Of Business Actors

Organizations are strictly embedded with a number of business actors referred to as Stakeholders. Stakeholders are Groups / individuals that are affected by and/or have an interest in the operations and objectives of the business. Most businesses have a variety of stakeholder groups which can be broadly categorized as follows; Internal (these are Directors, managers, and employees) and External (these include Government, the Local community, Pressure groups, etc.). Jim Riley (2012) in his online article describes an intermediary category of stakeholders between the internal and the external, this is the "Connected" which includes; shareholders, customers, suppliers, etc. Stakeholder groups vary both in terms of their interest in the business activities and also their power to influence business decisions.

BO Limited, a successful multinational company making investments in the textile industry of West Africa, with Ghana as its base of operation, is surrounded by a number of stakeholders. Each stakeholder has a specific expectation from the firm and its operations. The following are stakeholders in the environment in which BO Limited operates, each described with their expectation.

Shareholders: The expectations of the shareholders from the elected Board of Directors are improved Profit growth, Share price growth and dividends. Shareholders make a financial investment in the corporation, which entitles those with voting shares to elect the directors. Shareholders do not normally have any rights to be involved directly in company management. Their connection to company management is typically via the Board of Directors as described above. If shareholders are not satisfied with the performance of the directors, they may remove the directors or refuse to re-elect them.

Directors and Managers: The directors and managers appointed by the shareholders possess the interest of salaries, improved share options, employee job satisfaction and the firm's status at heart. A director's duty is owed first and foremost to the corporation. This duty is grounded in basic principles of good faith, stewardship and accountability. Requirements imposed both by common law and various statutes seek to establish the parameters of this duty without limiting the flexibility of these principles.

Employees: Employees as stakeholders possess an influence in a firm's performance in a financial year. Staff turnover, industrial action and service quality are also areas in which employees influence an organization. The key needs of employees are their wages and salaries, job security, job satisfaction and motivation. BO Limited must respect the stipulated 40 hours working week for employees, else they risk affecting employees' job satisfaction and can lead to sanctions, strikes and tarnishing of their reputation

Communities: The interest of the community as a stakeholder to an organization includes; the organization's social responsibility to the environment, provision of jobs to the locals and local impact. The community exerts its power/