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CHAPTER 4 - MANAGING STAKEHOLDERS > Dealing with conflicting demands
Dealing with conflicting demands
Stakeholder management can often be an uncomfortable process, where one set of needs must sometimes offset another. For example, ministers must make tough choices both practically and economically in the current public sector spending review. To do so requires a great deal of courage. They know they may only have a short window of opportunity before entrenched opposition starts to develop into a full-scale revolt. At the same time, they dare not risk a double-dip recession. Clear priorities need to be set for cutting spending while ensuring that critical services are still delivered.
In the private sector, conflict often emerges because of the differing needs and desires of stakeholders and shareholders. Shareholders, understandably, are looking for profit. Stakeholders often want to see decisions and actions taken that lead to more cost and therefore reduced profits. Business owners often have to tread a fine line between meeting their own needs and taking the desires of other stakeholders into account or they might risk losing their ability to generate future profits. An unpopular decision, for example, may lead to industrial action by employees or a boycott of products by customers.