stakeholder = 'a party with any sort of interest whatsoever'

[Joel S. Berson]

Jon, do you find "stakeholder" to be used to
refer to persons or groups that have *no*
financial interest, not even small?  Your
original example isn't specific enough to
distinguish financial interest from lack
thereof.  That is, I'm wondering whether the
definition of "stakeholder" has become as broad
as stated in the Subject line, or isn't "still"
'a party with any sort of *financial* interest whatsoever'?

At 2/8/2011 03:56 AM, Michael Quinion wrote:
>though rarely as widely as this comment by Sebastian Coe about
>the 2010 London Olympics:
>
>In the past five years, I´ve talked frequently about the importance of our
>stakeholders. This year, we are asking our most important stakeholder -
>the 60 million people in this country - to make sure they play a part in
>the greatest show on earth in 2012.
>[Daily Telegraph, 13 Jan. 2011.]

One could imagine that all 60 million UKers had
some monetary interest in the Olympics -- if not
for the presumed positive effect on the balance
of trade (and thus hopefully their personal
incomes) then at least for the amount of the
additional tax burden each might be at risk
for.  In David Daniel's broad example (copied
below), all of the groups he mentions have some
degree of financial interest* in the (dam)
project.  Finally, one can include those whose
"interest" is quality of life -- to which
monetary value has been assigned in many civil
court cases.  Are we not all stakeholders in air
quality or global warming -- or to place the
stakes around a geographical area, the ozone layer?

* The original sense of "stake".  I don't
remember whether anyone has previously
mentioned  OED stake n.2 sense 1.3 "fig. to have
a stake in (an event, a concern, etc.): to have
something to *gain or lose* [emphasis added] by
the turn of events, to have an interest in; esp.
in to have a stake in the country (said of those
who hold landed property)."  [Although limiting
stakeholders to holders of landed property has
gone the way of restricting voting to those who
had incomes of 40 shillings or estates of 40
pounds.  And I wonder what proportion of people
today would consider their having a stake in something "fig."]

Joel

At 2/6/2011 11:30 AM, David A. Daniel wrote:
>Dunno about US English, but in UK English stakeholder is a current term that
>means anyone directly or indirectly involved in or affected by the
>business/issue/question/law/whatever. Sort of like: Government is
>considering building a dam for generating electricity. The stakeholders are
>the land owners at the damn site, the contractors, the power companies, the
>homes/businesses for whom the new power is intended, the people who live
>downstream, the people who live upstream where the new lake will be, the
>people who worry about ground hogs being flooded out, area
>farmers/homeowners who use the water, people interested in the new tourism
>opportunities on the new lake, boat sellers, hotel chains that might be
>interested in building resorts around the new lake, folks whose homes or
>businesses will disappear/grow/change because of the dam - en fin, anyone
>with any involvement at all (which means you have major stakeholders and
>minor stakeholders, and those in between).

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