I was very interested in the presentations today. I thought Ryan did a very good job with the Oakland Raiders organization. He did a nice job of showing an ineffective organization which is different from what everyone has been doing. The other presentations were also very informative and enthusiastic. The Pirates presentation also showed an ineffective organization which went well with the Raiders presentation. Showing the ineffective organizations is also important because we can learn from their structures and environment. The recommendations for these organizations make more sense since their needs to be changes made. When presenting my organizational analysis on Thursday I will use the mistakes shown by organizations in today's presentations to show how my organization is effective.
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I was very interested in the presentations today. I thought Ryan did a very good job with the Oakland Raiders organization. He did a nice job of showing an ineffective organization which is different from what everyone has been doing. The other presentations were also very informative and enthusiastic. The Pirates presentation also showed an ineffective organization which went well with the Raiders presentation. Showing the ineffective organizations is also important because we can learn from their structures and environment. The recommendations for these organizations make more sense since their needs to be changes made. When presenting my organizational analysis on Thursday I will use the mistakes shown by organizations in today's presentations to show how my organization is effective.
Today's presentations went well. All of the presenters completed their own analysis in a precise and timely manner. With there being so many presentations I will not cover each one, but will cover them collectively. The baseball presenters seemed to have knowledge of the organizations they analyzed, or at least the background of them. The other presenters also seemed well informed of their organizations, and gave examples on how they were effective. Today had a broad representation of organizations from small like the coach organization, to growing like Lifetime Fitness, to the USOC dealing with the Olympics. I thought they all did a very fine job of covering certain areas, and in particular leadership and structure was covered well by all the presenters. I will use some of the problems and some of the effective ideas from these presentations when presenting my own organizational analysis next week.
The presentations today were very well done. The Minnesota Hockey presentation had some great points and background because she has worked at Mariucci. Same goes for the Minnesota high school organization where he was an athlete and now coaches. I also thought that the Nike and Adidas presentations played well off of each other because they are competitive organizations. It seemed like Nike was the leader and Adidas was following and try to catch up. While Nike may have been move effective from a revenue standpoint, Adidas seemed to have a better public image as far as labor and mistreatment of employees was concerned. The presenters did a good job of presenting the goals of each organization and how the organization worked to achieve those goals. It seemed like this was how each of them determined effectiveness. Each presenter also did well in other areas such as presenting the culture, power, politics, and structure of each organization. They also were all very professional in their presentation and kept the power points moving fluently.
Dustin Permann
The first day of presentations were very well done, especially considering they were the first group of presenters and did not have a visible example to go by. I felt for the most part that the presenters did a sufficient job of analyzing each organization, and each tried to show how the organization was effective. The Gopher basketball was a tough subject to cover, but I thought Andre did a nice job of using his personal knowledge to educate the class. The other presenters seemed to be very knowledgeable about their respected organizations as well. I did my analysis over the Minnesota Twins as well, so a look at how someone else analyzed the organization will help me with my presentation. I will try to introduce new ideas that were not covered so that the class does not focus on the repetitive information.
Decision making is what keeps an organization running effectively from day to day. There are also important decisions that need to be made for the big picture of the organization. The day to day decisions are programmed decisions that are made by the policies and procedures of the organization and past experiences of the leaders making the decisions. Non programmed decisions are decisions that need to be made on the fly and do not have a guideline to follow. These decisions can make or break an organization. If managers are not proactive in planning for some problems that may come up, these decisions may be difficult or next to impossible to make effectively. They need to evaluate risk and certainty when making decisions as well. Uncertainty is a weakness of leaders making decisions in organizations. Leaders or those making decisions can not show uncertainty because those following the decisions will not follow the plan is they are not confident in the decision made. Some organizations rely on individual decision making by one central leadership figure that may or may not take the ideas of others into consideration. Other organizations rely on group decision making where many people have a say on how a decision is made and what the decision is. This may cause confusion as to who has the most importance in the organization. Sometimes when many people are making a decision they look for someone to step up and be a leader. This will help the decision making process because if everyone has a role and the decision making process is structure, the decisions can be made efficiently and effectively. Major decisions in sport organizations may be scrutinized by the public, and sport managers need to remember that they need to keep the effectiveness of the organization in mind when decisions are being made. There may be pressure from inside or outside the organization to make a certain decision, but ultimately a sport manager needs to stick to the mission of the organization. A manager needs to know who he can trust and who has good judgment when getting help on major decisions. This decision making is one of the most important processes a sport manager will face.
Organizational culture is made up of a number of different aspects of the organization. The book lists values, beliefs, basic assumptions, and shared understandings as a few of these aspects. Organizations are also defined by characteristics such as stories, myths, symbols, and rituals. The culture of an organization is not created when the organization is first started. Culture is an important part of the identity of an organizations that is developed as the organization grows and changes. There are different kinds of cultures. Organizations with thick cultures are made up of a group of people that all are entrenched in the values and beliefs of the organization and keep these aspects in the forefront of their daily routines. Organizations in a stable environment thrive in this kind of culture. On the other hand, if the environment is constantly changing, a thin culture may be a better fit for the organization. Organizations with thin cultures have competing departments or goals that may operate together, but there is no central vision or values of the organization. Of course an organization may not be trying to have one definitive culture. Some multicultural organizations have broad aspects of their environment and cultures that may either work well together or clash and cause a rift in the organization. If there is a rift, the organization cannot be effective. Leaders play an important role in how the culture of the organization is perceived by lower levels of the organization. What the managers pay attention to, measure, and control are vital to the cultural background of an organization. Sometimes a culture needs to be rethought or totally overhauled. If a sport organization is unsuccessful, the culture may need to be changed. Changing an entire culture is not something that happens overnight. A culture may be entrenched in an organization and may face some resistance to change. However, to become an effective organization after being ineffective for a long period of time, radical change is necessary. The culture of an organization is what makes the organization what it really is. It gives the organization an identity. With an identity, an organization's image can be shaped by their culture and those inside and outside the organization will better know what the organization is all about.
The context of an organization has an important impact on the leadership of the organization. The people of an organization need to be receptive of the message a leader is presenting, and the leaders of an organization need to structure there techniques and strategies to fit the organization and its actors. On an NFL team, if the assistants and players do not respect the coach, the organization will not run smoothly. The same goes for the coach understanding others and being an easy leader to follow. The processes that the organization goes through are also important. If the process needs a direction, a leader is important to direct the team of employees to reach the goal. Coming up with a game plan is an important process in the NFL, if a leader does not take an important role in the startup process, the ideas will be all over the place. The culture of an organization sets the tone for respect in leadership positions. The New England Patriots did have a successful organization until the culture was changed into a winning culture where leaders were respected and followed. If a definitive structure is not set for an organization, leadership roles are not clearly defined and employees have trouble knowing who to follow. If a team has a head coach and many assistants, everyone needs to know there role and how they can take a leadership role to help the organization succeed. The final factor that affects leadership is the environment of the organization. If there is a healthy work environment, leadership roles can be effective and goals can be accomplished by a team that follows the game plan of a leader. On a team, an environment of workers that work well together can follow an established leader more than in a chaotic environment where no one knows who to follow. All of these factors affect leadership, but the main part of leadership is the actual people in leadership positions. If the leaders are respected and in turn respectful, the organization has a much greater chance to be efficient and effective. A leader can be very knowledgeable, but if he or she does not possess the social skills to lead a group all the knowledge in the world will not help.
Change is something that is never ending in any organization. In a sport organization, changes are usually publicized and can be harder to cope with when everyone is scrutinizing the change. There are several kinds of change including technological, structural, and systematic changes. Along with these changes, the people of an organization are changing as well. In a struggling organization, radical change may be necessary to change the entire way the organization is run. If the organization is efficient, convergent change is still necessary to keep pace and continue to be efficient. This process of changing to keep up with the competition is called the paradoxical nature of change. Some sport organizations are stubborn and have not accepted this concept. As technology and other areas of the world progress, change is becoming more necessary and is also happening at a quicker pace. The organizations that are not changing may have survived fifty years ago, but in this day and age if there is no change there is no efficiency. This resistance to change is explained by the evolution and revolution approach to organizational change in the book. The reluctance to deviate from what is normal, the inability to access themselves, the costs of infrastructure, the culture, and the fear from managers of losing power are all reasons why some organizations are resistant to change. There are many strategies in the book for dealing with organizations that are resistant to change. Education is important for these old style organizations and the communication of this education is important in case these organizations are not even aware of their ever changing environment. There may be a few employees or managers that are holding back the process of change because they are set in their ways. Getting these personnel openly and actively involved is essential at the beginning of the change. A way to get employees onboard with the idea of change is by finding important people who are influential in the organization to lead the process. Negotiations and manipulations may be necessary if those against the change will not budge from their stance. After the personnel is all behind the change, the six steps of the changing process need to each be carefully followed to ensure the plan is executed. This change needs to work in favor of the organization, but ultimately it is necessary to keep the organization working efficiently and effectively.
From the book, March and Simon define conflict as a "breakdown in the standard mechanisms of decision making so that an individual or group experiences difficulty in selecting an action alternative." In my own words, I would say that conflict arises when intentions or acts disagree with one another. There are two types of conflict that can occur within an organization. The first, horizontal conflict is between different areas on the same level of hierarchy of an organization. The other, vertical conflict is between different levels of an organization that have differences in power. This conflict is not always a negative thing, as an optimal level of conflict will allow an organization to be critical of itself within each hierarchy and between levels of the hierarchy. If there is no conflict or conflict is frequent, the organization can become dysfunctional and have many problems. Conflict can happen in a number of ways in a sport organization. The structure of the organization, as well as the other factors we have discussed in class can lead to conflicts within the organization. Whether these conflicts are positive or negative, a manager needs to develop strategies to control them. There are many ways to manage conflict, and they are done by either changing behavior or attitudes. Using personal authority within the organization can resolve a conflict even though everyone may not be happy with the outcome. Another strategy is avoiding the problem, but both of these are short-term solutions. Horizontal conflict can be resolved by either separating the subunits completely, or merging them together to make one team. Increasing resources can also discourage conflict between units that have to share the resources. If separating or merging is not an option, a confrontation may be necessary between conflicting parties to negotiate an agreement. A third-party may even be needed, such as an arbitrator, to help with the negotiating process. The creation of goals for an entire organization to achieve can also help conflicting subunits to come together and work as one to achieve such goals. Job rotation is another strategy, as a change of setting can help an employee who has a problem with how another job is done to understand why it is being done a certain way. With any of these strategies, managing external and internal issues with help a manager formulate and implement a response to prevent or manage the issues which can create conflict. While these ways can help an organization prevent or cope with conflict, another strategy is to stimulate conflict to keep an organization from becoming complacent. Introducing new blood can give an organization a jump start, and introduce new ideas and strategies to the organization. A controversial strategy is communication manipulation. Withholding information for a subunit or releasing information that suggests problems can motivate employees to evaluate their situation and try to improve. The final strategy is the creation of competition. Competition can be healthy, and it can force subunits or individuals to strive to do their best.
