Syllabus: AQA - AS and A Level Business
Module: 3.2 Managers, Leadership and Decision Making
Lesson: 3.2.3 Understanding the Role and Importance of Stakeholders

Introduction

Stakeholder understanding is central to commercial awareness. Section 3.2.3 of the AQA A-Level Business syllabus focuses on how stakeholders influence decision-making and why their interests must be carefully managed. This topic develops learners’ ability to analyse conflicts, consider multiple perspectives and evaluate real-world decisions. It also links directly to workplace readiness and Gatsby Benchmark 4 by connecting classroom theory to how actual organisations balance different demands.

This article supports teachers, SLT, and careers leads by offering curriculum-aligned insights, workplace examples, and tips for integrating stakeholder understanding across business and careers provision.

Key Concepts

As per the AQA specification, students must be able to:

• Define stakeholders: Individuals or groups affected by business activity, including customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, the government, and local communities.

• Explain stakeholder needs: Understand the objectives of different stakeholder groups and how they may align or conflict.

• Apply stakeholder mapping: Analyse stakeholder power and interest using tools such as the Mendelow Matrix.

• Evaluate stakeholder conflict: Identify overlapping or clashing priorities and explore ways to balance them.

• Understand stakeholder management strategies: Explore communication, consultation, and engagement techniques to maintain relationships and manage expectations.

These elements are assessed through both knowledge recall and higher-order thinking skills, including analysis and evaluation.

Real-World Relevance

Stakeholder conflict and engagement play out across nearly every major business decision. Examples include:

• Starbucks’ response to ethical sourcing concerns: Balancing supplier needs (farmers), customer values (ethical products), and investor returns.

• HS2 project delays: Conflicts between government stakeholders, local communities, environmental groups, and contractors highlight how competing interests impact delivery.

• Uber’s regulatory issues: Tension between drivers, customers, investors, and local governments has required active stakeholder management globally.

• John Lewis Partnership: An example of stakeholder alignment, where employees are also owners, shaping company decisions and culture collaboratively.

Case studies like these demonstrate how stakeholder theory is not just academic but a daily operational reality in business leadership and decision-making.

How It’s Assessed

Assessment in AQA AS and A-Level Business uses a variety of formats:

• Multiple choice and short-answer questions: Test core knowledge of stakeholder definitions and models.

• Data response questions: Require interpretation of stakeholder impact using real or fictional business scenarios.

• 20-mark evaluative essays: Expect students to argue how stakeholders influence outcomes and assess business decisions from multiple perspectives.

Command words such as analyse, evaluate, discuss, and assess are key. Students should be guided to use business terminology fluently, apply models like stakeholder mapping effectively, and balance arguments with clear judgements.

Enterprise Skills Integration

Understanding stakeholders naturally connects with Enterprise Skills’ core themes:

• Commercial Awareness: Recognising how organisations create value while managing relationships across stakeholder groups.

• Decision-Making & Problem-Solving: Weighing competing interests, assessing risk, and making justified trade-offs under pressure.

• Workplace Readiness: Developing the ability to communicate, negotiate, and collaborate with diverse groups—crucial for any career.

Simulations from Skills Hub Futures and Business Simulations allow students to apply these ideas in practice—making decisions in real-time while facing pressure from fictional stakeholders such as customers, unions, or regulators. These tools align directly with AQA content while building strategic thinking.

Careers Links

Stakeholder understanding is a foundational skill across careers. Students encounter it in:

• Project management: Balancing team, client, and executive expectations.

• Public relations and marketing: Managing brand perception among external stakeholders.

• HR and leadership roles: Navigating employee engagement and organisational strategy.

• Politics, law, and policy-making: Reconciling public interest with institutional goals.

Mapped to Gatsby Benchmarks 4, 5, and 6, stakeholder learning can be extended via:

• Employer encounters (Benchmark 5): Bring in speakers from sectors like retail, construction, or healthcare to discuss how they handle stakeholder conflict.

• Workplace simulations (Benchmark 6): Use scenarios involving internal vs. external priorities (e.g. cost-saving vs. employee morale).

• Curriculum-to-careers links (Benchmark 4): Encourage students to reflect on stakeholder dynamics in career sectors of interest.

Teaching Notes

Delivery tips:

• Start with a local context: Have students map stakeholders in a school project or community issue to make abstract concepts tangible.

• Use role play or debate: Assign stakeholder roles (e.g. shareholder vs. employee) in a fictional business decision scenario.

• Build in real business cases: From brands students know (e.g. Nike, Amazon) to those in the news (e.g. Post Office scandal), draw connections to stakeholder power and conflict.

• Use Stakeholder Mapping activities: Plot different actors on interest vs. power grids and evaluate strategic responses.

• Encourage structured judgement: Use paragraph frameworks like PEEL (Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link) for extended writing.

Common pitfalls:

• Confusing stakeholders with shareholders—reinforce distinctions early.

• Oversimplifying conflicts—push students to explore nuance and overlap in stakeholder needs.

• Relying on generic examples—ensure they practise applying theory to real or unfamiliar scenarios.

Extension ideas:

• Compare and contrast stakeholder models (e.g. shareholder vs. stakeholder theory in capitalism).

• Explore international differences in stakeholder prioritisation (e.g. US vs. European corporate governance).

• Introduce stakeholder management software used in large organisations to show workplace relevance.