The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Marketing Communications, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 7THE STAKEHOLDER CONCEPT: Empowering Public Relations

Clarke L. Caywood, Ph.D.Professor and Past Chairman, Department of Integrated Marketing CommunicationsMedill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated CommunicationsNorthwestern University

The challenge facing the men and women who will lead or consult with our human institutions in the early decades of the twenty-first century will be to use all of the knowledge available to them to manage their organizations’ responses to their stakeholders. Stakeholders are the organizations and the individuals that have an interest in the success and failure of a company, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), a government or other organization.

Single stakeholders, like customers, have become a nearly ...