Shareholder versus stakeholder - is there a governance dilemma?

All directors are faced with real, or imagined, conflicts of interest or competing demands for time and resources, between shareholders and stakeholders. This has always been the case, but the contemporary emphasis on stakeholders has brought this to a head. Although astute organisations and directors maintain a suitable balance between the various demands placed upon them, and there are systematic ways to do this, there are a few voices opposed to stakeholding in any shape or form. In order to suggest that stakeholding is the viable and sustainable way for companies to proceed, the article considers and criticises one anti-stakeholder, together with other antagonists, before bringing in endorsements from different quarters, and introducing three categories of stakeholding of, which the normative holds most promise. Practical approaches to discriminating among the claims of various stakeholders are indicated.