Should football managers be sacked when results (on the field) are poor - Essay Example

? SHOULD FOOTBALL MANAGERS BE SACKED WHEN RESULTS (ON THE FILED) ARE POOR? WHAT DOES YOUR ANSWER TELL YOU ABOUT HOW WE SHOUKD VIEW LEADERSHIP IN OTHER ORGANISATIONS? Name of institution: Name of student: Name of tutor: Corse name: Date due: It has often been said that the success of any business depends on the competence and effectiveness of its managers. This statement has been proven to be correct over and over again in the business world. It is the duty of a manager to ensure the wellbeing of the business by anticipating and acting against potential pit holes that could harm the business in anyway. Football is a sport but it is also a business that makes billions of dollars and for this reason, it requires good management. Managerial sacking in football has become a common occurrence in that people expect it to happen. It has also become a common occupation hazard for those in the football management occupation. Research shows that since last year, in the English Football League alone, 100 managers lost their jobs (Heathfield 2013: 1). A football manager can have the best players in the world, but without credible managerial skills, less talented players who have a better managing team will beat his team. Each player has their own talents, qualities and strengths that proper workout on a daily basis that is meant to sustain morale, motivation and competence the player’s capabilities will not be portrayed in the games. They will be wasted. The secret to football success is in the backroom stuff and management. The best way to ensure staff competence is by understanding what the different football manager stuff attributes mean for training, transfer handling and scouting- this is what is called the ‘non-play attributes’ (Passion for football managers 2013: 3). The decision to hire or sack a manager implies the consideration of aspects linked to environmental pressures, the importance of experience and skill of the manager and the emotional empathy of the manager with the institution (Tena et al, 2012:2). It is important that the manager be sacked based of field performance because just as Tena said, there are other external factors to be considered. These factors include the sponsors, the fans, the stakeholders, and the prestige of the football club among others. If a team keeps losing, then there is pressure from these external attributes on the management to take measures towards the rectification of the problem. These measures may lead to the sacking of the manager and other staff members. Apart from external factors, there are internal factors that would lead to the sacking of a manager in football. Paolo Di Canio was sacked from being Sunderland’s manager after a player rebellion where several players refused to play for him again. This made it impossible for him to continue managing the team (The telegraph, 2013:16). For the effective management of a football club, the manager should show certain coaching attributes that he should ensure the players are good. These include; attacking, defending goalkeeping coaching and fitness. The lack of these skills will lead to game loses and so if the manager cannot ensure proper training of the players then he should be sacked. The manager should also have a good mental capability i.e. his ability to observe, and act upon an individual’s state of mind and be able to act accordingly. Apart from this, the manager’s ability to work with the youth should be a contributing factor to how well the team will act in the games. The relationship between the players and the manager needs to be good for there to be effective management and good results. It this relationship is compromised, for example, if the players feel that the management is like a dictatorship, or there is no respect for the management, then the manager will not be effective in his managerial duties, and he should therefore be replaced. These are some of the factors that will lead to poor performance; the manager should be replaced when the team has poor performance because it is a reflection of poor management skills. A recent research shows that the average football manager in England stay on their jobs a little over two years this is caused by the various reasons that lead to sacking, but there are underlying benefits of this rapid sacking. The rapid sacking ensures that a manager does not have time to become complacent or comfortable in their jobs. The constant expectations from the media and supporters to perform does not give football managers the benefit of mistakes or second chances. This is a good thing because the teams are constantly having new managerial techniques and new ideas that keep the players on the go at all times. A football manager must gain at least 56.81 points in a period. A manager acquiring less than 0.74 points games should be sacked. There have been several recorded good turnarounds after managers have been changed during the season. A good example is when Paolo Di Canio’s enthusiasm was cited by the press as the reason Sunderland performed well for some time. When Paolo took over the management of the club, it was standing on the edge of relegation and without a win in nine matches. After the club won to Chelsea in his charge, Di Canio managed to secure back-to-back wins against Newcastle and then Everton. This shows that a change in management could have positive results (Markham, 2012: 2). (Barnes, 2013) says that changing a manager in the middle of a season because of poor performance improves the results in the short term but that this is false data because not replacing the manager would have had a similar result. Barnes gives an example of Ter Wee’s analysis of managerial turnovers across 18 seasons of the Dutch premier division. This analysis looks at the aftermath of teams that sacked their managers during a losing crisis, and those who encountered similar difficulties but decided to stand by their boss to overcome the crisis. This analysis found that both groups faced the same pattern of decline and improvements. This analysis proves that a manager should not be sacked based on a few bad results. Another study by (Bridgewater 2013: 3) shows that in the Premier League, at least, there is a boost for a short honeymoon period where the team gets to know and shows support for the new manager. After this period, the performance drops back to being poor or even worse than it was before the club changed manager. Between the 12 and the 18 games after appointment, the points benefit of changing manager disappears, suggesting that, on average, there is only a short-term opportunity and long-term negative effect of changing managers. There has been a number of unnecessary sacking of managers in the football arena in the past few years. (Doughrty and Castel, 2010:104) Says that when Sir Alex Ferguson became the new manager for Manchester United, the club was not winning trophies and silverware all the time. It took Ferguson some time to transform the club into one of the most successful clubs in the world. Hoskin argues that if Ferguson was working today, he would have been terminated from his career before he had the opportunity to work with the club and transform it. It is very sad that all a football manager needs is few bad games and he starts fearing for his job. It cannot be wins all the time for football clubs. There has to be a champion and a loser and loosing, even consecutively does not imply that the manager is incompetent. This trend of sacking managers as soon as they lose the game creates a bad working environment even for competent managers. Managers cannot be anticipated to go about their work and show good results when the possibility of being sacked looms over them constantly. The management of football clubs has been labeled the manager marry-go-round since they are changed before they can even settle on their desks. (Wong, 2010:433) Says that the lack of managerial stability is the main reason as to why young coaches do not want to get involved in the game, and this could bring about problems in the future like the lack of qualified football managers due to the lack of experience. According to a report from the (Sports 2012: 2), there are a number of football managers who have been sacked unfairly. The Sports Locker mentions Lee Clank who was sacked regardless of the fact that he leads Huddwesfield on 43 games unbeaten run and two playoff. The report also mentions Mark Hughes who was apparently fired because he was not exactly a big name for Manchester City. He was fired despite doing his work efficiently and leading the team to a run of two wins in two premiership games. Sean Dyche did a remarkable job despite the financial restraints placed on him, but he was still able to make everyone happy at Vicarage Road sports with an 11th placed finish. All this among other unfair sacking of football managers makes it clear that football managers do not have working rights and job protection. (Hoskin 2013:1) Suggests that the football managers be given a window similar to that of the players. This would mean that managers could only be sacked or appointed in January or during summer. This will give the managers peace of mind knowing that his job is secure until the next window and that he has time to change things for the better. This way, there would be less pressure and stress but more concentration on the task ahead. Hopkins argues that since players get protection I form of contracts that protect their job; even when a player is bad, managers too should have this kind of job security. A good example of a manager who has job security is David Moyes, who was given two transfer windows to defend his Manchester United reign. This is an opportunity for him to prove his capabilities to those doubting his ability to lead Manchester United. From this assessment of the football management issue, it is clear that managers are leaders who have the responsibility to lead people into success and prosperity and not failure or ruins. It is also clear that leaders are human beings who are bound to make mistakes sometimes and make good decisions at other times. These mistakes should not be focused on so much that the leader is rendered to be incompetent. It takes time to lead people into success and a lot of patience needs to be practiced to achieve this result. Organizational leadership is not too different from football management in that both managers have goals to achieve and targets to meet. It is often said that change is excellent as rest. In organizational management, change is taken a notch higher to get transformation (Schein, 1985:136). When the results of a business keep deteriorating, changes have to be made through transformation. Transformation is a kind of change that brings about multiple changes in an organization. It is important that a manager be given time to rectify the deteriorating situation of the business, but if the poor performance has been brought about by misconduct like embezzlement of funds or incompetence, then the manager needs to be replaced. By replacing the manager, transformations are bound to occur (Lee, 2003:89). Transformation is a complex process that is non-linear, unpredictable and open-ended. This is because the new manager changes the way things were done previously while trying to remedy the situation of the business. The change in methodology brings about different results, some good and some bad. Given time, the business is bound to stabilize, and all the parties involved get accustomed to the novel methods of doing things and stability is achieved in the performance of the business. It would, therefore be wrong to dismiss a manager within the first few months of working just because the business does not seem to be doing well. In conclusion, bad results should not be taken as the ultimate result under the management of a particular manager since most businesses learn from losses made in that they are able to come up with better managerial strategies after assessing the causes that lead to poor result. It is unfair for any manager to be sacked because of few bad results. Manager should only be dismissed immediately if they have been found to be incompetent or unprofessional in their work. Bibliography BARNES HANNAH. (2013). Does it make statistical sense to sack a football manager? News Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazines-23724517 BRIDGEWATER SUE. (2009). What is the impact of changing football managers? Retrieved from http://www.wbs.ac.uk/downloads/news/2009/01/what-is-the-impact-of-changeing-football-managerss.pdf CHADWICK SIMON. (2013). Heads will roll: why it is so easy to sack a football manager. The conversation. Academic vigor journalistic flair. Retrieved from http://www.theconversation.com/heads-will-roll-why-it-is-so-easy-to-sack-a-football-manager-16872 DOUGHRTY, J., & CASTEL, B. (2010). Survival guide for coaching youth football. Champaign, IL, Human Kinetics. HEATHFIELD SUSAN. (2013). Motivation is all about the managers… duh! About.com. retrieved from http://www.humanresources.about.com/od/motivation/success/a/managers-duh.htm HOSKIN ROB. (2013). Does football need a transfer window for managers? Give me sport. Retrieved from http://www.givemesport.com/355283-does-football-need-a-transfer-window-for-managers. LEE, G. (2003). Leadership coaching: from personal insight to organizational performance. London, Chartered Institute of Personal and Development. MARKHAM TOM. (2012). The sacking of football managers as an exact science: who got it right and wrong. Sporting Intelligence. Retrieved from http://www.s[ortingintelligence.com-2012-04-23-the-sacking-of-football-managers-as-an-exact-science-who-got-it-right-and-wrong-230401 PASSION FOR FOOTBALL MANAGERS. (2013). Football managers’ staff attributes (non playing attributes). Retrieved from. http://www.mypassion4footballmanagers.com/2012/11/football-managers-2012/11/football-managers-2013-guides-backroom-staff-attributes.html. SCHEIN, E. H. (1985). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publications SODERMAN, S. (2012). Football and management: comparison between sport and enterprise. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan SPORTS LOCKER. (2012). Top 10 managers unfairly sacked. Football speaks. Retrieved from http://www.footballspeaks.com/post/2012/07/14/top-10-managers.aspx TENA , J. & FORREST, D. (2007). Within-season dismissal of football coaches: causes and consequences, in European Journal of operational research, pp 362-273 TENA JVAN DE DIOS, DETOTTO CLAUDIO, PAOLINI DIMITRI. (2012). Do manager’s skill matter? An analysis of the impact of managerial features on performance for the Italian football. Retrieved from http://www.crenos.uni.ca.it/crenas/sites/default/files/wp12-20.pdf WONG, G. M. (2010). Essential of sport law. Santa Barbara, Calif, Praeger. Read More