Essay: Management, Performance, And Challenges In Elite Sports Team - A Case Study.

Definition of Management

Question:

You should select ONE of the following economic issues and discuss how it impacts on your organisation in relation to managing financial resources and decision-making.You are required to discuss the benefits and limitations of budgeting and planning, relatingthis to experience of the budgeting process and budgetary control in your organisation.You should consider current thinking and recommendations for improvements in theprocess.

There is no perfect definition of the term management. In general, the term management implies the act of getting people and managing organizational activities for getting people together by utilizing the available resource efficiently. It is much easier to talk about the high performing organizations; however, in reality it is very difficult to attempt them. In contingency fashion, there is no best way to manage an organization or no organizational form meets the needs of its people from all circumstances. The management scholar Davis (2011) points out that, for better management people needs to understand their organizational work if they want to work well. The contemporary business environment is characterized by several management problems, for instance, lack of staff motivation, inability to resolve internal conflicts, not spending enough money on the employee’s career development program and so on (Rollison, 2008). Thus, in the present circumstances it is very difficult for an organization to survive. In the mean time, the growing competition and challenges also creates several opportunities for an organization to become competitive.

The current study is based on a case study of elite spots team. A sport is a business with coaches and managers that faces same pressure as a company executive to beat and succeed the competition. The Brisbane Roar was the founding member of Australian A-League soccer competition in 2005 and that time the success level of the company was moderate. When the season 2009-10 has started, the manager Frank Farina was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and suspended from the club. Shortly after that, Ange Postecoglou was employed as a CEO to take over. The management procedure followed by Postecoglou was unforgettable in the club’s history and is responsible for success of the 36 consecutive matches without a single loss. Postecoglou observer the key to success was the “developing the team from the ground” and provide more emphasis on the long term vision rather than short term success.

Managing people effectively is a long term program that requires a constant development and planning. A manager is responsible for managing various types of interpersonal relations and from this comes to implement the necessary changes. In turn, manager has to devise the organizational strategies, make decisions and implement the actions. Management is also concerned about attainment of organizational objectives and goals. The management functions related to several grounds, for instance, developing and clarifying the mission and policies, maintaining effective communication within the team member, selecting and motivating the staffs and managing the budget (Fairholm, 2008). In the rapid transforming business landscape a range of challenges has to face by a manager in managing its people and implementing the changes. In the global world, any business is looking for first moving environment in which business can grow rapidly. Implementation of changes has become an important aspect for enhancing the loyal customers base and business prosperity (Chen et al. 2007). However, it also opens up new challenges for the today’s business managers.

Managing People Effectively

In this context, the example of Microsoft stack ranking can be discussed. The management of team of Microsoft Company has been using Stack Ranking methods to rank their employees performance (Allen, 2009). Using this method, the management team of the company was able to record performance of every moment of every employee. It helps them to make possible decisions on the employees’ performance. They have started to use this method to understand each employee and uncover their strengths and weakness to improve them by creating positive working culture (Ander & Kapoor, 2010). In comparison to other method, it is much easier for the mangers to track the progress of their employees, opposed to book documentation (Baker & Desjardins, 2013). This demonstrates that the organization is implementing changes and taking the advantage of recent technology. However, due to implementation of these changes, the management team has to face several difficulties from its employees’ side. The stack ranking is an effective system that records right as well as the wrong behaviors. Some engineer handled the stack ranking procedures and they were solely responsible for deciding worker’s position in the stack. With this kind of ranking procedure many employees in this company has started to lose their faith on the performance appraisal method. It enhanced internal conflict among the employees as they are started to fight against each other for their morale (Chen et al. 2007). The rigid distribution of the employees resulted low level of performance, as the managers was unable to control the conflicts. Now, Microsoft has stopped the use of stack ranking methods for measuring performance of their employees (Ghoshal, 2009).

One of the biggest problems addressed in the case study is lack of proper discipline among the management team. The first CEO of the Brisbane Roar football (soccer) team was arrested and suspended from the team due to driving a car with the influence of alcohol. Driving car under the influence of drug or alcohol is one of the most committed and deadliest crimes in Australia. This kind of activities is not expected from a CEO of a reputed football team. Another problem discussed in the case study is related to the stakeholder management. As illustrated by Ander & Kapoor (2010), effective stakeholder management is crucial to integrate managerial concern to the organizational issues like, relationships, leadership and interest of the organizational people. However, Roar football team was unable to manage its stakeholder properly. For managing the stakeholder properly, it was very important to understand each stakeholder’s interest and their commitment towards the team. The incident of alcohol impaired driving points at the ineffective strategy of internal environment of the team and relationship between the team members. The unpleasant thing of changing CEO has imposed huge crisis on its organizational process.

Postecoglou’s style of people management can be applied in the present business context for formulating high performing teams. Postecoglou had a clear step-by-step procedure to maintain what he wanted to do. He basically wanted to change the thought of the players and the ways in which they trained. He targeted to change total team environment rather than the individual players. He was adopted the full time training session. Four players who lived out of the city and was unable to attain brief early session had to leave. His philosophy was delivering long-term results even if it meant some short-term pain. He never let his competitors to know about his vision and aim. By the end of 2009-10, several high profile team members were departed from the team with blaming Postecoglou as a manager. Sometime he was also replaced the high profile players with the low profile ones, as he wanted to make the players to play according to his style. In short, he desired to make Roar team as attractive and forward looking on the basis of ‘high-profession’ strategy. This kind of choice is emphasis more on the team coherence rather than individual brilliance. The training session of Postecoglou under Roar football was highly structured, mobile and disciplined. He believed to make his work to be done with enough preparation.

Microsoft Stack Ranking

The management style of Roar football team as followed by Postecoglou is often applied in the business. There are some common themes like competition, win-to-win and teamwork that are very important in today’s business success. The managers can really learn kinds of professionalism from the elite sport team. In both the cases, one needs to bring together a group of people with different skills in order to achieve common business objectives. In sports, the entire management process is very transparent with the factors of the objective, the teamwork and the final result. It is a kind of goldfish bowl, in which business managers can learn the impact of a particular leader and the approaches. The second aspect that can be applied in the managerial program in a business is the communication of the management idea over the wide range of people. Businesses generally address different kinds of stakeholders, like employees, customers etc. whose interest is not aligned. But in case of sports, stakeholders, like fans, owner and players tends to have same interest and that is winning the game. In addition to that, some other issues in business like short-term profit and long-term goals are arguably not applied in the sports in the same manner.

Postecoglou’s leadership and management style is another aspect that can be applied in the modern business organizations. At Roar under Postecoglou, there was a clear distinction between the leadership and management department. Postecoglou fulfilled his role a leader and other staffs at Roar, for instance, administrative staffs, assistant coaches and sports science groups fulfill their role as a implementing and managing the strategies. In other word, there was a clear distinction as well as interdependence between support and operational function. The team members recruited by Postecoglou are from the different age and personality types

Leadership and management styles being implemented in the business processes are mainly based on the organizational needs. Considering the contemporary scenario of the business segment, the workforce is increasingly becoming culturally diverse. This has also urged the management bodies to incorporate various forms or leadership in the work structure (Cool and Schendel, 2010). For instance, the case reflected a management style that employs both transactional and transformational leadership styles which increases employee participation and also ensures target fulfillment. However, using various forms of leaderships can be complicated and increase problems for the top management in implementing work policies.    

As studied in the case of Roar, the organization reflected an efficient skill for managing their strategic decisions and foresight for identifying the future scope of the club. However, the tactical and operational processes were the primary issue faced by the institution. The base or the foundation of the work structure was not aligned with the strategic objectives which created problems and chaos in management. The first problem in this regard was the change management. The changes made in the top structure of the management were not in appropriate collaboration with the base level members which made them feel separated and hence the loyalty was also reduced. The leadership style of Postecoglou was related with building a shared vision but it lacked the information regarding the players needed for the purpose. The players found Postecoglou caring but not completely trustworthy which delayed the managerial planning process.

In order to implement the short term goals, a company has to first identify the impact of the objectives on the employees and the operational activities. The changes initiated as a result must be identified and should be merged with the existing work process so that they can handle the pressure. This step was missing in the management of Roar. The work process has to be connected with the goals and the employees should be clear about their roles which will help them in managing the entire business process. In short it can be stated, that employee communication and employee role explanation was not effective in the company

Conclusion

The case of Roar reflected their managerial process and the problems faced by the club in rebuilding their organizational culture. The aim was to relate the management process of the club with the business practices being conducted in the prevailing scenario. The praiseworthy aspect of their management process is the development of the shared vision among the players which helped them in putting up a combined effort for achieving the organizational objectives. The changes in the top management structure also changed their process of goal development and goal achieving activities. However, one the major issues observed in the managerial activities of Roar was their inability to develop a steady structure for managing their short-term goals. This also created some differences of opinion among the lower level employees and the top authorities of the club for which appropriate recommendations have been given.. However, in the light of their overall management practices, the leadership style, decision making process, etc are of value to the corporate sector and can be used for business management.  

References

Allen, D. (2009) Leadership and Teamwork Essays. 6^th ed. London: McGraw-Hill Education.

Ander, R. & Kapoor, R. (2010) "Value Creation in Innovation Ecosystems: How the structure of technological interdependence affects firm performance in new technology generation," Strategic management Journal, 31, pp. 306-333

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Chen, G., Kirkman, B. L., Kanfer, R., Allen, D., & Rosen, B. (2007) A multilevel study of leadership, empowerment, and performance in teams, Journal of Applied Psychology, 92: 331-346

Cool, K. and Schendel, D. (2010) 'Performance differences among strategic group members', Strategic Management Journal, 9(3) , pp. 207-223.

Davis, A. (2011) Leadership, Teamwork and Trust. 3^rd ed. New York: Harper Collins.

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