"Stakeholder is any group or individual who is affected by or can affect the achievement of an organization's objectives." (Freeman, 1984)
Stakeholders can be, and usually are, very different. That's why communication with every stakeholder must be different and prepared specifically for that stakeholder. Organization can never communicate the same way with it's customers and other organizations. These two are just interested in different things.
Stakeholders have always been important for organizations because it's hard or even impossible to work without them. In old times stakeholders weren't named that way but that doesn't mean they didn't excist. Nowadays every working organization knows its stakeholder sand tries to keep them satisfied. Because of the fact that now we live in a society where information moves in seconds, the stakeholders are even more important.
The society is even called network society. Technology has a huge part in our everyday lives and that changes a lot. If one stakeholder is unsatisfied, it can spread the bad experience online and that changes the reputation of the organization. But it doesn't have to be a bad thing. With the help of technology, organization can spread their information really fast. For example in a crisis situation when being fast is probably the most important thing.
So communication has changed a lot in 20 to 30 years. Technology is one thing but the other change is that organizations have to be more opened noadays. When people can see what is happening inside the company, they trust it more and feel involved. That makes every stakeholder more satisfied.
Stakeholders are important but nowadays the new theories say that issue arenas are even more important. "Identifying issues should precede identifying stakeholders." (Vilma Luoma-aho and Marita Vos, 2010)
Issue arenas should be places where stakeholders and organizations discuss on-line through media.
They also say that now issues are in the centre of the communication instead of organizations. The reason is development of technology and that huge moving of information. People read on-line reviews and hear things so fast that communicating with stakeholders only isn't enough for the organizations reputation.
A good PR should:
1) Find the right issue arena
2) Facilitate public debate in these arenas
3) Thereby manage organization's reputation
I think issue arenas are not an illusion but working of these depends on a situation. For example if the situation really involves only one stakeholder and organisation. Media might not even be interested in it and the debate isn't necessary. But in some cases issue arenas might help to rise the company's reputation a lot.
The text is based on two articles: Manuel Castells: The contours of the network society
Vilma Luoma-aho and Marita Vos: Towards a more dynamic stakeholder model: acknowledging multiple issue arenas
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