Leadership and Management in Sport - Essay Example

Leadership and Management in Sport Any form of activity needs to be guided with a proper leadership so as to fulfill all its functions. Leadership is defined as a process where a group or a gathering of people gets influenced and motivated in the presence of a different person (Northouse, 2009, p.3). Leadership is all about how an individual influences a group to follow in his footsteps or instructions to attain a common goal (Northouse, 2009, p.3). Leadership is a critical factor in the initiation and implementation of transformations in an organization. Leadership is described both as a trait and a process. When it is described as a trait in an individual it refers to certain characteristics or features that are present in an individual. This feature can be in the form of intelligence, height, fluency etc. As a process leadership refers to the interaction between the leader and the followers (Northouse, 2009, p.5). Some people become leaders because of the authority they hold while some become leaders because of their interpersonal skills. These are known as assigned leaders and emergent leaders respectively (Northouse, 2009, p.5).Leadership is related with management process in many ways. Both leadership and management entails in working with people. Leadership and management work toward the fulfillment of a common goal. There are certain differences too. Leadership can be traced back to ancient times whereas management practices began in the early 20th century to control the chaos in organizations. Management practices were introduced by Henry Fayol but leadership has been observed in the society since the time of Aristotle (Northouse, 2009, p.9). Leadership is also seen in sport management. It becomes difficult to assess leadership in sports because most of the sport associations are volunteer organizations which lack a democratic approach (Watt, 2003, p.77). The leadership style that is required today is different from the traditional ones. The workforce today in sports field is more demanding in nature. As such the leadership style in the sports sector needs to be shaped accordingly. The leadership traits and its role in sports management will be explained using the example of a nonprofit company based in UK. The organization is heavily subsidized by the UK government and aims at enacting positive changes in the society. The activities range from engagement and employment programmes, to the National Citizen Service and Social Regeneration Model. Through these programs the company seeks to inspire people and provide them with tools and skills needed to transform their lives and their communities. The company aims at bringing the young people from all over UK and uniting them to form a common community. This includes organizing outdoor tours and programs to make the young people more acquainted with the basic facts of life and about themselves. Company background and hierarchy The company was formed out of a program that ran in Wales two years ago. It is working towards charitable status and is currently on a 1 year contract by the National Citizens Service (NCS) to run a programme linked with social cause. The company works within the NCS’s guidelines. The aims/mission statement of the company is as follows: • Every individual has the power to transform society. • Social actions can help to make the place a better place for everyone to love in. • One must give something to achieve something. • It is possible to achieve everything if all communities work together. • It is always possible to learn skills and gain knowledge but is the crucial for the passion to learn to come from within. The NCS or the national citizen service program undertaken by the company is a nation-wide scheme for the year 2011-2012 and will be taking place this summer. The company would be delivering in over 500 places in Bath & North East Somerset, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire in UK. The programme particularly aims at the children to give them a chance to do something better during the summers. In the course of the programme, the children will be divided in teams and together the children would decide the kind of programme and type of experiences that might want to experience and what they would like to do for the community. The game section can include from choosing between surfing and rock climbing or running a mini Olympics or a mini music festival. The children will also have the choice to renovate a local youth centre or visit an old people’s home (Engage4life, 2012). Company hierarchy The company hierarchy consists of the CEO at the top followed by the operations manager. They form the all the decisions about strategies and finalize any changes to the company issues relating to polices, members of staff and company branding/image etc. Next in line is the operations manager who works closely to the senior project manager. The operations manager controls the project as a whole dealing with the day to day tasks and problems as well as planning most of the project. After this level comes the social action advisor who is responsible for overseeing the projects that the participants will be running during the scheme and is the first contact point with any questions regarding social action. Below the social action advisor is the tier for the regional managers who are there to oversee all the activity tutors in their work and deal with any issues regarding discipline, misbehavior or general questions and advice to the activity tutors. Finally, the activity tutors are responsible for their group of 15 participants and the delivery of the scheme. The activity tutor is not to lecture and teach the participants but they are there to simply guide them and help them with any issues or problems that may arise. The emphasis is on the participants to explore and find things out for themselves and to empower the learner. Each activity tutor is helped by volunteers who act as an assistant and play a similar role to that of the activity tutor (Engage4life, 2012). Leadership in sports Sports can be the building platform for a leader to hone his leadership skills. In sports, leadership can be built and exploited using the personality and charisma of the person (Watt, 2003, p.77). In sport management a good deal of effort is required to lead a group of people towards a common committed goal (Watt, 2003, p.77). In sports the situations keep on changing continuously and so it would not be feasible to maintain the same leadership pattern in every situation. One such strategy often used to maintain leadership in sports administration is transformational leadership. Transformational leadership has four I’s or characteristics. These are intellectual simulation, individual consideration, inspirational leadership and idealized leadership (Watt, 2003, p.78). Intellectual simulation (IS) means the way by which leaders consider old problems in new ways, articulate these new ideas, and encourage his followers to rethink their old, conventional practices and ideas. Individual consideration (IC) consists of behaviors such as corresponding personal esteem to the followers by providing specialized attention individually and recognizing the unique needs of every follower. Inspirational leadership refers to giving power to supporters to enthusiastically accept and follow demanding goals and missions. Idealized leadership (IL) or charismatic leadership is exhibited by leaders who act as role models, create a sense of identification with a shared vision, and instill pride and faith in his followers by overcoming obstacles. In transformational leadership team achievement, collective vision and a shared meaning of the goals is essential. This includes an appreciation for the work as this would convey the value of the workforce for the organization (Schlosberg, 2006, p.8). Transformational leaders facilitate performance beyond expectations by inspiring pride and communicating respect for the personnel, help creative thinking, and providing inspiration for them. Transformational leadership development consists of identification of the leadership qualities through allocation of a multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) to the respective followers. Transactional leadership While explaining transformational leadership, it is important to explain transactional leadership as well. Transactional leadership is based on the exchanges between the leader and his followers. A politician who guarantees no new taxes to win the election campaign, a teacher who gives grades to the student for completing his work, all of them exhibit transactional leadership (Northouse, 2009, p.172). Transactional leadership means maintaining the status quo. This means maintaining the situation as it is and framing the leadership strategies around it (Watt, 2003, p.77). There are three types of reinforcement behavior in Transactional leadership. These are contingent reward, active management by exception and passive management by exception. In contingent reward the leaders make their expectations clear to the followers, and they are successful, the followers are rewarded by praises or a hike in the pay. Management by exception is a passive approach where corrective measures are taken only if a mistake is being done. It does not involve a monitor of the performances (Pedersen, et al., 2003, p.103). Multi dimensional model of sport leadership This leadership model was constructed to examine if certain leadership theories were applicable to the sporting environment. It was developed by Chelladurai & Saleh. The first problem identified by Chelladurai & Saleh was that there was no proper model in the earlier leadership theories for sport nor was there any attempt to develop valid scales to assess the coaching behavior. It was also found that no previous verification of leadership models used in other organizational settings that were relevant to the sports context was available. Also the previous leadership theories in sports failed to provide evidence of validity and reliability (Gastel, 2010, p.2). There were two stages of development in the Multi dimensional model of sport leadership. In the first stage, ninety-nine items from existing leader behavior scales were chosen. These items were then modified for the athletic situation. Factor analysis was conducted on the ninety nine variables which were then reduced to final five. The five factors were named Training Behavior, Autocratic Behavior, Democratic Behavior, Social Support and Rewarding Behavior (Gastel, 2010, p.3). A few discrepancies were found in the Training Behavior and Social Support dimension because of which seven extra variables had to be added in the training dimension and six to social support. His model explained that leadership behavior is affected by three traits: a situational trait, a leadership trait, and a team member trait. In situational trait, it is explained that the characteristics of a work determines the leadership preferences. E.g. a maintenance worker will not prefer high level of scrutiny from his boss but a person engaged in the design and promotion of a new sport will prefer more feedback from his supervisor. The leadership traits include traits like past experiences, temperament, personal qualities, skills, and decision making skills. While the team member traits will include features like gender, age, skill level, cultural backgrounds and experience of members of the team that one might be leading. Four different styles of leadership From the context of the company hierarchy and their activities, four different leadership styles can be identified. These are Visionary, Affiliative, Democratic and Coaching (Goleman, et al., 2001, p.60). The visionary style of leadership mobilizes people towards a common vision. This form of leadership strategy is followed when a change is required or a clear direction needs to be set. The general phrase for the leaders here is to accompany him in his mission. The leader here needs to have a good amount of self confidence, empathy for others and should be a catalyst to bring in changes. The overall impact of this strategy on the environment is highly positive in nature. This form of strategy can also be called to be an authoritative form of leadership. Authoritative leaders maximize the commitment of an individual towards the fulfillment of the company goals. The feedbacks give by the authoritative leader revolves around the perspectives of the company goals. Authoritative leaders give freedom to the people to innovate, experiment and take their own calculative decisions (Goleman, et al., 2001, p.64). The affiliative style creates an emotional bond and builds harmony. The leader manages by building strong emotional bonds that induces fierce loyalty. The style drives the team members to be flexible, to share each other’s opinions, habitual innovation and risk taking abilities (Goleman, et al., 2001, p.65).This strategy works best in case of dispute or rift among the team members. It also helps to motivate during stressful situations. The leader exhibiting this strategy needs to have sound relationship communications and should be capable of empathizing with people. The general style followed in this leadership pattern is that the people come first while executing any goal or mission (Goleman, et al., 2001, p.64). The affiliative style of leadership creates a sense of belonging among the workers when they are rewarded or acknowledged for their work (Goleman, et al., 2001, p.65). It can also help in increasing the morale within the members. Affiliative leadership should not be demonstrated alone. This is because praise and appreciation can often lead the mistakes to go unnoticed. Also as no corrective advice is given on how to improve on the performance, affiliative leadership needs to be implemented cautiously. For this reason, affiliative leadership is often followed with authoritative form of leadership (Goleman, et al., 2001, p.67). Democratic type of leadership that is also recognized as participative leadership is one where members of the group take a more participative role in the decision-making process. This learning style is usually one of the most effective forms to produce higher productivity, better contributions from the group and increased group morale. Group members feel more involved and committed to projects, making them more responsible about the end results. As people under a democratic leader have a say in forming the goals they tend to be true and realistic about what can be done and what is not possible to do for the group (Goleman, et al., 2001, p.68). Here, the democratic leader gathers consensus through the common participation of the group. The leader needs to have team building capabilities, should be collaborative and good in communication. There are some potential downsides in democratic leadership too. Democratic leadership can lead to communication failures and uncompleted projects. This can be because of the endless meetings where ideas get mulled over and no consensus is reached. It works best if the leader is unsure about the move and needs ideas (Goleman, et al., 2001, p.69). Lastly, coaching form of leadership develops people for the future. This form of leadership is directed at personal development (Goleman, et al., 2001, p.73). Coaching improves the overall result as it involves constant dialogues between the leader and his followers. This strategy is more effective for the leaders who want to increase the bottom-line business results. Coaching is a collaborative strategy that is centered on achieving the results. Development of the person who is being coached is the primary objective of coaching. This strategy supports, champions, guides and challenges a person to maximize his potential and performance. Coaching method of leadership can be applied to a wide array of management situations such as identification of the strengths and challenges, providing motivation, delegating, relationship building, providing feedback, resolving every day challenges in the workplace, raising the self awareness of employees and change unacceptable behaviors (Workplace Coach: The Coaching Leadership Style, 2007). Leadership styles applicable to the company In the company discussed in the paper, the top most position is held by the chief executive officer or the CEO of the company. As he along with the operations manager is involved in framing the policies and taking ultimate decision, they mostly will exhibit the visionary and authoritative form of leadership. In the context of the company, as the company is aimed at improving the social values in individuals specially the younger ones, the CEO will frame his policies towards the attainment of such goals. The mission statement of the company is to work together combining all communities to make the society a better place to live in. This can happen if the people develop the commitment to work together. For this, the CEO needs to extend his ideas to his fellow workers which can be done by following a visionary leadership strategy. After the CEO the next level is the operations managers and the senior project manager. The operations manager is involved in forming strategies along with the CEO. He too needs to follow the visionary leadership as he would be framing policies keeping the goals of the company in mind. The senior project manager handles the project on a daily basis, the problems and plans the detail for most of the project. The company following the guidelines of NCS will be conducting programs in over 500 places. As such the burden of handling such a huge project becomes equally large. The project manager in this case will have to follow the transactional form off leadership where the primary motto will be to maintain the status quo. This will help the manager to keep situations within the permissible limits. Also, it will enable the manager to communicate clearly with his subordinates what is expected of them and what the outcomes would be. The next level consists of the social action manager who is involved with the programmes and is responsible for handling for social queries. The leadership style shown here is mostly affiliative leadership followed with the authoritative form. As the manager is engaged in overseeing the projects and the participants he needs to be authoritative so as to induce maximum commitment in the people. The program undertaken by the company is a large one. As such the regional manager will have to ensure that the subordinates below him i.e. the regional managers, activity tutors and the participants all work towards the fulfillment of the goals. The social action manager is also responsible for handling of queries. For this he needs to maintain an empathetic attitude towards the other people. This is shown by following the affiliative form of leadership. This would help the manager to be closer with his fellow workers that would help in establishing loyalty amongst the group. This would also help the social action manager to address the grievances of the participants. The next level in the hierarchy consists of the regional managers who monitor the activity tutors. They also maintain discipline in the group and take measures for any misbehavior or bad conduct from the participants. The leadership showed here can be both authoritative and transformational. The regional manager looks after the program so he has to make sure that all the goals and objective of the program is fulfilled. The manager can also encourage the other workers to take their own decisions conforming to the program goals. He can inject a sense of pride and belongingness in the workers by praising their works and agreeing with their decisions. The manager at times will also be required to show transactional leadership when there might be cases of misbehavior or misconduct. Here the manager can explicitly state the code of conduct and the measures taken for any of its violation. After the regional managers comes the group of activity tutors. Activity tutors follow a democratic style of leadership wherein they participate actively in taking decisions about the organization. In the program, the activity tutors can help in forming the strategies that would help to attain the goals. It would be more accurate in this tier because the leader would encourage the participants to speak about what they can do and they cannot. This would help in developing programs that would be within the capabilities of the participants as well as fulfill the mission statement. It would also help in arriving at decisions in case the activity tutor is unsure about his plans. This form of leadership is highly favorable here as the activity tutors would be handling teams of fifteen members which would lead to the generation of many different ideas. The activity tutors are helped by volunteers who also demonstrate democratic leadership. Lastly, the level consists of the participants who will generally be in the personality development phase. The leadership strategy most suitable here will be the coaching form of leadership. This will enable the participants to understand their strengths and weaknesses. It would also include proper interaction between the participants and the higher members in the group which would help to understand and fulfill the mission statement of the program. The leadership strategy followed by the client The client is an activity tutor in the program and has a relaxed attitude. He is in complete terms with the mission of the programs. The leadership strategy followed by him is generally democratic in nature. This is suitable for him as it will help him to gather new ideas when he is at a loss or undecided about any decision. Also, his relaxed attitude will help participants to be closer to him and share their ideas freely. Leadership examples shown by the company The company mainly engages children in their programmes. A recent tweet has shown that many children have been enrolled in the program by their parents. Children usually are impatient by nature. So, there were situations where they got into quarrels and fights with each other. The social action advisor came in here to address each of their problems, maintain peace and make a friendly atmosphere. In another twitter image, it was shown that teenagers had fun and also contributed to the society. This also led to create chaotic situations which were handled by the activity tutors aptly (Recent images by @Engage4LifeUK, 2012). Conclusion and Recommendation The program is aimed at creating social awareness in the citizens of UK. Leadership will play a crucial role in creating awareness and influencing the people. So, it is essential that the leaders are well trained and well informed about the programs. The program can instill a sense of leadership in its participants by encouraging them to take part in sports. Also, some amount of pre training can be given to the participants to make them comfortable while in the tours. References 1. Engage4life, (2012), available at, < http://engage4life.co.uk/ncs/ > (accessed on July 23, 2012) 2. Goleman, D., MacCoby, M., Davenport, T., Beck, J., C., Dan, C. & Watkins, M. (2001), Harvard Business Review On What Makes A Leader, Harvard Business Press 3. Gastel, C.,V. (2010), Leadership Scale for Sport (LSS), available at Read More