stakeholder

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. Key stakeholders in a business organization include creditors, customers, directors, employees, government (and its agencies), owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions, and the community from which the business draws its resources.

Although stakeholding is usually self-legitimizing (those who judge themselves to be stakeholders are stakeholder ), all stakeholders are not equal and different stakeholders are entitled to different considerations. For example, a company’s customers are entitled to fair trading practices but they are not entitled to the same consideration as the company's employees. See also corporate governance.