Difference Between Internal Stakeholders and External Stakeholders

Last Updated : Aug 27, 2022 / By Sandeep Bhandari / Fact Checked / 3 mins

They are the primary responsibility of the company to be looked upon. They have much interest in the ongoing business. 

External Stakeholders are the ones that don’t have to face the direct impact of the decision made by the company or the organization. As they are not affected directly, they don’t take much interest in the business.

Comparison Table Between Internal Stakeholders and External Stakeholders

Parameters of Comparison	Internal Stakeholders	External Stakeholders
Definition	Individual member or group members of any company or organization	Person or group who isn’t the member but is readily affected by the company indirectly
Impact	Direct	Indirectly
Who are they?	Individuals working for the organization	Individuals or groups influenced by their work
Employment Given	Yes	No
Responsibility by the Employees	Directly or primary	Indirectly or secondary
Consists Of	Employee, its owner, investors, management, board, and many others	Customer, rivalry, government, society, creditors, supplier, retailer, and many others
Knows About	Internal matters of the company	Publicly available information

What is Internal Stakeholders?

Internal stakeholders are the single person or the group of several members that are part of the company or the organization. Some of the members known to be part of the company or organization as internal stakeholders are – employees of the company, management, directors, owner, and many others.

The varied activities performed by the company directly affect these above-mentioned members. The interest of the members of the company is more as any decision made will affect them too.

They are also aware of the internal matters taking place within the company. They employ their internal stakeholders in their organization.

What is External Stakeholders?

External stakeholders are the one single individual or any group of people that is not a part of any organization or any company but still gets affected by the changes or decisions made within it.

The activities performed within the company do not affect the members of the external stakeholder directly. Although they might be looking forward to the success of the company but still got indirectly affected.

Theses members although aren’t a member of the respective company or organization but manage them externally and they are mostly aware with the information that is available publicly.

Main Differences Between Internal Stakeholders and External Stakeholders

1. The example for the internal stakeholders consists of their employees, management, board, directors, owner, and others whereas comparatively, on the other hand, the example for the external stakeholders consists of their suppliers, retailers, creditors, customers, rivalry company, society, and many others.
2. The members of the internal stakeholders know maximally about the internal matters of the company or the organization, whereas comparatively, on the other hand, the members of the external stakeholder know about the information that is publicly available about the company or the organization.  

Conclusion

Both the internal stakeholder as well as the external stakeholder plays a crucial role in building up any company. The work done inside the company is executed by the internal stakeholders while all the work done indirectly or external work is done by the non-members of the company but still are the major part for the company they are external stakeholders.

Any changes or modification in the internal stakeholder directly affects the company while any modification in the external stakeholders affects the company but indirectly.  

References

1. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01446190701821810
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026378631930866X
3. https://www.proquest.com/openview/2c1ba4858e25e10a8c835d5bf247db64/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026378631830142X