Such classifications may include enabling stakeholders, normative stakeholders, functional stakeholders, and diffused stakeholders. There are three approaches to stakeholder theory: the descriptive approach, the instrumental approach, and the normative approach.

The normative approach takes the most comprehensive view of the organization and its stakeholders and is the fundamental basis of stakeholder theory. Organizations can analyze stakeholder claims by classifying them on the basis of their intensity and impact on the firm, as well as on the basis of their relationship to the firm.

diffused stakeholder — a stakeholder with an interest in a company’s decisions and whose impacts on a firm can be large even if the relationship is generally weaker than other types. normative approach — a theory that considers stakeholders as ends unto themselves rather than means to achieve a better bottom line. instrumental approach — a theory proposing that good management of stakeholders is important because it can help the bottom line. descriptive approach — a theory that views the company as composed of various stakeholders, each with its own interests.