Final answer:
A stakeholder is anyone who impacts or is impacted by an organization's operations. This includes employees, customers, shareholders, and the broader community. Understanding the needs and interests of stakeholders is essential for successful business practices and ethical considerations.
Step-by-step explanation:
An adequate definition of a stakeholder is C. All people who have an impact or are impacted by the organization. This includes a broad spectrum of individuals and groups, such as employees, customers, shareholders, community members, government agencies, and suppliers. Stakeholders have varied interests in the company's operations and outcomes, and they can be affected by the company's decisions in multiple ways.
Understanding stakeholders is crucial for organizations because they help define business goals and strategies. A stakeholder in a design project might be anyone from a user to a government agency that regulates industry standards.
In business ethics, there's a distinction between shareholder and stakeholder theories. Shareholder primacy focuses on maximizing return for shareholders, while stakeholder theory argues for balancing the interests of all parties involved.