The ability to change is very important to the success of a sport organization. Every organization needs to understand the concept of change and be able to utilize it in their environment. Change in a sport organization can occur in four different areas: technology, products and services, structures and systems, and people.
The change in technology refers to an organization's production process, the skills and methods it uses to deliver its services, or its knowledge base. The products and services part of a sport organization undergoes change by the addition, deletion, or modification of other areas. Structural and systemic changes occur when modifications are made to areas of a sport organization. This can be areas such as division of labor, its authority structure, or the control systems. Lastly, people change requires modification to the way people think and act and the way they relate to each other. There are two levels of change which is radical change and convergent change. Radical change is when a sport organization completely changes its orientation. Convergent change is more of fine-tuning a specific orientation.
There are several different perspectives on change within an organization. Population ecology is an approach that deals with the survival of the fittest attitude. Resource dependence is an approach that is used in the organization's structural change process. The life cycle approach states that organizations change as they go through the different life stages. Institutional theory helps organizations increase their legitimacy and boost their flow of resources necessary for their operation because they change to based on the environment they are in. Evolutionary change and revolutionary change are also involved in organizational change. Evolutionary change involves incremental adjustments of the organization's strategy, structure, or processes while remaining in the same design. Revolutionary change takes place when a major upheaval or crisis happens in an organization that needs a sharp shift in strategy, power, structures, and controls.
In any organization there is likely to be someone or some group that is resistant to change. They do not like change and do not see it as a positive for the organization. Self-interest and lack of trust and understanding about the implications of change are two of the types of resistance that pertain to the individuals within an organization. Differing assessments of change consequences and the cost of change are more likely to concern the organization or subgroups resistance rather than on the individual level.
The thing to remember about organizational change is that being pressured to change can come from a number of different sources both internally and externally. The organization that can best adapt and change with the environment that they are in will be successful.
I think revolutionary change is a very important topic for this class. I think revolutionary change is change that is in the public eye and it can either work out very well or it can be a huge disaster. It is very important for organizations that are struggling to use revolutionary change. I think a good example of this is the Texas Rangers. The Rangers have struggled to be competitive for many years. They were not afraid to spend money and they brought in many big hitters over the years but there was always one key weakness in the team. Pitching. In order to change this they did a major overhaul of the front office. They brought in Nolan Ryan and he helped to completely revamp the organization's pitching philosophy. They also brought in a new GM who was very young but what they did is they made him a co-GM with a more experienced GM to help him learn the day-to-day schedule. The Rangers have now become a lot more competitive and I think most people would say that the future is bright for the organization.