Syllabus: SQA - Higher Course Spec Business Management
Module: Understanding Business
Lesson: Stakeholders

Introduction

Understanding stakeholders is a core strand of the SQA Higher Business Management course, sitting within the “Understanding business” unit. This section helps students grasp how businesses operate in context, particularly how different groups—internal and external—can influence or be influenced by business decisions. It’s a vital area that prepares students to evaluate business strategy, ethics, and performance through multiple lenses.

Curriculum alignment is tight. The specification expects learners to identify stakeholders, understand their interests and influence, and explore how businesses respond to conflicting demands. It feeds directly into exam tasks, business decision-making questions, and wider enterprise understanding.

Key Concepts

Students should be confident in the following:

• Stakeholder identification: including owners, employees, customers, suppliers, banks, local community, pressure groups, and the government.

• Interest vs. influence: understanding what stakeholders want from the business and how much power they hold to impact decisions.

• Conflict of interest: analysing scenarios where stakeholder aims clash, e.g. employees wanting better pay vs. owners aiming to reduce costs.

• Interdependence: recognising how stakeholder relationships can support or strain business operations.

• Responses to stakeholder needs: how businesses balance or prioritise stakeholders, especially in times of change, growth, or crisis.

Real-World Relevance

A current example is the tension between delivery drivers and gig economy platforms. For instance, drivers seeking fairer pay and better conditions have organised strikes, forcing companies like Deliveroo and Uber Eats to review pay structures. Meanwhile, customers expect speedy service, and investors want profitability. These tensions mirror the syllabus’s emphasis on stakeholder conflicts and resolution.

Closer to home, a Scottish food manufacturer recently adjusted its production times to reduce noise complaints from nearby residents, while managing workforce hours to maintain morale—highlighting local community influence and internal negotiations.

How It’s Assessed

The SQA Higher assessment for Business Management includes both exam and assignment components. In the final exam:

• Section 1 (case study) often presents a real-world business scenario, asking candidates to apply stakeholder analysis to specific contexts.

• Section 2 (structured questions) includes direct theory and application, such as:

  • Define a stakeholder.

  • Explain how two stakeholders might have conflicting interests.

  • Analyse the influence of a particular stakeholder on a business decision.

Command words such as explain, analyse, and justify require students not just to describe but to apply and evaluate. Diagrammatic support (e.g. stakeholder mapping) is encouraged for visual learners.

Enterprise Skills Integration

Stakeholder analysis is a natural fit for enterprise skills like:

• Decision-making: balancing competing stakeholder needs in business simulations or real scenarios.

• Communication: presenting a business proposal with stakeholder considerations.

• Problem-solving: identifying and resolving stakeholder conflicts through group activities.

• Teamwork: role-play exercises where students embody different stakeholders and negotiate decisions collaboratively.

These skills don’t just aid exam performance—they mirror what’s needed in the workplace.

Careers Links

Understanding stakeholders directly supports Gatsby Benchmarks 4 (linking curriculum to careers) and 5 (encounters with employers). Relevant careers include:

• Business analyst: uses stakeholder input to inform process improvements.

• Marketing manager: tailors campaigns based on customer and shareholder priorities.

• HR advisor: balances staff wellbeing with organisational targets.

• Operations manager: coordinates logistics, mindful of supplier and community impacts.

Activities like mock stakeholder meetings or project pitch sessions to ‘investors’ give students a taste of real-world roles.

Teaching Notes

• Start with something familiar: Ask students who the stakeholders are in their school, then build out to a business context.

• Use role-play: Give each student a stakeholder identity and set up a fictional business decision (e.g. opening on Sundays).

• Common misconceptions:

  • That all stakeholders have equal power.

  • That businesses always act in favour of the customer.

• Quick wins:

  • Use a stakeholder matrix for any business case study.

  • Connect to current news—e.g. strikes, boycotts, policy shifts.

• Stretch and challenge: Explore ethical dilemmas (e.g. profit vs. sustainability) or long-term vs. short-term stakeholder priorities.