Stakeholder thinking

‘Stakeholder’ is at the center of stakeholder thinking. Hence the meaning of ‘stake’\ud and ‘holder’ are important within the stakeholder thinking. Simple, the word ‘stake’\ud means a right to do something in response to any act or attachment. Since, rights are\ud generally attached with liabilities, this word also denotes liabilities of someone for\ud enjoying a particular right. A stake could be a reasonable share of something. From\ud the organizational stakeholder perspective, Carroll identifies three sources of\ud stakes: ownership at one extreme, interest in between and legal and moral right at\ud the other extreme [1]. The word ‘holder’ is comparatively easy to understand. It\ud denotes a person or entity that faces some consequences or need to do something as\ud a consequence of act or to meet a certain need. Combining these two sets of\ud meaning, stakeholder can be defined as ‘any group or individual who can affect\ud or is affected by the achievement of the firm’s objectives’ [2]. For instance, the\ud employees, customers, investors, competitors, government, non-governmental\ud organizations (NGOs) can be the stakeholder of a company..