Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the firm’s objectives

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There are many different opinions on the definition of a Stakeholder and deciding on which definition to use is important.

The decision about how to define stakeholders [ ] is consequential, as it affects who and what counts. Mitchell et al. 1997. Toward a Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience

For example Eden and Ackermann define stakeholders as

'People or small groups with the power to respond to, negotiate with, and change the strategic future of the organization'. Eden and Ackermann 1998: 117

R. Edward Freeman, in the now classic text Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (1984), defines a stakeholder as

'any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization's objectives'. Freeman 1984: 46, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach

Choosing Eden and Ackermann's definition would focus an organizations' attention only on people who have the power to respond to or negotiate, whereas using Freeman's definition would result in a longer list of stakeholders including those without any obvious power to impact the organization.

So first step in managing your stakeholders is to decide how you will define a 'Stakeholder'. This Mindmap shows some of the answers to the question What is a Stakeholder? In this video Freeman explains the reasoning behind his answer to the question what is a stakeholder?

Text version of the mindmap.

Answers to the question -''What is a Stakeholder?'	Source
All parties who will be affected by or will affect [the organization's] strategy	Nutt, P and Backoff, R.
any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization's objectives	Freeman, R. E.
Any person group or organization that can place a claim on the organization's attention, resources, or output, or is affected by that output	Bryson, J.
Those individuals or groups who depend on the organization to fulfill their own goals and on whom, in turn, the organization depends	Johnson, G and Scholes, K.
A stakeholder is an individual or a group that claims to have one or more stakes in an organization. Stakeholders may affect the organization and, in turn be affected by the organization's actions, policies, practices and decisions.	Carroll, A and Buchholtz, A.
A person, group, or organization that has direct or indirect stake in an organization because it can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives, and policies.	Business Dictionary
Parties with an interest in the execution and outcome of a project. They would include business streams affected by or dependent on the outcome.	PRINCE2
Stakeholders are persons or organizations (e.g., customers, sponsors, the performing organization, or the public), who are actively involved in the project or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the performance or completion of the project.	PMI
a person with an interest or concern in something, especially a business.	Oxford Dictionary
1: a person entrusted with the stakes of bettors 2: one that has a stake in an enterprise 3: one who is involved in or affected by a course of action	Mirriam-Webster
A person or group of people who have a vested interest in the success of an organization and the environment in which the organization operates.	APMP
Anyone who has a vested interest in the project.	Lewis, J.P.
An individual who is materially affected by the outcome of the system.	Rational Unified Process
A stakeholder is anybody who can affect or is affected by an organization, strategy or project. They can be internal or external and they can be at senior or junior levels.	stakeholdermap.com
Any individual, group or organization that can affect, be affected by, or perceives itself to be affected by, a programme	MSP
One who has a stake or interest in the outcome of the project. [Note: see project stakeholders]	Wideman, R.M.
A person who has an interest in an organization, project, IT service etc. Stakeholders may be interested in the activities, targets, resources or deliverables. Stakeholders may include customers, partners, employees, shareholders, owners etc. [Note: see also ITIL stakeholder list]	ITIL
a person such as an employee, customer or citizen who is involved with an organization, society, etc. and therefore has responsibilities towards it and an interest in its success	Cambridge
People or small groups with the power to respond to, negotiate with, and change the strategic future of the organization	Eden, C and Ackermann, F.
a person external to the Scrum Team with a specific interest in and knowledge of a product that is required for incremental discovery. Represented by the Product Owner and actively engaged with the Scrum Team at Sprint Review.	Scrum.org

KEY
Book (academic)
Method or Best Practice
Dictionary

Nutt, P. and Backoff, R. (1992) Strategic Management of Public and Third Sector Organizations: A Handbook for Leaders , p.439, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Freeman, R. E. (1984) Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, p46, Boston, MA: Pitman. Latest edition

Bryson, J. (1995) Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organization (rev. edn), p27, San Franciso, CA: Jossey-Bass. Latest edition

Johnson, G and Scholes, K. (2002) Exploring Corporate Strategy (6th edn), p206, Harlow, England: Pearson Education. Latest edition

Mirriam-Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stakeholder

Abstracted from Association of Project Management (UK) APMP Syllabus 2nd Edition, January 2000, Abridged Glossary of Project Management Terms (Rev.4)

Lewis, J. P. (1995) Project Planning, Scheduling & Control, p.39, Chicago: Irwin Professional Publishing. Latest edition

Wideman, R. M. (1991) Project and Program Risk Management: A Guide to Managing Project Risks and Opportunities (PMBOK Handbooks), Newtown Square, PA, Project Management Institute.

ITIL glossary and abbreviations

ITIL stakeholder list

Cambridge Dictionaries Online https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/stakeholder_1?q=stakeholder

Scrum.org, Glossary of Scrum Terms

Mitchell, R., Agle, B. and Wood, D. 1997. Toward a Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of Who and What Really Counts. The Academy of Management Review, 22 (4), pp. 853-886. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/259247 [Accessed: 15 June 2013].

Extracts from this document...

The term "stakeholders" appears to have invited in the early 60's as a deliberate play on the word "stakeholder" to signify that there are other parties having a "stake" in the decision. A stakeholder in an organization is (by definition) any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization's objectives. (R.Edward Freeman, 46). To understand the meaning of stakeholders, the word stake is also equally important. A stake is an interest of a person or the sharing an understanding. If a group of people is doing a particular job then they should have a stake, or interest in the group's decision. For an example if a group of people are going out for a dinner then each of the group members should have a stake and interest. In this situation the member sees for their own interest (priority, taste, preference) in the decision. Stake can be also seen as the term claim, which means someone has the right to something. A claim is a demand for something because it has its due. Therefore, the term stake defines the interest and understanding in a particular thing and has the legal ownership at the certain extreme. "A stakeholder, then, is an individual or group that has one or more of the various kinds of stakes in a business. Just as stakeholders may be affected by the actions, decisions, policies, or practices of the business firm, these stakeholders also may affect the organization's actions, decisions, policies, or practices. ...read more.

Therefore every organization has to take care not only for the needs of their direct owners, but also of various other groups, like employees, public interest groups like environmental organizations, strategic partners, journalist. Management has to assess and evaluate these external forces in order to adjust them with corporate objectives. Whenever an organization is making decisions, it is necessary to know about the expectations of different stakeholders and to determine, to what extend they could and would exert an influence. Hence, the importance of stakeholder management is based on a long term strategic decisions. Stakeholder management is important to the marketers in the 21st century because an organization can use the opinions and ideas of other stakeholders who are powerful enough to guide the organization from the early stage. Continuous support from these stakeholders can help the firm to make an improvement in their projects and products. The project that an organization has been running could be more successful if these powerful stakeholders keep on giving more important resources and information. These stakeholders can help actively to the organization if there is better communication between them. Frequent communication with these stakeholders can help the firm to understand clearly the benefits of their work and their role towards the projects. So, the firm can have a clear idea what the people thinks about the product and make improvement to reach the peoples desire. Therefore, the stakeholder management helps to identify who are the most powerful, influencing and interested stakeholders in an organization. ...read more.

Communicating of various information with the stakeholders are some of the factors which brings motivation in the project. That is the reason why the sharing of information between the stakeholders and organization plays a vital role and needed to plan how to manage communication with the different stakeholders. The reason for the communication is to bring out good relation with the stockholders and to gain the maximum support from them to complete the project. An organization identifies the most important stakeholders and gives them priority according to their powers and interest. Then it is necessary for them to know the things that influences and motivates these stakeholders to stay with them. Stakeholder planning is the next step that helps the organization to manage their stakeholders and gain their support to complete their task effectively and efficiently. In stakeholder planning the stakeholders are categorized according to their power, interest and then they are assessed according to their abilities. The time taken to allocate the stakeholder management depends on the size and the complexity of the project, the time utilized for the communication and the expectation of the firms results. Stakeholder planning helps the organization to think the level of support that gives and the role that organization wants them to play. So, basically it helps to think what the firm wants for the each stakeholder. It helps passing the message to every stakeholders and persuade then to support the project. The message can make the stakeholders aware of what an organization are doing and motivates them on the key performance to achieve improvement and increasing profit. ...read more.

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