*** I have removed the
name of the club and manager used within this article to protect their identity.
***
Introduction
The aim of this article is to critically
analyse a variety of approaches that reflect upon core management functions and
the way they relate to complex environments in which managers and their staff
operate.
This article will explore relative
importance and efficient operation in relation to the skills and function of a
manager at a professional football club (_________ Football Club). Within a football club’s setting the term
operating environments is of key importance. Operating environments consist of
external and internal environments that can contribute to or detract from
achieving the vision and goals of the club (Robinson & Newman, 2005). This has a direct influence on the skills and
function of the organisation as a whole. Derek Torrington (2008) states much
strategy is based on a response to the environment i.e. to identify the current
needs of the consumer (spectators).
Therefore the managers’ skills may change in relation to the
circumstances placed on the situation.
Section 1. An analysis of the skills and functions of
the effective Sports Manager With a Discussion of their Relative Importance.
Technical skills of organisations can
consist of conducting a PEST analysis. Political,
Economic, Social and Technological analysis describes a framework of large-scale
environmental factors used in environmental scanning (Aguilar, 1967). The
manager demonstrated all four functions when he performed this analysis. PEST is used by the manager as a strategic
tool for understanding and evaluating the wider business environment as well as
market growth or decline & business position (Parker & Stone, 2003). The manager’s technical skills are used in
situations like ticket prices, which build revenue for the club. The club’s strategy is to encourage more
younger people to come to games, to make matches more affordable for families,
to increase the season ticket holders base back to the level it was prior to this
season and reward those that have purchased match day tickets prior to the day
of the game with a much cheaper ticket (First Team Manager, 2008).
PEST encourages the development of
strategic thinking anticipating future difficulties i.e. contingency planning, but
also to spot and exploit business opportunities successfully, which in effect
achieves the club’s objectives. For
example, if the team is in a promotion position in the league then the club may
exploit media coverage in order to gain more attendance at a match. Organising ticket sales, advertisement and
giving department responsibilities would then be met by the manager.
However, due to the rapid change of
pace in society it is increasingly difficult to anticipate developments that
may affect the club in the future. i.e. the UK’s current economic climate has
been categorised as a recession (Porter, 1985), therefore having an impact on
ticket sales at football matches due to a decrease in consumer disposable
income. The manager acts as a leader
resolving the situation creating the promotion of purchasing tickets before the
match day online, saving the consumer money.
Another skill of a football manager,
which is important in all situations is people skills. These can be shown in the clubs mission
statement which is “To be a world class organisation with a winning mentality”.
Work can be broken down into jobs therefore delegation becomes vital part in
organising objectives and goals. One objective to achieve this is “to lead and
serve the whole football family in England by achieving success and integrity
for the game under confident leadership” (First Team Manager, 2008).
In order for the players to be at
their best, the manager has to make sure that all players are motivated. The ‘mood’ of the squad is important to the
outcome of the performance and result.
Maslow (1943), Herzberg (1968) and Hackman (1976) as cited in Torrington
(2008) all underline the way in which individuals are motivated to seek and may
achieve satisfaction through their jobs.
The football manager gives targets to players and specifies their roles
within the club so they understand what direction the organisation is moving in
to achieve its objectives.
He starts leading by giving his team a
‘pep talk’ and promotes their ‘inter - personal relationships’ (Torrington,
2008) before a match and rewards the teams’ communication with each other i.e.
the relationship with the four defenders or two strikers. This created cultures within the organisation
and could lead into a winning routine.
Herzberg (1968) for example, identifies how opportunities for
achievement, recognition, autonomy, challenging tasks and opportunities for
development may all be motivational.
Some players or employee under a football manager may strive to be
better with promotions or bonuses.
Whilst we may try to motivate people
externally the greatest power for motivation comes from within and is therefore
under the control of the individual rather than another. The best way managers can enhance players
motivation is by the way they treat them (Torrington 2008). The
manager gives the players individual confidence in their skills to make them
perform better if they are positive and believe in what they can achieve, they
have a greater chance of being successful.
The external environment consists of general
and task environments which is an example of conceptual skills within a
football club. Slack (1997) defined the
general environment as those sectors that may not have a direct impact on the
operations of an organisation but can influence decisions made by them,
highlighting the change in situations in the environment. It includes
demographic, economic, global, technological, political/legal and
socio-cultural factors to which the organisation needs to be able to respond.
The task environment, as defined by
Slack (1997) is directly tied to the sport organisation and directly impacts
the club to whether it achieves its objectives and goals. Therefore the
function of planning becomes important. The manager uses planning, reduces risk
i.e. video analysis of the opponents giving competitive advantage. Slack (1997) cites that stakeholders such as
competitors, customers/members/fans, suppliers, legislative agencies, employees
and athlete groups are aspects of this task environment. As a manager the conceptual skill to use such
information from the task environment to achieve the clubs objective of being a
‘world class organisation’ by being popular in the media and sales with the
‘winning mentality’ shown in the performance of players on the pitch. Therefore
becomes inter relatedness with each decision on an objective having an impact
on the organisation as a whole.
Along with external factors, the
internal environment can have a major impact on the organisations performance
and overall success. Worthington (2006) states that objectives should be SMART
(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reliable
and Timely). See appendix one for full corporate strategy
put forward by the club. According to
Hatch (1997:91) this can be achieved through two techniques, ‘boundary
spanning’ used by the football manager; and ‘buffering’. Both techniques
respond to an organisation’s attempts to match the complexity of the
environment.
‘Boundary spanning’ deals with the transfer of
information between the organisation and the environment. This Demonstrates
Katz (1974) people skills i.e. the manager communicating in the same ‘language’
to an employee. ‘Buffering’ is when certain
personnel are assigned to insulate the remainder of the organisation, organised
by the manager, from shocks in the environment; for example, resource shortages
or increased demand (Slack, 1997).
The level of complexity of an
organisation refers to the degree to which various operations are broken down,
or differentiated. This is evident in the club as the corporate structure being
broken down into four groups: main board; council; committee and management
team (__________ Football Club directory).
This can be considered in two ways: horizontally (referring to either
the creation of separate departments or the employment of specialist workers)
or vertically (referring to the number of hierarchical levels in a sport
organisation). However because of the size of the club with other business
partners, the traditional hierarchy such as vertical and horizontal is not viable
yet a more integrated hierarchy is evident within the club’s corporate
structure consisting of a much larger span of control (Brooks 2006). This demonstrates the important demands on
level in organisations and shows the relative importance of organising
departments within the club. This is
evidence of how all three skills come together through the spam of
control. With more control more skills
need to be used i.e.
Technical / People
/ Conceptual
Starting off as a youth team coach
means there is one skill involved and that is coaching children but if that
coach is promoted to centre of excellence manager than people skills get
included because he would work with coaches under his position.
If the manager got promoted again to
an executive position than all three skills will be incorporated due to the
more control the executive has.
In the organisation the football
manager also has to evaluate individuals in order to create a reward scheme and
make sure that the club is meeting its targets to reach its goals.
Section 2. Human Resource Literature and Leadership Theories
applied to a Manger.
Leadership is the process in which an
individual influences other group members towards the attainment of group or
organisational goals. (Shackleton 1995, p.2).
This definition is useful as it leaves open the question of whether
leadership is exercised in a commanding or a facilitative manner. The manager of a football club uses a
combination of both manners depending on the situation he finds himself in.
When communicating with players his
leadership is used in a commanding manner compared to when he addresses the kit
manager about number of training shirts that need ordering.
The manager also uses transformational
leadership style (Dexter Dunphy and Doug Stace 1990), demonstrating a vision
for a new company future, growth of the club; communicating the vision, giving
targets for the players to reach and how they relate to the clubs progression
and implementing the vision, showing the success of the club on the football
pitch.
However, Shackleton does suggest that
the leader in some way motivates others to act in such a way as to achieve
group goals, when transformational leadership does highlight the
suggestion. In order for the club to be
a ‘world class organisation’ global media coverage and merchandise sales are
all important to gain popularity to achieve the goal.
The trait model of leadership,
although often discredited, continues to play a part in our understanding of
leadership. The manager of the football
club works within William Ouchi, 1981 ‘Z’ Theory. The result gathered to form an analysis of
the managers’ traits came from a questionnaire I conducted and is shown in my
appendix 2. The questionnaire demonstrates that behavioural models are more
helpful than earlier models as they concentrate on what leaders do, rather than
on what they are.
The manager then states the importance
of moving the club forward together (First Team Manager, 2008) and this creates a
family based internal culture. This
approach was successful for the manager within one season. Not only did the
club double its attendance but also generated a high profit in the end of
season financial review in the year ending 2008. The manager then explained to the squad that
a high percentage of the profit will be re-invested back into the club. This further motivated the players to
achieving success on the pitch knowing that their effort in achieving the clubs
goal is being re-invested into the future of the club. This example shows that
the manager believes that people are innately self motivated to not only do
their work, but also are loyal towards the company, and want to make the
company succeed.
When it finally comes down to the
decision on a match day, the football manager solely focuses a specific part of
the organisation; the squad of players.
Other employees will need to take responsibility in other important jobs
around the organisation. For example, the stadium manager would make important
decision in how many tickets should be allocated to away team supporters. The manager of the football club trusts the
stadium manger to look over the tickets sales.
Theory Z managers would also have to
have a great deal of trust that their workers would make sound decisions.
Therefore, this type of leader is more likely to act as "COACH" and
let the workers make most of the decisions.
Players also trust the management to
make the right decision and this becomes evident when a club makes a transfer
offer for the player. Does the manager
sell the player to further the players’ career or if the price of the player is
too low, turn down the offer and therefore keep the player at the club? The
manager's ability to exercise power and authority comes from the players trusting
management to take care of them, and allow them to do their jobs. The workers have
a great deal of input and weight in the decision making process. The manager would consult the player about
his approach and the players’ opinion would be taken into account with result
of the transfer.
Within a team environment there are
arguments and conflict. The manager
would come in contact with conflict mainly from his players. Conflict in the Theory Z area would involve a
great deal of discussion, collaboration, and negotiation. The workers would be
the ones solving the conflicts, while the managers would play more of a
"third party arbitrator" role.
Some behavioural models offer a ‘one
best way’ of leadership, but more sophisticated models take account of
contingency factors such as maturity of followers and nature of the task.
Problems with trait and behavioural
approaches are that they only focus on what effect leaders are and on what they
do. Leaders do not work in sterile
environments therefore situations impact upon how leaders behave and their
effectiveness.
Goffee and Jones (2006) highlight the
situational nature of leadership by using an example of how Winston Churchill
was an inspirational leader during wartime but when this time and place were
gone his ‘bulldog’ style was not well suited to leading the reconstruction of
post-war Britain.
Relating this example to the football
manager, situations can change throughout a season i.e. when the team is
successful and pushing for promotion or to win the league, not only is the
internal environment positive but more people come to support, increasing the
attendances. Hersey and Blanchard (1988) developed model which identifies that
the appropriate leadership style in a situation should be dependent on their
diagnosis of the ‘readiness’. This
contingency model is sometimes referred to as situational leadership and is
works on the premise that leaders can adapt their leadership style to meet the
demands of their environment. The
football manager then uses relationship behaviour. This includes how he engages in two-way or
multi-way communication. Hersey (1985)
described the behaviour to include listening, facilitating and supporting
behaviour.
Another well known contingency model
that would be better suited to the football manager includes Fielder’s
contingency model where leadership behaviour is matched to three factors in the
situation: relationship between the leader and members; extent of highly
structured tasks and position of power the leader has. It sheds light on two important leadership issues: Why, in a particular situation, some leaders will be
more effective than other leaders even though they have equally good
credentials, and why a particular leader may be effective in one situation but
not in another. Fiedler argues that a leader’s character is unlikely
to change. Therefore an organisation can do one of two things: Assign leaders
to situations in which they will be effective, or change the situation to fit
the leader.
Conclusion
The manager of the football club found
himself to be many different situations with different corporate groups within
the organisation. Therefore all the
skills are important in order to achieve the clubs mission statement. This theory can be supported by the spam of
control diagram. And the skills used by
the manager fit the constant changing in the external environment.
However to be able to be a more successful
manager Northhouse (2006) suggests that it occurs within a group context,
highlighting the importance of people skills.
Using the questionnaire it was evident that the football manager also
agreed with this aspect. Because the
manager thought people skills is largely important, this correlates to traits
analysed in the questionnaire.
The manager had used ‘Z’ Theory traits
and applied them to a contingency style of management. One of the differences between the
contingency models discussed in the above is the implications for
development. The Hersey and Blanchard
model stress the flexibility of the leader – to learn to lead differently with
different employees depending on their needs; hence the leader should learn
many styles and learn to diagnose the needs of their employees.
Fielder’s model, however, emphasises
matching the leader to the context (a selection decision), rather than
developing leaders in the context and would benefit the manager due to the
relationship between his managerial style and performance at the club in
different context.
‘Remember that you can be appointed a manager, but you are not a leader
until your appointment is ratified in the hearts and minds of those who work
for you!’ (J Adair, 1986). A manager is
not a leader until he gains the respect from his employees, thus creating a
successful working environment with a greater chance of success in the
organisation.
Adair, J (1986) Effective Teambuilding, Aldershot: Gower
Aguilar, F. J. (1967). Scanning the
Business Environment. New York: Macmillan.
Brooks, I. (2006) Organisational behaviour: individuals, groups and organisation, Third
Edition. Pearson Education Limited: Essex
Dunphy, D. and Stace, D. (1990) Human Relations, Vol. 49, No. 5, 541-552
Goffee, R. and Jones, G. (2006) ‘ The Lizard King’, people management, Vol.12, No.2, 26
January , pp. 32-4
Hatch, M. J. (1997)
Organization theory: modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives. Oxford Oxford University
Heifetz, R. and Laurie, D. (1997) ‘
The work of leadership’, Harvard Business
Review, Jan – Feb., pp.124-34.
Hersey, P. (1985) Situational Selling.
Escondido, Calif.: Centre of Leadership Studies.
Hersey, P. and Blamchard, K.H. (1988) Management of Organisational Behaviour:
Utilising Human Resources, 5th edn. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall international.
Katz, R. L.
(1974) Harvard Business Review, (52)
90-102
Northhouse, P. (2006) Leadership –
Theory and Practice, 4th edn. California: Sage.
Ouchi, William G. THEORY Z.
Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1981.
Parker, C., & Stone, B. (2003) Developing
Management Skills for Leadership. Prentice
Hall, Harlow: Financial Times.
Porter, M. E. (1985) Competitive
Advantage. New York
Robinson, M. J. & Newman, T. (2005)
Functions of management. In: B. L.Parkhouse. The Management of Sport: Its
Foundation and Application. (4th
edn.) 2(6). New York
Shackleton, V.(1995). Business
Leadership. London Routeledge.
Slack, T. (1997) Understanding
sport organizations: the application of organization
theory. Champaign , IL
Torrington, D., Hall, L ., Taylor,S.
(2008) Human resource management. Seventh adition. Pearson education
limited: Essex.
Worrington, I. and Britton, B. (2006) The Business Environment (5th
edn), Pearson Education Limited: Essex
__________ Football Clubs Shareholders Statement
__________ Football Club Directory
Appendix 1
This is the
Mission Statement from the _____________ Football club Website.
Appendix 2
____________ Football Club
Manager Interview
Questions
March 2009
Traits and leadership
style
Leadership and Management
1. Describe the characteristics of an
effective leader. Which of these
qualities do you possess? Which of
them do you feel would require
further development?
2. You may be asked to introduce a new
initiative in the club what steps
would you take in order to begin the
process?
3. Do you feel the renewed framework has
had any impact re improving
coaching and learning in the work
place?
Relationships with colleagues, pupils
and parents
4. You have been asked to speak to a
colleague about their continually
negative attitude towards
initiatives being introduced in the club.
In
addition to this he/she is
constantly missing deadlines.
a) what would you say to your colleague?
b) what measures would you put in place
to ensure that deadline issues were addressed?
5. What strategies would you use to
motivate staff and raise the profile of
the club within our community?
6. What advice would you give to a
colleague who was having difficulty with
handling a difficult club or group of players?
7. How would you deal with an irate
supporter who has arrived at the club
Unannounced demanding to see the
chairman and chief executive who are both out?
Standards
8. How will you raise coaches expectations
of what players can achieve?
9. How does the analysis of clubs
performance data aid strategic
planning?
10. Tell me three features you would expect
to see in a workplace where
quality work and cohesion was taking
place. How might these be the
same or different in a good league
position and a poor league position?
11. In monitoring training players, what
would you be looking for and how would you approach giving feedback to a player who
has not performed well?
12. Do you have any questions you would like
to ask us?
13. If you were offered the post would you
take it?
__________ Football Club
Manager Interview
Questions
March 2009
1. Why do you like to work at ____________
Football Club?
2. What qualities, skills and attributes
do you think you have, that
makes you suitable to be a group
leader?
3. Give me an example of a managerial
situation that occurred and did not go particularly well. Say why it did not go
well and what you would do to change it if you could teach it again.
4. How would you use assessment to raise
standards of attainment?
5. How would you ensure that good coaching
and learning takes place in
your football club and internal
environment?
6. What does the term inclusive education
mean to you?
7. What strategies would you use to
motivate staff and raise the profile of
a subject area within the club?
8. A coach comes in to you to complain
about a player not making
enough progress in the squad. What action would you take?
9. How would you discipline players in
your club?
10. Do you have any questions?
11. If you were offered a new job would you
take it?
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