Corporate Social Responsibility in Burnley Football Club - Essay Example

? CSR Table of Contents Burnley Football Club: relationship with stakeholders 3 Identification of shortfalls in relationship with stakeholders and their remedies 5 Stages of CSR: Burnley football club 6 Draft a CSR Vision Statement for the Club 7 CSR Policies for Burnley football club 8 References 10 Burnley Football Club: relationship with stakeholders Burnley football club is an English football club in the Burnley, Lancashire. Burnley football club is nicknamed as the “Clarets” due to their dominant color in the team jerseys. The club reached its peak in the early years since 1888. The club performance fell after the second world-war and was out of the top division in English football since 1976 to 2009. However, the club won the Championship play-off final and was promoted to the English premier league but was relegated again after one year. The improvement in the performance of the club over the last few years could be attributed to the relationships of the club with its internal and external stakeholders. The major stakeholders of the Burnley football club are the chairman and the board of directors, the management and the supporting staffs, the employees and the players, the former players association, the customers and the supporters, the business suppliers and creditors and the community at large (BURNLEY FOOTBALL CLUB, 2013, p.1). It is important for the club to maintain healthy relationships with the stakeholders of the club in order to improve the operational performance for taking the club to the top English football division and sustain its success over a long run. Apart from earnings business profits for funds required to carry out the expenses of the club which is allocated majorly to the payments of the players, the responsibility towards the community and environment in which they co-exist is also equally important to sustain as well as increase supporter base which is the bloodstream for Burnley football club. The Board of directors plays a crucial role in maintaining a strong system of governance for the club. The financial fair play regulations are kept in mind while arranging for finance required for operations of the club. The infusion of additional funds by the owners in their plight to success is strictly prohibited and is monitored by the club. The management staffs and employees, coaches and player are paid on timely basis to maintain smooth operations of the club activities. The major part of the club expenditure is allocated to the payments to players and their transfers. It is looked into by the club for timely payments of fees to the players in order to bring out the best performance on the field. The coaches, support staffs and employees are also given due recognition for good performance by the club. The club recognizes an association of former players who had outstanding contribution in the remarkable victories of the club. The club honors them as claret forever. This induces a healthy atmosphere for transmission of the heritage of the club. The club maintains a strong bond with its supporters who are the source of revenues for the club. The club values its supporters highly which is reflected in the transparency in dealings and transactions as well as publish of information on football activities to its customers. The employees of the club maintain a cordial relationship and behave courteously with the supporters and their customers. All sorts of co-operation and responsiveness are shown to the concerns and feedbacks are taken for improvement. The club updates its official website in a timely fashion and any changes in the policies of the club are informed timely to the stakeholders. The club also maintains an online ticketing system and transparent dealings on amount and position of seats are done through online systems. The club addresses the concerns of the community through its ticket pricing strategies. Considering the entertainment and recreation provided to the community from the football matches, the club design a range of ticket prices with concessions provided to the junior supporters as well as the senior citizens above the age of 65 years. An allocation of 5% of the tickets is done to the non-seasonal ticket holders. The supporters are also allowed a system of payment in instalments on tickets available for the football matches for the season. The club segregates a separate space and gallery for the families to watch the football matches and also separate galleries are available for junior supporters. The club considers the disabled supporters who wish to watch the football matches. Special facilities are made available to them for ticket booking and viewing of football matches. In case of away matches, the club allocates tickets on priority to the shareholders and season ticket holders. The club also has the discretion to allocate tickets to the customers who are ready to book tickets two weeks before the fixture. For visiting clubs, the Burnley football club follows the policy of distributing ticket at prices at par with the prices of its seasonal ticket holders. The concession for junior and senior supporters of the visiting club is same as their own supporters. Any person arrested on football offence and subsequently held liable under the court of law is prohibited from further entry to the home stadium. The club refunds tickets to the supporters for cancellation or postponement of fixtures (Burnley Football Club, 2012, p.1). Apart from this; the club at its discretion can also refund the tickets to a supporter before the kick off. The Burnley football club maintains a string data protection system for privacy of data on its customers and supporters that are held in the server of the club. The club also follows the Football Child protection policy according to which the club gives priority to child protection. The club also follows the equal opportunities policy in which the club sternly discourages discrimination in genders, age, culture, religion and racism. The club also values its suppliers and creditors and maintains a good relationship with them in order to maintain the smooth flow of funds required for the business. Identification of shortfalls in relationship with stakeholders and their remedies The maintenance of relationship with the stakeholders and activities of corporate social responsibility of the club may be seen as a non-profitable activity for the club. However, the club needs to understand the significance of tightening the governance of the club and increase its contributions to the community and the environment in which the football is played (Mallin, 2007, p.49). The club would need to understand the significance of developing itself into a more responsible citizen that would in turn contribute in building the supporter and customer base and would improve the long term sustainability and profitability of the club. The shortfall in terms of availability of finances for the club to sign in bigger contracts with players could be removed by increasing its revenue earnings. The remedies for the shortfall in relationship with the stakeholders lay at increasing the activities for social contribution and care for the community and environment. The activities for recycling the wastes in the club’s activities, reducing carbon footprint in the environment and promoting green environment could be some of the measures for improving the relationship with the community. The growth in confidence among the supporters and society towards the club would result in increase in the number of fans which would result in increased source of revenue. The payments for the internal stakeholders like employees and external stakeholders like creditors, customers could be done by the club on a timely and frequent basis. Another shortfall lies in the disclosure of information on activities of corporate social responsibility of the club. Apart from the annual general meeting, the club could also take initiatives to disclose periodic reports on corporate social responsibility in order to spread awareness among the supporters and other stakeholders. This will cascade the information in the society and would complete the cycle of corporate social responsibility. Stages of CSR: Burnley football club The five stages of CSR of corporate social responsibility are given below. The five stages are defined according to the degree of responsibility undertaken as an integral part of the business policies of the club. The categories are as follows: Defensive (denying responsibility), Compliant (doing the minimum required), Managerial (the first steps in integrating CSR into management practices), Strategic (embedding CSR into strategy), Civil (promoting CSR industry-wide). The club has a long heritage of performance in the English football league and has an establish fan base. Thus the CSR approach is not new for the club. Thus it has crossed its first stages of introducing CSR into its managerial practices. Although it has not been able to promote industry wide CSR with limitations on its revenues, the club has strategically embedded CSR into its strategies. This is reflected from its strategic policies on benefits to all sections of the supporters including the disabled supporters. The club also has existing policies on equality and child protection. The ticket pricing and refund policies are also socially justifiable. Apart from all these, a tighter system of governance and prohibition on additional inclusion of funds from the owners has been laid by the club. The club holds annual general meeting for discussion among the stakeholders in order to obtain feedback and implement necessary changes in the operations of the club (Schwartz, 2011, p.37). Thus Burnley football club is into strategic phase of the CSR where it embedded the CSR approach into its integral policies. Draft a CSR Vision Statement for the Club The club maintains a strategic vision of sustainable performance in the English football league integrated with its activities on corporate social responsibility. The club has a vision of encompassing supporters and customers from all sections of the society starting from the rich to the low income levels and also including people who are disabled. The inclusion of all sections of the society and increase in the supporter base of the club helps them to achieve higher revenues. The club envisions extension of courteous behaviour and co-operation towards its customers and supporters in order to address their concerns and issues. The club intends to set up an environment of equality that aims to prevent discrimination of gender, race, etc. Burnley football club understands the importance of treating all its customers and supporters as equal in order given them fair and equal treatment as stakeholders of their business. The football club is committed to add value to the community through their pioneering contributions to the society. The Burnley football clubs focuses on recycling of wastes where possible in order to prevent pollution in the society. The club intends to take initiative ion reducing the carbon footprint in the society. The football club gives priority to its employees and players who are the bloodstream of their business. The club aims to create a friendly environment and maintains transparency in their transactions with the stakeholders. All these are included in the vision statement of the Burnley football club which is strategically implemented by the club. CSR Policies for Burnley football club The policies to be adopted by the Burnley football club are in line with the vision and mission of the club. The club should design its policies by integrating the policies on corporate social responsibility. The football club has to adopt a policy for promoting green environment. This could be done by adopting recycle of wastages in every activity of the club. Apart from introducing battery bins, other bins should also be introduced for disposal of harmful chemicals and preventing pollution in the society. The club should also contribute to improve the health and extracurricular activities of the young population in the society (Crowther and Rayman-Bacchus, 2004, p.55). Nurturing growth for the young society would help to develop future players and supporters. Also care for disabled has to be spread into the rural areas. The club should spend more on advertising of their ticket pricing. Increase in awareness and flexibility in ticket booking provided by the club would help to increase their revenues. In line with their business strategies, the club should maintain a strict system of governance and monitoring of finances for developmental activities is essential to be implemented. The club should adopt policies of smooth payments and transfers of players for playing activities and also provide benefits to their families. This would help to bring out outstanding performance that would lead to lead to remarkable victories for the club and receipt of attractive prize money. The should also strategically adopt he policy of maintaining strong relationships with their internal stakeholders like employees and external stakeholders like creditors in order to maintain smooth flow of business operations. References Burnley Football Club. 2012. Customer Charter 2012/13. [Online]. Available at: http://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/club/Customer_Charter.aspx. [Accessed on 20 May, 2013]. Burnley Football Club. 2013. COMMUNITY. [Online]. Available at: http://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/club/BFC_PESS_community/. [Accessed on 20 May, 2013]. Crowther, D. and Rayman-Bacchus, L. 2004. Perspectives on corporate social responsibility. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd; England. Mallin, C. 2007. Corporative Governance. Oxford University Press; Great Britain. Schwartz, M. 2011. Corporate social responsibility, an ethical approach. Broadview Press; Canada. Read More