Public Realtions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Public Realtions - Essay Example In case of any issues arising, the businesses have to ensure that the specialists are using their expert knowledge and skills of communications to deal with the stakeholders to maintain the healthy relationships. Usually the need for specialists arises when businesses go through controversial issues (Travis, 2013). McDonalds is a multinational fast food restaurant and apparently the world’s largest hamburger sellers. McDonalds operate in more than 119 countries and serve up to 68 million customers every day. A survey of their recipes in 2004 in United States showed that they use trans-fat, artificial sweeteners and petro chemicals in their products. This was a controversial issue since it said to harm the lives of the customers. Trans-fat is used to enhance the taste of their meals and make it addicting for the customer so that he spends more money on McDonald meals. The food containing trans-fat can damage DNA, arteries, bad cholesterol and raises the risk of coronary heart d iseases. This issue was a major reason why McDonalds sales and market image was affected. Many controversies still exist today and campaigns are done to ban products that include trans-fat. Moreover, the United States governments started many campaigns in 2004 and 2005 demanding the fast food restaurants to reduce the use of trans-fats in their products and stop risking the lives of customers. By the 2007, many of the state governments had signed the regulation for the ban of trans-fats and made it a law to cease the products made in trans-fat oil. This issue had major implications on the organization and the society at large (Sriramesh, 2003). Due to the campaigns about trans-fats, many people in the United States had started knowing about the harms that trans-fat is likely to cause to the health. Thus, having revealed that McDonalds uses trans-fats in their products, the customers were furious and the organization delivered a negative image that they had to control before it hit t heir sales and profits. Since trans-fats were used in products which were consumed by the customers, they were the stakeholders largely affected by this issue. Because of this many customers stopped eating McDonalds and shifted to other competitive brands. McDonalds would not only lose their customers to their competitors, but also suffer loss in sales revenue and profits (Kincheloe, 2002). The implications of this issue to the other stakeholders would also be great. Since the market value and business image will be affected, many of the investors would refuse to invest in the business which is likely to go into losses because of this controversial issue. Moreover, the suppliers would also focus on other profitable organizations to supply their goods. The employees are an important part of the business and it is wrong to say that they would not be affected by this issue. The employees will be affected in an indirect way. Since this issue involves the government regulations, the empl oyee’s jobs would be threatened and insecure. Working in an organization undergoing an ethical controversy can also have a bad impact on the career of the employee. Most employees would avoid working in such an organization. It is at this time when the business needs its specialized managers and experts to deal with the stakeholders in order to retain their trust in the business. Usually a large scale business such as McDonalds would