions
Religious groups
Charities
Service, fraternal, cultural, and ethnic
associations
The media
Managers’ Responsibilities
Identify stakeholders
Understand how corporation currently views
stakeholders
Examine how each stakeholder will or might
influence firm
Assess opportunities and threats
Rank stakeholders by influence
Opposition to Stakeholder
Concept
Problems of categorization (e.g., how to
identify and prioritize stakeholders)
Challenges in meeting expectations (e.g.,
tradeoffs among the stakeholders)
Dilution of top management focus (e.g., away
from financial performance)
Impracticality of shared governance (e.g.,
Argument for Stakeholder
Concept
Simply good business
Ignoring stakeholder interests can have
substantial economic consequences (e.g., employees, customers, lenders, etc.)
Provides more systematic approach to
Issues Management:
Defnition
A systemic process by which the
Issues Management
Issues Life Cycle Stages
:
Degree of awareness of issue over time
Issues Management
Process
1. Identification of issues
2. Analysis of issues
3. Ranking or prioritizing of issues
4. Formulating issue response
5. Implementing issue response
Group Exercise
In a group – identify one organisation
you all know well (an organisation that you all belong to – like a university - or that you use – like a beer company, an airline) – discuss the stakeholders of the company. Questions:\
1. How does the organisation manage its
stakeholders?
2. How many stakeholders does it have? 3. What do you think would make the
organisation better at managing its stakeholders?
4. Can you rank stakeholders by
