Social Performance of Organizations
Katrina Kinlow
Professor Wheat
BUS 475 – Business and Society
July 28, 2014
Formed as the American Professional Football Association in 1920, the National Football League is currently regarded as North America’s premier Professional Football League (Staudohar, & Mangan, 1991). The league comprises of thirty-two football teams from different states and major American cities.
The nature, structure and types of service of the National Football League
The National Football League is a sport organization made up of different sports-related personnel; players, coaches, individual team staffs and league authorities such as referees and their assistants. All these personnel have a primary role of ensuring that league games are played as planned and scheduled. The NFL has three seasons; the pre-season, regular season and post-season. The regular season is a major league tournament, and it is held after the pre-season and before the post-season matches.
The regular league season runs for seventeen weeks; a period in which every team plays sixteen games. For this to be successful, the parties involved must fully perform their responsibilities. Even though most of the games go as planned, at times it is not possible to complete games because of some inevitable reasons that may interfere with the games. Some of them include spectator interference, harsh weather conditions and power failure. Once there is interference, a game may be cancelled, suspended, postponed or in some cases terminated depending on the underlying factors. Games can be cancelled before their kick off or when underway. If a game in progress is cancelled, the results are also cancelled. Depending on the decision made by league authorities; the game may or may not be held again (Joe & Carr, 2011).
The league authorities have the role of fixing postponed games in future dates which most probably are set once the problems have been solved. It is important to note that; games postponed will be resumed from the exact point before the postponement implying that each team resuming its scores. Meanwhile, suspended games are resumed immediately after the problems have been solved. For instance, a game suspended due to power failure is resumed once the power hitch is fixed. Lastly, termination of games ends the match and cannot be resumed even if the causal problem is solved (Joe & Carr, 2011).
Major external factors that may affect the success of the National Football League
There are many factors that affect the NFL’s operations. These factors can either be internal or external. Internal factors originate within the organization while external factors originate outside the organization’s structure, NFL, like any other organization, is affected by both internal and external organization.
One of the major external factors that affect the NFL is bad weather. Weather is a natural phenomenon, and the NFL does not have any form of influence over it. Unfavorable weather conditions such as heavy rain affect games since players cannot give their best performance. In addition, with poor weather, the spectator turnout declines resulting to low-revenue collection which affect league funding and, as a result, hinder various operations of the league (Staudohar, & Mangan, 1991).
Meanwhile, unavailability of funding sources is another major external factor that can affect the operations of the NFL. The NFL majorly gets its’ funding from sponsorship deals and relevant government departments. However, government budget deficits and tough economic times for sponsors at times lead to low revenue and in some cases no funding for the National Football League. In such cases, teams cannot carry out operations such as paying players, provision of relevant facilities and paying their coaches effectively (Hoye, 2012). Moreover, without proper funding, game preparation and paying match officials become hard and, as a result, impairing the operations of NFL as a whole.
The key salient stakeholders of NFL; their roles and relationship to the organization
Organizations have two types of stakeholders; the primary stakeholders and the salient stakeholders. A salient stakeholder is one who does not have a direct association with an organization, but yet play a key role towards the success of that particular organization. NFL has a number of salient stakeholders; fantasy football companies, bars and restaurants and NFL sponsors (Swatek, July 29).
The Fantasy Football Companies
With over twenty-five million fanatics, the Fantasy Football Companies play a key role in the development of NFL. One of the important roles played by these companies is updating NFL fans about league standings, game results and news. In turn, they generate revenue by adverting to the millions of fans who visit their websites (Hoye, 2012).
Bars, hotels and restaurants
Bars, hotels and restaurants play a key role in accommodating the large number of fans who attend NFL games. In fact, it can be viewed that these two parties depend on each. While bars and restaurants provide accommodation for league fans and in turn make profits- in some way, some of the hotels, bars and restaurants purely depend on the league games in making millions of profits.
The National Football League (NFL) sponsors
The NFL teams depend on sponsorship deals as the main source of their funding. Sponsors, engage in huge money sponsorship deals in the view of making huge revenue sales which can be translated to association with the famous NFL teams. In fact, a more competitive team attracts relatively more sponsors (Swatek, July 29).
Ways in which primary NFL stakeholders can influence its financial performance
Provision of relevant information about the league games; fixtures and game venues
One of the main ways through which game attendance number can be increased is by the provision of relevant information relating to game fixtures and tournament venues. With adequate and appropriate information, many fans will be willing to attend the games. As a result, the NFL will collect huge revenues hence enhancing its financial capability.
Introduction of league sub-sections
The NFL authorities can increase its commercial revenues by introducing various league sections. For instance, the authorities can start NFL for under-20s and under-18s tournaments which, of course, will attract many fans. As a result, the revenue collected by NFL will increase and thus enhance its financial resources.
Provision of transportation facilitates at a cheaper cost
In order to watch games, fans travel from different parts of the country. As a result, cases of fare hikes are common whenever there is an NFL game. Consequently, funds are spent on traveling expenses. In order to solve this problem, various groups of stakeholders can come up with solutions such as the provision of cheap transportation facilities for fans.
NFL and team sponsoring
When associated with NFL or its teams, companies generate huge revenue out of increased sales. With this in mind, National Football League can get an increase in funding from the many business companies who are ready to sponsor the league or its teams. This will in turn raise its financial position.
Ensuring accommodation services for game fans and supporters
One of the things that fans consider before deciding whether to or not to attend NFL games is the availability of accommodation and hotel services. Once assured of enough accommodation facilities, fans will turn out in large numbers leading to the amount of revenue collected (Joe & Carr, 2011).
One major controversial corporate social responsibility concern associated with National Football League
In the recent past, concussions- traumatic brain injury which normally leads to temporary unconsciousness and severe headache- and head related injuries have emerged as the most controversial corporate social responsibility issues facing the NFL. Like in many other games that include much physicality, NFL players are highly susceptible to concussions due to head collisions and reckless player tackles.
A plan that can be used to form a stakeholder coalition group that will help in forcing the address on measures and plans available to combat cases of player concussions.
The essential steps used to identify the members of the coalition group
With many concerns being raised about the increased number of player concussions, it is of great importance to form a coalition of stakeholders to seek an official address by the NFL. The coalition will seek to establish who should be held responsible once a concussion occurs and the various measures available in preventing, and handling cases of concussions once they occur.
To form an efficient coalition, the following steps should be followed; The first step is to identify the stakeholders who will comprise the proposed stakeholders’ coalition. In this case, the stakeholders of interest are fans and players.
Identifying and clarifying the specific cases in which the organization has failed to handle cases of concussions effectively.
After identification of specific cases, enquiry regarding these cases should be made. This involves seeking a statement of explanation on how these cases were dealt with.
If NFL does not meet the requirements of the inquiry, there should be a resultant action by the coalition; in this case, the probable action is legally suing NFL. Alternatively, the coalition will mobilize players and fans to boycott participating and attending the NFL games respectively (Joe & Carr, 2011).
The major reason players and fans can help to accomplish the objective of seeking official address of the controversial matter
The decision to choose players and game fans as my ideal group of stakeholders is because; these two-stakeholder groups play key roles in NFL’s operations. Fans form the primary source of revenue for NFL. Without fans, NFL will neither be able to generate revenue to facilitate its operations nor attract big money sponsorship deals. On the other hand, concussions endanger players’ health and derail their competitiveness. This is beside the fact that NFL will not exist without players. Therefore, players and supporters are the ideal groups of stakeholders who can help push NFL to address the controversial matter of stakeholder neglect.
Techniques to use in fostering collaboration between fans and other stakeholders
In order to ensure that the proposed objectives are achieved, a number of techniques can be used. One of the techniques is to mobilize supporters to boycott and restrain from attending NFL matches. In consequence, the amount of revenue collected will drastically decline forcing the NFL to address the matters of concern; the issue of player concussions.
Other techniques that can be used include mobilizing players to refuse participating in games bringing NFL operations to a standstill. In the bottom-line, NFL will seek to address the raised issues so as to combat further financial losses resulting from fan and player strikes (Staudohar, & Mangan,1991).
Three potential challenges that may be faced in encouraging stakeholders to form a coalition.
To form a coalition whose task is to face a giant sports organization will be no easy task. The process may encounter numerous challenges that may derail the process. The three major challenges that will be faced while encouraging stakeholders to form a coalition are as follows;
1. NFL football players, supporters and other stakeholders may decide to ignore calls to boycott matches. This is possible if they feel that they are involved in decision making.
2. In order to encourage stakeholders to form a coalition, there must be stakeholder meetings. However, this is not possible due to lack of funds which may hamper the whole process of coalition formation.
3. Possible propaganda against the objectives of the coalition; some quarters from the NFL may decide to wage misleading propaganda which will in turn stall the efforts of forming a coalition.
Steps to overcome unwillingness by players and fans to boycott matches
Involving players and supporters from the initial stages of the process; this will ensure they actively participate in boycotts and strikes.
Letting players and fans take key positions in the coalition leadership. This will boost their commitment and willingness to participate in boycotts.
Steps to overcome limitations caused by lack of funds to hold meetings
The coalition should seek help from trade unions and other welfare organizations. These groups include the ones that players and fans have subscribed to, relevant government departments and well-wishers.
There should be maximum utilization of the available funds. This will ensure the available funds are efficiently used and that every single coin is well accounted for.
Steps to overcome the propaganda
The coalition should clearly define its objectives so as to render any propaganda spread useless.
NFL fans and players should be enlightened on the dangers of concussions and the need to push NFL to address it as matter of urgency.
References
Hoye, R. (2012). Sport management: principles and applications (3rd ed.). London: Routledge.
Staudohar, P. D., & Mangan, J. A. (1991). The Business of professional sports. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Ross, C. K. (1999). Outside the lines: African Americans and the integration of the National Football League. New York: New York University Press.
Swatek, R. (2011, July 29). NFL's Silent Stakeholders. Bloomberg Business Week. Retrieved May 3, 2014, from http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/nfls-silent-stakeholders-07292011.html
Joe F. Carr (2011). The man who built the National Football League:. Choice Reviews Online, 48(07), 48-3939-48-3939.
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