Sports and Entertainment Management - Essay Example

The most interesting thing that I learnt was that life takes unexpected turns for all of us. It is not always for the worse but some brilliant opportunities are presented to us too. We need to be open to new circumstances. A flexible attitude always prevails. Mr. Baker talked about transition in an organization. Transition or change is very important for an organization. Mr. Baker said that making a change is extremely difficult but we have to make it because we have to stay up to speed with the rest of the world.

The ways of the world change. The tastes of the consumers change. Technology changes all the time. This is why an organization needs to be flexible and must be able to anticipate the requirements of change. According to Lewin, when an organization undergoes change, it goes through three processes which are unfreezing, change, and refreezing (pp. 197–211). Unfreezing is the most difficult part because it is the stage which is resisted the most. It is common human behavior that when people are settled in and are comfortable, they always tend to resist when they are asked to make a change.

A good leader administers change in a very effective manner by taking all team members into confidence and explaining to them that a change is necessary for their own well-being. When the team members know about the importance of change, they cooperate in a better manner. The key is to involve the team members in the process of transitioning. If the details of change are kept from the team members, a greater resistance is likely to be expected. However, no matter how much efforts are made to involve the team members in the change process, there would always be some resistance.

It is very important that this resistance is dealt fairly because it causes great stress otherwise. Lewin suggests that a “controlled crisis” can be created by the leader so that the team members or the employees are motivated to find a new equilibrium themselves. When the crisis creates a sense of instability in the team members, they seek change themselves and, therefore, enter the second phase of change. According to Lewin, different people respond differently to change. It is not possible that the change would be undergone overnight.

There are two types of people; proactive and reactive. Proactive people understand the need of change quickly and start working in the new direction at once. Reactive people do not change unless something really happens to them and they are forced to change. The creation of a crisis was suggested to set the wheels of reactive people in motion. However, there are always certain people who benefit heavily from the status quo. Such people take a long time to unfreeze and change. Here comes the importance of yet another very important aspect of Mr.

Baker’s presentation which is decision-making. A leader must be able to take tough decisions in a timely manner. Being a hockey coach for a fair amount of time, Mr. Baker has the mental toughness and maturity to handle a team effectively. According to him, it is very important that a leader never cheats. One of the major aims of his coaching was to hold the kids accountable if they do anything wrong so that a sense of responsibility can be created. This also helps in letting the team members know what their boundaries are.

The team members are also treated with great respect so that they may never feel mistreated. All these things apart, the need to take necessary decisions is very important no matter how tough they are. However, there is always a room for improvement and there is a possibility that things can be done in much better way than they have been done in the past. According to Shapira, decision making is considered as a process in which different interests and perspectives