Manchester United: Brand of Hope and Glory

Essay by atnignekl123University, Bachelor'sA-, December 2007

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Identify who you believe to be Manchester United's key stakeholders and evaluate their influence in relation to the ethical stance taken by the company.

Ethical stance defined by Johnson and Scholes as: 'the extent to which an organisation will exceed it minimum obligations to stakeholders and society at large.'Four possible ethical stances exist and are stereotypes for any organisation.

The first ethical stance is short-term shareholder interests; a company who stick very close to laws and regulations which are in place. They give and do only what they are obliged to, this usually causes problems with long-term financial decisions.

The second stance is longer-term shareholder interests - a company who are very focused on building and maintaining reputation in relation to its financial success. They take into consideration all stakeholders and how they can effect the organisation in the future.

The third stance is multiple stakeholder obligations - relating to a company taking wide consultation with all stakeholders.

This is a very slow process and not a good stance for a fast moving and growing company.

The last stance is shaper of society - companies who focus on communities and want to build them up; this stance puts the financial interest second and is usually related to charitable organisations.

Manchester United matches the second stance - Longer-term shareholder interests.

They are focused on building reputation using players, clothing, technology, media and many other ways to promote their team and brand. They are known globally using strong marketing methods and this has greatly aided their financial goals.

As a global organisation they have a number of stakeholders, each of these can be categorised into the amount of power and interest they have, using stakeholder mapping. This model is called the Power/Interest matrix (shown below) and indicates the type of relationships held...