A project can be called successful when the stakeholders are mutual in their goals and come to a common agreement. Sometimes, however, things don’t go as expected, which results in stakeholders’ conflicts. Conflicts arise when the goals of the parties do not coincide, which is a company problem that inhibits its productivity. To resolve this conflict, the company must be able to manage the interests of stakeholders. If you can prioritize correctly you can maintain good relationships and minimize losses for the company. In this article, we will take a closer look at conflicts and stakeholder interests.
Causes of conflict between stakeholders
A company’s main stakeholders depend on its business structure and the area in which it operates. Below we describe examples of who might be a stakeholder for an organization and why:
- Shareholders-they has a special interest in dividends, in addition, by investing in the company they can make a decent profit from it. Thus, the shareholders are very important to the welfare and growth of the company, they help the organization to properly distribute the dividends and growth of funds
- Employees and management – their main interest is salary and fringe benefits. They also want to provide themselves with a comfortable environment to work in, career development, and a quality training program, and therefore benefit from their diligent work
- Customers – They are interested in the company’s products and services, protection of their data, and quality of service. They are attracted if the company plays an important role in people’s lives or the environment
- Suppliers – They are interested that you buy from them only, and they want to be paid on time
- Government – it’s important that companies pay their taxes on time and comply with the law. Provide jobs and be eco-friendly
- Lenders – concerned about making sure the company pays the amount owed on time. They look at your ability to pay on time before approving a loan
- Residents -interested in jobs and not negatively affected by their surroundings.
But what can conflict arise over? Such situations can arise in the following cases.
The conflict between shareholders and employees – since shareholders are interested in dividend profits, they do not want the company to pay large salaries to employees. Which of course does not benefit your employees. The company remains between two fires, and they can’t give preference to one, so they have to find common ground.
Also, there are situations where the expansion of the company prevents the shareholders from short-term profits, while for the locals it will mean free jobs.
The conflict of cheap products and lower profits – customers want to buy quality, but inexpensive products, which in turn increases costs and reduces the profit of the organization.
Shareholder interests
Below is a list of potential stakeholder interests:
- Costs – costs may be of interest to investors, because it increases the cost of business, and to customers, because it can also refer to the purchase of quality products
- Profit -profits are beneficial to almost everyone: shareholders and investors, and also employees because their jobs depend on the well-being of the company
- Social impact -the local community and government strongly encourage companies to positively impact the environment
- The happiness of employees – Managers are interested in ensuring that their employees have a comfortable and healthy work environment, and the employees themselves, of course, like it. It also increases employee efficiency
- Employment security is the interest of the employees themselves, so they make sure they are financially secure, and make a great contribution to the company and its stability