Ways in Which the UK Football Industry Has Embraced the Principles of the CSR Movement - Essay Example

IMPACT OF CSR INITIATIVES IN FOOTBALL Recently, corporate social responsibility has been an issue of concern in different organizations and business identities. How a company or institution relates to its external environment determines its success. In the modern society, there is a need to increase corporate social responsibility because of the improvements in communication technology, globalization, and growing affluence among other factors. The success of the business is determined by its contribution to the external publics. Participation in corporate social responsibility activities improves the image of an organisation its external public. Thus, the essay describes the ways in which the UK football industry has embraced the principles of the CSR movement and evaluates the impact of CSR initiatives in football. Although football is the most popular sport in the world, it needs to embrace corporate social responsibility in its activities. In the UK, the football industry is growing day by day. Thus, it must come up with measures to contribute to the well-being of the general society. In sports management, corporate social responsibility is a new concept. As a result, the national federations and football clubs have a responsibility to ensure that they give back to the society. The managers must ensure that they come up with new programs which target the general publics in running their activities. They must ensure that they influence the world around positively(Farrar 2008, p.56). Ideally, corporate social responsibility is the continued behaviour of businesses of behaving ethically and ensuring that they contribute to the economic development of the society. In the past, football was mainly viewed as a hobby. However, in the recent past, football has created a global industry of its own. Globalization has led to the development of football as a sport and at the same time as an income generation industry. Thus, there has been a need to ensure that the football clubs come up with ways of ensuring that they are ethically responsible (Reich 2007, p. 19). Consequently, most of the football corporations have become a corporation. Thus, most of them have recognised that they must show their responsibility to the members of the society. Due to that, most of the football clubs in the United Kingdom have come up with a community relations department which deals with CSR. The football federations have moved from their passive philanthropic role and have become a responsible and committed sector in the affairs of the society. They have formed some of the initiates such as “Say No to Racism” (Reich 2008, p. 32). Subsequently, football federations emphasized in the interests of the shareholders. However, as time went by, the corporations saw that there was a need to engage in activities which benefited the members of the society. As the corporations operated, they had a social responsibility role to emphasize on. The football federations had to conform to the ethical norms and expectations of the society. Football organisations emphasized on corporate social responsibility because of the advantages which are accrued to it. They had to ensure that they came up with activities such as maintaining the ethical standards to ensure that they gained more interest from the members of the society (Werther& Chandler 2011, p. 15). Through corporate responsibility, the football corporation would get a better public image. For instance, through donating funds for use in the non-profitable organisation the football cooperation would gain a better image. Additionally, they would get more and better media coverage. The media will be ready to cover the events of a football team because the responsibility the football team had to the public. Sports also have a high appeal in media coverage than any other areas such as education, arts and culture, health, and environment. Thus, the football federations have to ensure that there are CSR initiatives that should be carried out at each level of football’s pyramid (Lea 2002, p. 10). In United Kingdome, the MU Foundation organised the corporate social responsibility activities in three main layers. Firstly, it ensured that it worked with the local communities and later with the national organisations. The activities of the corporate social responsibility must start from the local publics then to the general publics. The local publics will later portray the image of the organisation to the national organisations. The football sector partnered with UNICEF. The foundation of UNICEF focused on three main initiatives which include charity, sports, and education (Mitchell 2001, p. 13). One of the initiatives formed to enhance corporate social responsibility was the Football in the Community (FITC). The initiative was part of the MU foundation. It was formed with the aim of coaching people from all backgrounds and ages. It provided an opportunity for one million people from different walks of life who came together to play football. They were guided by UEFA coaches who were more experienced. In the FITC umbrella, there were different schemes which targeted different individuals. The different umbrellas included school football, holiday courses, disability football, and cliff clubs (Savitz& Weber 2006, p. 23). The different schemes offered free football programs. For instance, the school football scheme offered free programs such as teacher training to local schools and football tuition. On the other hand, the disability football scheme delivered coaching sessions free to people with disabilities. The girls football schemes offered schemes to support and train girls to play football. There was also the formation of girls youth team which competed in the local league (Porter & Kramer 2006, p. 63). Apart from the different teams, they have also come up with a community health trainer scheme which is mainly designed to support the members of the community to have a healthy lifestyle. The scheme helps the members of the society to uptake physical activities, become smoke-free, manage stress, and involve in healthy eating habits. The scheme formulates some of the physical activities that people can do to ensure that they are physically fit. FITC also encourages different people of the society to get engaged in sports for physical fitness (Handy 2002, p. 50). Additionally, the MU Foundation contributes to the education of the students through the use of football. They have designed a football scheme to ensure that the primary school student understand the importance of fitness and practising healthy eating habits. Through this, the football federation ensures that the students lead a healthy lifestyle. Subsequently, the MU Foundation also cooperates with organisations such as the Prince Trust to organise events such as the premier league reading stars (Carroll 1991, p. 42). The program improves children’s learning skills and gives them the confidence, leading to their success in life. Through the program, the children also improve themselves. In addition, the MU Foundation also supports international, national, and local charities to ensure that they generate awareness and also help them to generate funds for their projects. Locally, MU foundation works with organisations such as the Christie Hospital, Rainbow house, and the New Children’s Hospital Appeal. The MU Foundation supports these organisations both morally and financially. They create awareness about the services they offer and ensure that they give them the required financial support. The MU Foundation supports disadvantaged children to have a good childhood. MU Foundation supports the children by launching the move to prevent the youth offences through football. They also raise funds for studies and patient costs (Stancich 2008, p. 16). Additionally, the MU Foundation has risen over £2 million to promote the UNICEF programs. The programs include the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS and to end child exploitation. The team players also take part in some of the UNICEF campaigns and act as ambassadors of charity. Some of the clubs have proved to be more than clubs because of their contribution to the social responsibility activities (Zadek 2004, p. 12). The mission of some of the clubs is to promote educational activities, solidarity and culture. The clubs also donate part of their income to promote activities in education, charity, and health. They promote education through building education centres and training the educators. Their activities aim at ensuring that the children get psychological support and access to intellectual development facilities. To enhance the welfare of the society, the football federation acknowledges the importance of health. Thus, it works to prevent sports injuries and also offer general health support. They ensure that health services are easily accessible. The doctors make sure they give advice to different groups of people on issues relating to physical and mental well-being, nutrition, and hygiene. The football federations have also launched three UN agencies which include UNESCO and UNICEF, which carry integral projects to benefit children all around the world. UNESCO raises awareness of the role of education and sports in the development of the young people (Greenfield 2006, p. 17). The football federation also has implemented programs for the refugees and the displacement of camps. Additionally, they also have a yearly contribution to support children's activities. They also ensure that they generate awareness. Awareness is created through using names of the football teams on t-shirts and other giver-ways. They also came up with fixed financial contributions which were geared towards the development of mutual projects which would lead to the development of the society (Zadek 2004, p. 28). Through the contributions, the countries could support some programs which lead to the development of the society's well-being. The Non-governmental organisations worked together to fight against some of the vices in the community, such as racism, doping, and violence. There were also organisations which were formed to foster universal education and literacy projects. The projects which were formed include Youth Voices against Racism and Literacy for Empowerment (LIFE). The youths were encouraged to adopt a form of lifestyle to ensure that good moral values were promoted in the society (Freeman 1984, p. 46). The football teams also aim at coming up with players and managers who are well-behaved leading to the success of the national team. Through the promotion of good behaviours, there is the promotion of the corporate social responsibility which results in the growth of a morally upright society. Additionally, there is the foundation of a separate department, which addresses social issues for family, women, and children. They also contributed to the education of the children through performing activities such as donating supplies, renovating and building schools, and setting up computer laboratories. In the health sectors, the Federation promotes awareness of health issues such as the cervix cancer awareness (Friedman 1970, p. 36). They do this by informing the community about the different ways of preventing the disease. They have also donated some machines in the health sector, such as the kidney machine and some of the players donated blood in the health centres. Through the activities of social responsibility, there is a residue of good will in the eyes of the external publics. Getting involved in the social activities in the country promotes well-being of the football teams and ensures that they work together in achieving their goals. There are benefits which are accrued to being involved in various social responsibilities in the society. Promotion of good well in the eyes of the external public should be the aim of most organisations. Being involved in charitable activities, such as donation of blood in hospitals, and promoting education leads to a creation of a better image in the eyes of the general public. In conclusion, the corporate social responsibility activities have brought a great impact on football activities in the United Kingdom. Corporate social responsibility promotes the awareness of a football team. The corporate social responsibility goes beyond economic interests. They aim at ensuring that the community benefits from all their activities. The CSR activities lead to financial rewards in the long run. Getting involved the activities ensures the football teams understand what they should do and gives them an overview of what they should do to improve the welfare of the community. Additionally, strong relations with the local community are very essential for a sports organisation. Good relations with the general public leads to long-term loyalty, brand equity, legitimacy and trust. Bibliography Carroll, A. 1991.The Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility: Toward the Moral Management of Organisational Stakeholders. Business Horizons. Farrar, J. 2008. Corporate Governance: Theories, Principles and Practice, 3rd ed, Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Freeman, R. E. 1984. Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, Pitman. Friedman, M. 1970. ‘The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits’, New York Times Magazine, 13 September Greenfield, K. 2006.The Failure of Corporate Law: Fundamental Flaws and Progressive Possibilities, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Handy C. 2002.What’s a business for? Harvard Business Review, December Lea R. 2002.Corporate Social Responsibility: IOD Member Opinion Survey, The Institute of Directors, November Mitchell, L. 2001.Corporate Irresponsibility: America’s Newest Export, New Haven, CN: Yale University Press. Porter, M. & Kramer, M. 2006. ‘Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility’, Harvard Business Review. Reich R. 2008. ‘The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility’, Goldman School of Public Policy Working Paper No GSPP08-003, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1213129. Reich, R. 2007.Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Savitz, A. & Weber, K. 2006.The Triple Bottom Line: How Today’s Best Run Companies are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success – and How You Can Too, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Stancich R. 2008. ‘Recession Ethics: CSR in a Downturn – Recession-proof Ethics Can Weather the Storm’, Ethical Corporation Magazine, 5 March, also available online at http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5751. Werther, W.B. & Chandler, D. 2011.Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility, Los Angeles: Sage. Zadek, S. 2004. ‘The Path to Corporate Responsibility’, Harvard Business Review, December, 129. Read More