Events Impact and Events Stakeholder Management - Essay Example

Events are held for numerous reasons such as celebrations, business sports and fun just to name a few (Getz, 2002). Over the course of the last 20 years, the event industry has experienced significant upsurge in growth; this phenomenal has been found to have positive impacts on the social political and corporate parties who take part in the organization or are stakeholders in any other way. There are several types of events and they are primarily differentiated by their scope and function, they range from low-key corporate ones to highly publicized product launches and advertising campaigns to sporting activities such as the FIFA world cup and the Olympics (Kasimati, 2003). Additionally, there are cultural events specific to particular cultures and societies, at the extreme high of events there are festivals, which are essentially mega events that involve hundreds, sometimes thousands and last for days on end. Events however do not happen in the abstract, they require substantial resources in the form of labour capital and land, like every other industry they also have a set of impacts that result from their occurrence. These impacts can be either positive or negative, in many instances, events bring about social and cultural integration as well as economic progress especially those designed to promote tourism such as culture festival (Rast, 2007). This paper will attempt to put in to context the various stakeholders in events as well as the function of the managers and the impacts, both positive and negative with a view to understand how they integrate into management. The event industry employs thousands of people in varies capacities and this creation of employment is a major positive impact of the same. Notwithstanding, there are several negative impacts resulting from events (Smith, 2003), they main ones include environmental degradation as well as cultural interference and economic imbalances (Gursoy, Kim & Uysal, 2004). Given the complexities that are involved in event planning and management, the stake holders event managers are often faced with a challenging task in their attempt to coordinate all the activities and resources necessary to bring an event to a successful conclusion. The stakeholders involved in any event may include; organizer, employee’s service and catering providers, emergency services, and security transport and media staff as well as the members of the public who have attended the particular event (Sacha, 2011). The stakeholders are defined as primary or secondary stakeholders based on the nature and function of their involvement and contribution. The primary stakeholders are deemed essential as they play a pivotal role in facilitating event and without them, it would not take place; they include the organizers, employees and facilitators as well as the target audience for the even t and volunteers. The secondary stakeholders are also important for the events success; however, their role is not such that the event would fail to exist in their absence. They include the general public, security personnel the business community in an area and tourist organizations. The stakeholder can further be classified in stakeholder groups that consist of participants and spectators who support the event and are rewarded with entertainment. The host community, which primarily benefits from the cultural interaction and business opportunities,, then there are sponsors and who in most cases are government or corporate bodies who provide funding for the event in return for publicity and/or advertisement or goods services or creating awareness on different issues. The stakeholder theory of management posits that organizations are made up of a combination of stakeholders and failure to retain their participation inevitably results in a collapse of the enterprise (Heath and Norman, 2004). When this is applied in the context of events management, the need for professionalism and competence in managers when dealing with stakeholders cannot be overstated. Whenever events are being organized, it is crucial to engage the various stakeholders throughout the planning process to acquire their co-operation and good will, which improves the quality of their contribution giving the event in question a competitive edge (Verbeke and Tung, 2013). To this end, it is imperative for the event organizers to implement strategies through which stakeholder management can be carried out effectively. For one, communication is crucial and especially in the contemporary IT era, relationships and business arrangements are driven by information. Therefore, the stakeholder should be kept updated on the development of the event; this is done through capturing as many addresses as possible from the various organizations and individual stakeholders to maintain a constant supply of information (Gupta, 2013). Roles of the organization and individuals who are stake holders should be explicitly defined such that each party can effect carry out their role without conflicting or overlapping of roles. There should also be a categorization of different customers based on their expectations and if possible, records of preference should be kept and constantly updated for the benefit of the event “consumers” (Getz, 2002). The stakeholders should also be provided with means through which they can provide feedback and suggestions for the event since it is primary being carried out for their benefit (Reid & Acordia, 2002). Take a hypothetical scenario in which the ministry of tourism is planning on holding a cultural festival in which they aim to showcase the local culture and art. For them to be successful, they needs must consider the target customers and determine what would be most appealing to them, this way they will be better placed to the event in such a way that it lives up to the clients expectations. Furthermore, event managers must be cognizant to the fact that not all stakeholders are equal and at the end of the day some will be have more impact in determining the failure or success of the event than others. The Savage et al (1991) typology, attempts to create a balanced view concerning the possible influence of various stakeholders may have on the event, by placing them in a management context and proposing the most efficient strategy for each category. The typology divides the influences into potentially cooperative and potentially threating. This implies that some stakeholders may by virtue of their intentions, have a different agenda other than the one held by the event organizers despite being part of it they could also include those who are directly opposed to an event, as they would try to disrupt it or otherwise prevent it from a successful completion. The typology posits that when potential for threat is higher than for cooperation, managers should apply defensive strategies and involvement strategies when the threat potential is lower. According to Getz (2002), the management can benefit from applying good stakeholder management approach, for example in post festival analysis, for a live music festival in Sweden. In this example, the research from stakeholders on the ground provided crucial for the organizers when by saying that the most serious problems they could face were bad weather or high priced entertainers (Janeczko, Mules and Ritchie, 2002). This helped them prepare contingencies to avoid having to postpone the event should any of the two or both issue arise. As aforementioned, events do not take place in isolation and in their occurrence; they impact on the society in numerous ways in the social, economic and political contexts which could be both positive and negative. Largely, the positive impacts are the reason behind the popularly of events and why mangers work so hard to ensure they are a success and why the public and other stakeholder support them (Murphy and Boyle, 2006). Consequently, strategies are constantly being developed with the intention of enhancing the benefits that accrue from various events such as employment cultural exchange and opportunities for product marketing and awareness creation. Nonetheless, events can sometimes result in failure, for example, their entire event may cost more than the organizer make at the end of the day or there may be negative publicity from the event leading to negative public image and sometimes-even lawsuits. Take an example a music concert organized to promote youth awareness on the evils of drugs, the management has organized for a number of popular performers to two or three corporate sponsor have come forward to provide finding in exchange of advertising their merchandise during the concert. However, imagine that after during the concert some of the fans are drinking alcohol in the auditorium as if it was just another party for them. However, when the concert is over there is a stamped and a student dies and several others are injured, to make matter worse the injured ones are found to have been inebriated and the matter is publicized as such matter will by the press. This would be an archetypical event failure given that the organizers would be blamed and the negative publicity will probable reflect on the corporate sponsors who in most cases would covertly disassociate themselves form the event to save face (Pourtaheri Rahmani and Ahmadi, 2012). This is why it is crucial for event managers to apply techniques like the savage typology before the carry out events and festivals so that they are in a position to predict negative outcomes and plan contingencies. One of the primary tasks of contemporary events managers is the monitoring and management of event impacts. Bearing in mind that the events must have both positive and negative impacts managers are expected to create a balance between the two in such a way that the former are in the fore and the latter minimized(Gupta, 2013). To facilitate this balance, firms need to take to account the triple bottom lines of event organization; social, economic and political, this are best achieved if the managers practice collaboration and empower relevant stakeholders with resources and sufficed information (Batt and Purchase, 2004). Every event has some degree of social impact on its participants and the community, in which it is set (Fredline et al, 2003), in most cases, it involves at least a degree of entertainment through share experiences in the event. Greater impacts could include increased validation of their cultural tradition or exposure to new ones; it could also create awareness regarding the benefits of cultural interactions and foster a sense of cultural inclusion. Events can also impact in making political statements, for example when the G8 summit was taking place, live 8 concerts were organized to coincide with the G8 as way of creating awareness for the plight of many African countries burdened by western debt and ravaged by poverty and disease. Political factors have also been known to impact on events and as a result, managers should ensure they gather as much information about the political climate in the context of political circumstances. In the recent archery world cup hosted in Japan, China refused to let its athlete attend the event since the political clime therein was characterized with high tension and they feared for their security. However, political support can have significant impact on the success of events since the political establishments often have a great deal of influence over their citizen and an endorsement from the government will likely work to the advantage of the event managers (Gupta, 2013). In the 2200 millennium funded festivals, the stakeholders benefited immensely in a variety of ways, for one, there was a high level of community mobilization and integration. The organizers and participants experienced personal growth, there was quality entertainment for all, and given the effectiveness with which they were managed, it is likely they will be repeated in future. However, events especially those related to tourism while good for the local economy and cultural integration can result in the spread of negative culture as well as environmental pollution. Janeczko, Mules and Ritchie (2002) carried out a study on the impacts of tourist events in Australia on the local economy in an area known as Snowy Gross, and the results were surprising. In the Australian Mountain Bike Association Cup and National Runners Week, they discovered that the economic impact advantage of the events was actually minimal in the long run contrary to popular assumption that the more tourists there were the better. This was because the event tourist was too many and crowded out the regular tourist whose spending habits were consistent (Boo & Busser, 2006). The event tourists only spent 39% of their expenditure on the local products since most of what they were consuming was from outside the locality such as beer and wine, which was bottled and sold from the big cities. High visitor numbers resulting from event tourism also tend to strain social amenities and this may result in reduction of efficacy in service delivery unconvincing both the natives and visitors (Selby, 2004). In addition, especially in rural communities, there is always a possibility that the local may pick negative or culturally unacceptable habits from the guests (Poyya, 2003). In some cases participants in events may bring with them illegal substance and share or sell them to the local youths who will be then exposed to such vices as drug use and even possibly sexual immorality (Gursoy, Jurowski & Uysal, 2002). The study recommends that event managers should apply the research data and work in corporation with the local government in future so that some of the amenities that visitors get from other towns can be availed in Snowy Gross and thus reduce the economic leakage so the local may reap bigger benefits from the tourism industry. Ultimately, for any event to be successful, it requires the involvement of event managers who are prepared and able to not only plan and organize resources but also exercise control over the stakeholders so that they can harness the contribution of every involved party. They must also be able to study the social cultural and economic situation to ensure the event in question lives up to the three bottom lines. For this to happen, they have to integrate the event management principles so that they may determine in advance the positive or negative social political and economic impact likely to result from the event and take action accordingly. References Batt P. J. & Purchase S. 2004. Managing collaboration within networks and relationships Industrial marketing management 33(3): 169-174. Boo, S., & Busser, J. A. 2006. Impact Analysis of a Tourism Festival on Tourists Destination. Images. Event Management, 9, 223-237. Getz, D. 2002. Editorial: On the Nature and Significance of Events Studies. Event Management 7(3): 141-142. Gupta, N. 2013. Stakeholder management for an event and impact assessment.Slidehare.com. [online] Available at http://www.slideshare.net/neeraj2710/stakeholder-management-for-an-event-and-impact-assessment Heath, J. and Norman, W., 2004. Stakeholder Theory, Corporate Governance and Public Management: What can the History of State-Run Enterprises Teach us in the Post-Enron era? Journal of Business Ethics, 53(3), pp. 247-265. Janeczko, B., Mules, T. and Ritchie, B. 2002.Estimating the Economic Impacts of Festivals and Events: A Research Guide research report. Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism. [online] Available at http://www.crctourism.com.au/wms/upload/resources/bookshop/Mules_EcoImpactsFestivals_v6.pdf Sacha, R., 2011. Event stakeholder management: developing sustainable rural event practices, International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Vol. 2 Iss: 1, pp.20 - 36 Savage, G. et al. 1991. Strategies for assessing and managing organizations stakeholders. Academy of management executive. 5(2): 51-75 Verbeke, A. and Tung, V., 2013. The Future of Stakeholder Management Theory: A Temporal Perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 112(3), pp. 529-543. Fredline, L., Jago, L., & Deery, M., 2003. The Development of a Generic Scale to Measure the Social Impacts of Events. Event Management, 8, 23-37. Gursoy, D., Jurowski, C., & Uysal, M., 2002. Resident attitudes: A Structural Modeling Approach. Annals of Tourism Research, 29(1), 79-105. Gursoy, D., Kim, K., & Uysal, M., 2004. Perceived impacts of festivals and special events by organizers: an extension and validation. Tourism Management, 25(2), 171-181. Kasimati, E. 2003. Economic aspects and the Summer Olympics: a review of related research. International Journal of Tourism Research, 5(6), 433-444. Reid, S. & Acordia, C. 2002. Understanding the Role of the Stakeholder in Event Management. Events & Place Making, Event Research Conference 15-16 July 2002. UTS, Australian Centre for Event Management, University of Technology Sydney. Rast, R.W., 2007. The Cultural Politics of Tourism in San Francisco's Chinatown, 1882-1917. Pacific Historical Review, 76(1), pp. 29-60. Pourtaheri, M., Rahmani, K. and Ahmadi, H., 2012. Impacts of Religious and Pilgrimage Tourism in Rural Areas: The Case of Iran. Journal of Geography and Geology, 4(3), pp. 122-129. Murphy, C. And Boyle, E., 2006. Testing a conceptual model of cultural tourism development in the post-industrial city: A case study of Glasgow. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 6(2), pp. 111-128. Poyya, G.M., 2003. PROMOTION OF PEACE AND SUSTAINABILITY BY COMMUNITY BASED HERITAGE ECO-CULTURAL TOURISM IN INDIA. International Journal of Humanities and Peace, 19(1), pp. 40-45. Selby, M. 2004. Understanding Urban Tourism: Image, Culture and Experience', London: LB Taurus. Smith, M. K., 2003. 'Issues in Cultural Tourism Studies', London: Routledge. Read More