Reflect on Table 5.

3 and explain how the organisation’s ethical stance and corporate social
responsibility stance has shifted.

Remember that the exhibit’s depiction of stereotypes’ extremes is only meant to stimulate

thinking (and the references to ‘shareholders’ will not apply in quite the same way when

the organisation is family owned).

The fear of many is that under control of the Glazer family, the organisation has become

like the first stereotype looking for short-term returns at the expense of investment in the

playing side. Others would contend that the Glazer family are committed to the

organisation for the long to medium term because (a) it will take this long to recoup their

original outlay and (b) they believe in the long term potential of the organisation to make

money. There is also evidence that the family has taken large sums out of the business in

the form of Directors’ remuneration. However, in recent years (2013–16) with a decline in

success the Glazers have invested heavily in new players (and managers) to try to restore

playing success.

Manchester United Directors were probably close to the second stereotype (longer-term

shareholder interests) when the organisation was a listed company. There is, however, an

argument that they also tended towards the third stereotype (multiple stakeholder

obligations) in certain respects (see the reference in the case to shareholders, loyal

supporters, customers and key commercial partners).

Many stakeholders including supporter groups believe that the stance of the club should be

either ‘multiple stakeholder obligations’ or the fourth stereotype (shaper of society) and

that in previous eras the club were nearer these extremes. However, this may be rather

unrealistic in the increasingly commercial orientation of football across Europe and

especially in England.

Students will certainly have some strong views on ethical issues in football clubs. They are

likely to identify several actions as ‘unethical’ – increasing ticket prices (so excluding

traditional fans); re-styling football shirts to continuously generate new revenue streams (if

parent’s give in to ‘pester power’ in the case of children) but it is worth pointing out that

such actions would be common place in a ‘commercial’ business so why should a football

club be different. They may also raise concerns about the nature of the new owners in
Premier league football in England – the FA has rules to ensure ‘fit and proper persons’ are

running football clubs but are these rules effective? There are also issues about community

involvement – many clubs do engage with local communities but most students are likely

to be unaware of this and in the case of MUFC will assume (perhaps rightly) that the club

should be doing more.

There may be concerns about the lack of English owners, managers and players in the

Premier league – is this simply the inevitable consequence of modern football? The process

has gone further in the UK than most countries (partly because of the huge revenues in the

English league) – should it be controlled.

Will BREXIT make a difference?

This is a big area and the debate could cover a wide variety of issues and stir some strong

feelings so there is a need to keep it focused on the learning outcomes.