Question

Which of Blue Bell’s internal and external stakeholders were positively and negatively affected by the contamination crisis? Be specific.

Answer 1

Blue Bell’s internal stakeholders that were negatively impacted by the contamination crisis was the employees and the owners. The employees were impacted because the recall of all the ice cream caused many employees to lose their jobs. The case study states that “the company ended up laying off 37% of its employees. . .and furloughing 1,400 more”. The owners were impacted because they had to keep recalling their products when the “CDC linked the bacteria in the [ice cream to] . . . more listeria cases”. Paul Kruse, who is the CEO of Blue Bell, had to “publicly apologize and recall of its products” which brings production in the company to the half and decrease their sales and profits. The external stakeholders that were negatively impacted by the contamination crisis were the customers because of the listeria caused the customers to get extremely ill and some deaths. There was an outbreak at a Wichita hospital of which “five patents, already hospitalized with [a] serious illness, had been infected; three died” The external stakeholders that were positively affected by the contamination crisis are the media and the CDC. The media were impacted because CBS got to “[interview employees]” to find out what was going on internally that caused this contamination crisis and how the company felt about it. The CDC was positively impacted by crisis by being able to “match the Blue Bell bug to listeria strains blamed for unsolved. . .outbreaks [over the past couple of years]”. This caused Blue Bells to have to keep recalling products every time the CDC “linked the bacteria in the [ice cream] with. . .more listeria cases.