Corporate Social Responsibility - Term Paper Example

? Table of Contents Introduction Burnley Football Club 2 Club’s Stakeholders 3 Improving relationships with the stakeholders 4 Five stages of CSR Learning 5 Supposed Vision Statement in Relation to CSR 6 CSR Policies for Burnley Football Club 6 Conclusion 7 References 8 Introduction Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) presents the concept under which the corporations and organizations have a responsibility to various groups in the society that are other than the stockholders and that go beyond the ones that have been agreed upon by union contract and law (Carroll, 2008). CSR basically has two purposes, which are the following: its assistance in enhancement of corporate performance and the help in making a stronger social contract among the local community. Basically CSR is the management of the overall influence of any company on the society. This incorporates the impact of operations directly and also the wider effect of the business ranging from suppliers then to customers and then to the consumers. Moreover CSR also includes the contributions the Company voluntarily makes to community and the wider society. This trend is widely increasing in the sports industry. Nowadays there is greater focus on the CSR by the stakeholders (Argandon?a Ra?miz, 2009). In the world today the discussion is increasing on the issue of the importance of integrating CSR strategies into businesses for real benefits especially in the sports organizations that have various stakeholders associated with them like the football clubs (Brown, Crabbe and Mellor, 2009).The unique position of football clubs for delivering widespread benefits of CSR is debatable. Moreover the call for building the goodwill residue that connects to CSR as their need for planning permission and attraction of negative publicity keeps growing is equally important and arguable. The requirement of permission for planning for a different new ground, corruption at top levels, racism amongst footballers etc. propose that all the football clubs need to address the CSR. There are basically four approaches in CSR that are namely political (corporate citizenship idea), instrumental (achievement of economic objectives by social activities), ethical (right things to perform) and integrative (integrating social demands) approaches (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001). It has been found out by recent researches that CSR policies’ effective application by the football clubs can enable the donors and also the variety of stakeholders to take a lot advantages from them. Burnley Football Club A Professional League of Football based in Burnley is known as the Burnley Football Club. The colors of the clubs are blue and claret that were adopted in tribute to leading English football club Aston Villa in 1910. Football League Championship belongs to Burnley twice that is once in 1920 and the other in 1960. The club has also once won FA Cup in 1914. This Clubs is a part of the two teams (the second team is Wolverhampton Wanderers) that has won all four top English Football professional divisions. It has been revealed by the recent researches that the need for stakeholder management at club level is constantly increasing and this refers to the maturity and professionalism of the football industry. This change has made the football clubs recognize the expansion in the social, economic and political importance. The importance of financial management is at its place and will always remain important but at the same time management of many other things like stakeholders is very significant for the survival of the club in the long run. Following is the analysis of the club’s stakeholders, how the relationships can be improved, the CSR learning stages in relation to Burnley football club and the assumed policies and vision statement that the club can adopt. Club’s Stakeholders Stakeholders are those individuals who affect and influence the company. They can be clients, customers, suppliers, investors and employees. The participation of stakeholders in the survival of the company is very important (McGuire, 2008). This relationship between stakeholders and the company is very significant as it assists the company in expressing value, carrying out the mission, development of strategies, implementation of improved processes and better relationships. The concept of stakeholders is more associated with the football clubs as compared to conventional businesses (Godfrey, 2009). This is due to specific features that are linked with the stakeholders of the football club. The development of strong bond and relations with the local community is very important for the sports organizations in the world today. A successful and proper implementation of the initiatives of corporate citizenship are likely to deliver a number of benefits with regard to football clubs like the legitimacy, brand equity, long term development of loyalty etc. (Porter and Kramer, 2006). These can contribute to develop a competitive advantage and enhance the financial performance. The football clubs have a lot of stakeholders and thus a lot of responsibilities so judging them just on commercial obligations is not appropriate. In case of Burnley Football Club the stakeholders are the fans that the club has. The support from the fans is their investment and the return is in terms of emotional gratification that all the fans wish to get. It can be through a lot of ways like cup run, surviving relegation or may be chasing promotion. Improving relationships with the stakeholders In order to improve the stakeholder relationships Burnley football club needs to do the things mentioned ahead. The Club first of all needs to do as assessment of the relationship strength whether it is weak or strong. The communication with the stakeholders should be clear and effective. The fan club is too large so the club needs to have representatives who work to serve the purpose. Then after this comes the step to building trust with the stakeholders. This trust building can be done by treating the stakeholders fairly, keeping promises and taking opinions from the stakeholders (Walters and Tacon, 2010). The third step is to pay special attention to the stakeholders and respond to them, involving them in the process of decision making particularly in those specific areas that directly affect them. The next step is demonstration of commitment to the stakeholders as all the stakeholders want to develop a long term relationship with the club and by engaging the stakeholders loyalty can be built. Then there is another step in which the satisfaction of the stakeholders is the most important agenda. Identification and enhancement of the benefits that the stakeholder can get from the club is the main consideration of this stage. In this step the stakeholders are made feel the most important people. Then there is another step which says that the relationship should go beyond simple exchange for mutual benefits (Carroll, 2000). Communal relationship should be formed that goes beyond this simple exchange and the parties benefit each other without expecting any benefit in return. So by applying all these steps one by one Burnley Football Club can improve relationships with its stakeholders in the shortest possible time. Stakeholder mapping is also an approach that can be used by Burnley Football Club to enhance relationships with the stakeholders. In this way the relationships with the stakeholders are presented visually and their strength is measured. Grids and circles can be used in this approach. It is very important to keep the following things in mind while mapping the stakeholders. The club needs to set priorities in terms of the effect of a particular stakeholder on the firm and its significance, the importance of the stakeholders towards the club operations etc. Five stages of CSR Learning The five stages of the CSR learning are discussed ahead. The first stage is the defensive stage in this stage the company faces the criticism that it has not expected basically the one that comes from the media, civil activists and at times from the stakeholders. In this stage the company generally thinks that it is not their job to fix that issue (Lindgreen and Swaen, 2010). Another stage of CSR learning is the compliance stage. In this stage it is obvious that the corporate policy needs to be observed and established particularly in ways that are possible to be made noticeable to opponents. In this stage the company thinks that doing as much as they have to do is the right approach. Cost of doing business is understood to be compliance. It produces value through protection of the reputation of the company and reduction in the litigation risk. Then there is another stage that is the managerial stage in this stage the company comes to realize that it is suffering from a long-term crisis which is unable to swipe away through strategies that are based on based on public relations. The stage is the first step in the integration of CSR into the managerial practices. Then there is also a strategic stage. At this stage the company discovers the way to realign the strategy to address the business practices that are responsible and can give a long term competitive edge (Deloitte & Touche & Jones, 2010). The fifth stage of CSR learning is the civil stage in which the company promotes the actions that are collective to address the concerns of the society. It may be linked to the strategy directly in some cases. Supposed Vision Statement in Relation to CSR The vision statement of Burnley Football Club in relation to CSR must include things like realizing the worth of being a part of the community and understanding that success of a club is not just dependent on the number of trophies won by the club but also on the influence it has on the community. The vision statement should include commitment towards handling the social and environmental issues at national and international level. The strategic vision statement should be based on promotion of health, education and the social inclusions (Garriga & Mele, 2008). CSR Policies for Burnley Football Club The CSR policies for Burnley Football Club include things like making positive difference to communities it operates in. Aim to have programs that will educate, inspire and motivate the future generations for building enhanced and better communities for everyone. The policy should be based on creating stronger, safer and more respectful communities through the development of potential of young people. The policies should also cover fair and honest dealing with the suppliers and assisting them with respect always. The policy should include things like the responsibility for well-being and safety of the vulnerable adults of the society that are working with the club or are associated with the club by any means. The Club should have policy that minimizes the abusive language used within the club. The purpose of these policies is to protect the vulnerable adults working in the organization and safeguarding their rights. This also serves to fulfill the CSR of the club. Equal treatment of all the employees and the people related to club irrespective of the gender, age, color, race, belief, nationality, origin, religion, beliefs, marital status etc. should also be a part of the policies for Burnley Football Club. Conclusion Football interest and concerns a lot of people, companies and politics round the globe so everyone is careful while communicating about it. At the moment the football clubs are not in a good state so the issues related to corporate social responsibility should be of top most priority for their survival. Moreover, the growth in the professional footballers and the commercialization over the last two decades has led to an increase in the risk linked to the football industry. So at such a time there is a big need to integrate CSR in the long term planning of the clubs so that by the adoption of sustainable business models benefits can be gained. By such actions football is likely to create value for its stakeholders and thus position itself highly influential in terms of economic, social and political concerns. Burnley Football Club should follow the way other more successful clubs are dealing with the CSR and try to incorporate their strategies also in their business strategies. The success of any business especially such that which is greatly dependent on stakeholders’ contentment should strictly include the CSR policies in their business policies for an even better recognition in the community and thus the world. If Burnley Football Club is able to successfully incorporate these policies in its strategy then the day of its endless glory is not far away. 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