MMS716- Critical Analysis of a Sport Organization

Task:

Learning Outcome Details

ULO 1: To critically examine the evolution of governance and management theory, and the application of traditional organisational theories to sport.

ULO 2: To be able to demonstrate an understanding of management paradigms and theories as they relate to, and are applied to practical situations in the management of sport

ULO 3: To understand how sport organisations behave in a certain environment and how they might behave in a different set of circumstances and with different governance structures.

ULO 3: To develop a framework to analyse the emergence, growth, conduct, and decline of sport organisations.

Overview:

The purpose of this assignment is to apply theories, paradigms, concepts and models presented within this unit and to assist you to critically analyze a sport organization. You are to select one case organization for the trimester from the list below. Your assessments should be written from the perspective of an external consultant and positioned to provide advice to your case study organization’s senior management and board of directors.

The five case study organizations available for you to select from are:

• the Australian Olympic Committee;

• the Australian Sports Commission;

• the Australian Grand Prix Corporation;

• YMCA Australia; and,

• Nike Inc.

Assessment 1: Situational Analysis of Case Organization and its Environment

Overview:

You are to assume the role of a consultant that is external to the organization. To successfully complete this assessment, you are to research your case organization (i.e. website, news articles, reports, strategic documents etc.) and apply critical thinking and analysis to your observations. Using approaches to sport organization theory, you are to support your observations with explanations that link to the unit’s content. There are four components to this task, each relating to the first four modules. This should form the basis of your report. Based on what you have learnt in your modules, use the following questions to construct your discussion, critically analyze your organization, and explain and justify your responses as appropriate.

Module 1 - Organizational Theory and Research:

1. Is your organization a ‘sport organization’? Why/why not?

2. Using Smith and Stewart’s (2010) article, what is unique about the sport industry and how does this affect your organization?

3. Using examples from your organization, explain the distinction between organizational theory and organizational behavior.

4. What are the aspects of critical thinking? How may interdisciplinary approaches help you critically analyze a problem?

Module 2 - Goals, Effectiveness and Structure:

5. Clearly define the goals of your organization.

a. Why are these goals important to the organization?

6. Given scarce resources, how does the organization resolve competing goals?

a. Discuss the differences in effectiveness and efficiency in your organization.

b. Outline three measures for each concept. How would you collect, analyze and check the quality of the data you collected?

7. Provide an analysis of the level of complexity in your organizations structure.

a. What methods would you choose to manage this complexity?

b. Critically explain the tradeoffs (i.e. costs and benefits) of your choices.

c. What organizational design type best describes your organization? Why?

Module 3: Strategy & Strategic Alliances

8. Briefly describe what level and type(s) of strategy your organization utilizes given its competitive environment? Why do you think you case organization has selected this approach?

9. Select either ‘Blue Ocean’ or ‘Platform’ strategic approaches. What new (or existing) product and service would you develop? How would this provide your organization a competitive advantage?

10. Select three potential strategic allies.

a. List 5-10 considerations you would have to make as an organization before entering into an alliance with each organization.

b. Evaluate your considerations and provide a rationale for selecting, or not selecting, whether to enter into a strategic alliance.

Module 4: Sport Organizations and Change

11. In the context of your case organization, explain change and isomorphism using DiMaggio and Powell’s (1983) coercive, normative and mimetic processes. Provide examples.

a. Critically reflect on the relationship between change and strategy in your organization.

12. Use an example to explain how organizational change has influenced the structure of the organization in the past decade?

a. Describe the paradox of change and the influence this may have on the pace, sequence and linearity in which change occurs in the organization.

b. Using an example from Q11, explain how your organization has strategically responded to an institutional pressure and the tactics it has used to do so.

Assessment 2: ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’: Political dynamics of implementing change

Overview:

As consultant to the board and executive management you have been tasked with providing recommendations on the future of the organization. Assessment 1 provided you with an overview of the structural components of the organizations design and environment based on organizational theories. This assessment focusses on the ‘practice’ or ‘doing’ of strategy and change with a focus on

a) analyzing the people and culture within your case organization,

b) considering ‘how’ and ‘why’ change is necessary and

c) deciding how to communicate these messages appropriately to senior management and the board of directors. In particular, you are to assess the power, politics and leadership within the organization and analyze the influence these factors have on decision making and culture. The purpose of this assessment is to make practical recommendations based on the theoretical foundations you have learnt within this unit. Whilst the focus of this assessment is on modules five and six, you are expected to ‘join the dots’ to earlier modules and link theory to practical implications for the organization via clear recommendations supported by logical rationales. In addition to the content outlined below you are expected to update your executive summary,introduction and conclusion and to reflect the entire range of content for both assessments.

Part 1 Module Content

Module 5: Power, politics and conflict in sport

13. Critically analyze the sources of individual power (i.e. of a board member or CEO) and organizational power in your case organization.

a. How is power legitimized or delegitimized within the organization?

14. How does your role as a consultant influence power and politics within the organization?

15. Analyze the political landscape of the organization. How does your case organization leverage political networks to produce organizational outcomes?

16. Identify cases of conflict in your organization.

a. Choose one incident and explain the process in which conflict manifested itself in the organization?

b. What were the sources of conflict?

c. What strategies were used to manage conflict?

Module 6: Organizational Culture and Decision Making: The leadership imperative

17. What is decision making? Explain the conditions under which decisions are made in your organization.

a. Using an example from your organization, explain the differences between the rational model and the administrative model (bounded rationality) of individual decision making?

18. What is organizational culture? Explain how culture manifests itself in your organization. Provide examples.

19. Peter Drucker once stated ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ – do you agree with this statement, provide justifications for why or why not.

20. How is the organizations culture managed? Does the organizations culture need changing? If so,why and how?

21. Select a behavioral approach to leadership and use it to explain a prominent leader within your organizations senior management or board.

a. How does this leadership facilitate and/or hinder the organization (e.g. culture, strategy, change, inclusion)?