Case Study范文：The Case Study of Chick-Fil-A

The Case Study of Chick-Fil-A Chick-Fil-A的案例研究

随着时代的进步，同性婚姻成为社会主流所讨论的话题。更多精英开始对同性恋持中立态度。在这种情况下，名为Chick-Fil-A的酒店对同性恋婚姻保持极端保守的态度，这已经遇到了一些公关危机。这家公司反对同性恋，许多同性恋婚姻支持者开始抵制Chick-Fil-A的产品。在这样的压力下，公司陷入了两难境地。为了解决这个问题，公司总裁凯茜提出了三个解决方案：第一，继续保持原有战略;第二，放弃原有的管理原则;第三，采取平衡的态度。

就第一种解决方案而言，Chick-Fil-A将保持其保守的立场，并使用圣经来指导其商业决策。他们的宗教信仰的优势在于以下几个方面。首先，它是公司成立的基础，多年的成功管理经验验证了这一管理原则的可行性。第二，忠于宗教信仰，这是公司的文化始终是公司的品牌形象，而这种品牌形象已得到众多消费者的认可。最后，大多数员工和部分客户都是虔诚的基督徒，他们为自己的信仰感到自豪。共同的信念将他们聚集在一起，这降低了公司在消费者和公司之间建立信任的成本。因此，改变公司的信心可能会对维持客户来源造成巨大风险。

With the progress of the times, same-sex marriage has become a topic that is discussed in the mainstream of society. More elites begin to take a neutral attitude towards homosexuality. In this case, the hotel named Chick-Fil-A maintaining an extreme conservative stance towards gay marriage has met some public relations crises. This company is against homosexuality, many gay marriage supporters began to boycott the products from Chick-Fil-A. Under such pressure, the company fell into a dilemma. In order to deal with the problem, Cathy, who was the president of the company brought forward three solutions: first, continuing to maintain the original strategy; second, giving up the original management principle; third, adoption of a balanced attitude.

In terms of the first solution, Chick-Fil-A will keep their conservative stance and use the Bible to guide its business decisions. The advantage of their religious belief lies in the following areas. First of all, it the foundation of the establishment of the company, many years of its successful management experience has verified the feasibility of this management principle. Second of all, devotion to religious belief, which is the company’s culture has always been the company's brand image, and this brand image has been recognized by many consumers. Finally, most of the staff and part of the customers are devout Christians, they are very proud of their faith., the common faith have brought them together, which reduces the company’s costs for establishing the trust between consumers and the company. Therefore, changing the faith of the company may a huge risk for maintaining its guest sources.

Considering the second solution, the company may reformulate its management mode and make the religion completely leave the company’s management principle. Reasons for choosing the solution rest on that many Christians and other religious groups today gradually change their conservative stance towards gay marriage, if the company changes its original policy, it shows it attitude to keep up with the times. Moreover, it the company decreases the impact of the religious beliefs on its management, it will become more rational in management, which will set it free from the pressure of public opinion. Additionally, if the company can be open on weekends, it will bring more additional income. However, there is also a negative impact, if the Chick-Fil-A changes its original faith in management principle, its employees may not adapt to the change, which may affect the stability of its staff. Besides, this change may also lead to the trust crisis, making the old customers lose their common faith with the company and they may go to choose other companies.

Judging from the third balanced approach, it will keep the original business model, and at the same time maintaining a neutral attitude toward homosexuality. To be specific, the company will not publish anti-gay remarks any more, as a result, the attack comments from the homosexual marriage supporters will quiet down gradually. Then the company can begin to focus on some charity work, so as to shape the corporate image. This balanced solution may allow the company  to avoid the risk brought by a sudden corporate reform and can alleviate the pressure arising from the public opinion.

The author believed that, Cathy, the president of the company should take the third business strategy. As considering from the characteristics of the culture of the American society, the United States is the country in the world with the largest number of immigrants, multi-ethnic and multi-racial, multi-religious situations co-exist in American society, American culture thus have a variety of features (Niculescu, 2013). Salad Bowl theory well describes the phenomenon of American multicultural society, which means that many different cultures co-exist in the U.S., it is like a large salad bowl, it does not fuse them into a single, similar culture, but keeps each culture maintain its own uniqueness (Bhattacharya and Groznik, 2008). From the perspective of multiculturalism, the Chick-Fil-A kept their conservative stance and used the Bible to guide its business decisions, which was wrong, because this strategy adopted an exclusive attitude towards other cultures, which goes against the mainstream values of multiculturalism in American Society. If Chick-Fil-A reformulates the management mode, making religion completely leave the company management's strategy, which is also wrong, because the values of multiculturalism emphasizes mutual respect, different cultures should maintain their own characteristics. The second strategy will make the company completely lose the characteristics of their corporate culture, and therefore it is undesirable. The third strategy takes a more balanced management strategy and adopts a more neutral attitude towards same-sex marriage. This on one hand reflects its respect for other cultures, on the other hand, it till maintains their tradition, on the other hand, it contributes to reducing the criticism from the public, it also consistent with the mainstream values of American society. To conclude, these three strategies have their advantages and disadvantages. Personally, the author supported the third method because its controllability and reliability are higher.

References

Bhattacharya, U. and Groznik, P. (2008). Melting pot or salad bowl: Some evidence from U.S. investments abroad. Journal of Financial Markets, 11(3), 228-258. 

Niculescu, R. M. (2013). In search of a dream at the crossroads of inculturation and the integration within an inter-cultural society – challenges of Immigration. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 81(28), 400-404.