Should football managers be sacked when results are poor - Essay Example

? ORGANIZATION MANAGEMENT AND FIRING COACHES Introduction It is an often sought for decision to sack a coach upon the registration of a poor performance by a sporting organization with the argument that the coach has failed in management of the team. It is however worth noting that the success of a sporting organization depends of a variety of stakeholders and not on the coach alone as would be argued when reaching such a decision. The success of a team in a match requires the collaborative efforts by the players, the coach, the organization management as well as the prevailing physical conditions upon which the organization plays. This therefore implies that despite the fact that a coach’s responsibility to the overall success of a team is paramount; the dismissal of such a coach after a poor performance may not be the solution to the challenge and as such needs proper evaluation before it is effected. In some instances, sacking the coach and the subsequent hiring of a replacement may improve the field performance hence desirable while in other instances, the sacking does not yield to any difference in performance especially when the problem is elsewhere and not with the coach. This paper therefore intends to critically analyze the arguments for as well as arguments against sacking a sporting coach as a result of poor performance as resented in various pieces of literature. The argument revolves around such decisions as would involve the overall evaluation of the organization as a whole as well as the biased blame that is only laid on the coach after such a fateful poor performance. Discussion The institutional complexity as well as managerial effort has critical implications towards the overall performance of a sporting organization. In adoption of an epistemological approach of two sporting teams which play against each other simultaneously, Jara, Paolini and Tena (2012, p. 4-6) finds that the teams recording different results as necessitated by a number of factors. The study establishes that the teams simultaneously differ in levels of resources employed as well as managerial efforts directed towards maximization of profits in terms of efficient performance in field. Theoretical models in such an approach to sporting holds that the levels of resources in finances as well as the technical managerial effort committed towards a sporting activity directly influences the performance outcome of a match. Besides hiring of most competitive coaches, football clubs for instance invest through hiring most competitive players from the market to decrease of the chances of rival teams to overpower them in skills and competence. The improvement of such skill endowment is therefore prerequisite to recording good performance and management should be aware of such instead of condemning the coach on such failures that would have its roots on management failures. Through an empirical analysis, the study by Jara, Paolini and Tena therefore reveals that there is a correlation between the performance recorded by a sporting organization and the roles played by different players. The management has a critical part to play in influencing organizational performance through resource allocation while the coach takes up the technical expertise in influencing the performances recorded. In analyzing the effectiveness of dismissing a coach in a mid-season or between two matches, Heuer and team employed a statistical analysis of German league of soccer where the findings revealed that the result had no significant effect towards subsequent performances. In often times, the decision to have a coach fired amidst a sporting season is influenced by such factors as disappointments from expected results in relation to resources committed towards the success of the team such as increased wage bill. Moreover, management may arrive at such a decision through pressure from the club owners, fans as well as the media (Talentowski, nd, p. 1). Nevertheless, a predetermined hypothesis has been in use over decades now and it postulates that a coach has only a little influence towards the overall outcome of the performance of the team due to other influences by the management as well as the players themselves. This therefore supports that dismissing a coach has no guarantee of improving on the performance record to the team especially in the short run (Heuer et al, 2011, p. 1-4). Among other findings of the study were that firing a coach and subsequently replacing him in the middle of a season does not have an obvious implication of improving the performance of the organization at least for the season. This therefore justifies that firing a coach is not the most preferable decision that an organization should take for the sake of improving performance in the short run but may be considered for long-term performance of the team. Arnulf, Mathisen and H?rem (2012, para 1) continues the argument against firing a coach on the basis of poor performance of a sporting organization. Through an experimental study, they find that over concentration of individual manager’s performance have an increased capacity to ruin future prospects of a team. This therefore contrasts other findings by researchers that a coach, just as any other manager in an organization is mandated to drive a sporting organization towards better performance and as such, the failure to deliver have no other way of treatment except through such a dismissal and subsequent replacement with another more result oriented coach. An article by Barnes in the BBC news (2013, para 1-7) features opinions of Weel, a Dutch economist who reasoned that "Changing a manager during a crisis in the season does improve the results in the short term” (2013, para 1-7). He reasoned that the statistic is misleading because the effect t would have been likely the same even in the event of not changing the coach for the short term. According to the article, theoretical implications of changing a coach either through firing or the eventual willing departure of a coach and the subsequent replacement of him has almost constant outcomes as the performance quickly finds its way back to the initial performance in the short term. To put it more openly, the article reason’s against the firing of a manager to a sporting club because of poor performance. For instance, in consideration of the change of Chelsea’s Villas-Boas in 2012, no better performance of the club in the season was recorded. In general, terms therefore, the question of how long one has served in respect to a particular industry matters more as against the consideration of individual personality should be the criteria of analysis in any business unit and such sporting organizations. In a new version of austerity, Arsene Wenger stands on accusation of practicing it in the persistence failure of the team since 2005 before which the club boasted of great success of eight consecutive years. Despite his renowned good performance in the late years of the 20th century with the team, the manager increasingly faces opposition despite the value worth of the club, which surpasses any other club’s in the world. Among some of his opposition, the need to have him spend more resources in buying new resourceful players takes the lead. He is however known in his management competencies having been an economic scholar and thus has his decisions influenced in not only the financial resources but equally on future prospects. The accusers reason that he stands to blame for such performances and would better quite management role for the team. However, it is not yet as clear whether his removal from management to the club would yield the anticipated results (Kuper, 2013, para 1-11). In yet another study, Correa and team evaluated the effects of dismissal of a coach towards the performance of the team for professional soccer leagues. By using performances records of between the years 1991 and 2009, the result found no support to any better performance in a club after dismissal of a coach as shown by the ranking of the team either by points or even by number of goals. Nevertheless, the study revealed that there is an increased likelihood that teams with newly recruited coaches would have improved performance through higher goals than those with such long serving coaches. Nevertheless, the study failed to establish justifiable reason on the average goals differences (Correa et al, 2002, p.2). Conclusion In conclusion, therefore, this study finds much support to the postulation that dismissing a coach based on poor performance has no effect on the performance of the cub or entire organization than the support of favorable results being gained through such dismissal. Many of the literature reviewed shows that a team’s performance is a direct outcome to the interactions of different players who include the organization management, the coach, the players as well as such other factors as the physical conditions during a match. However, a coach holds a crucial responsibility in influencing the performance of the organization in that he is responsible of the direct technical expertise required while competing (Robertson, 2013, para 1-6). The study finds that firing a coach has no direct influence in short term performances of an organization because of other supportive services and attributes by such other stakeholders as outlined (University of Colorado, 2012, para 1-7; ‘Skipjack Partners’ 2013, para 1-3). However, this does not refute the need to have the coach changed or dismissed in the event of continued poor performance because this has the possible implication of bettering the performances though in the long run. Just as is the case with any business performances, management team has the immediate influence but other factors come into play to determine the ultimate performance. Nevertheless, a worrying trend is increasingly being witnessed where coaches suffer the whole blame of an organization’s performance without proper evaluation to understand where the real problem emanates from. This paper therefore recommends good overall evaluation on causes of poor performances by organization before adopting such a policy direction as firing the coach. Bibliography Arnulf J. K., Mathisen J. E. and H?rem T. 2012.Heroic leadership illusions in football teams: Rationality, decision making and noise-signal ratio in the firing of football managers. Leadership, 8(2): 169-185 Barnes, H., 2013. Does it make statistical sense to sack a football manager? Available at:< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23724517> (Accessed on 29 November 2013) Correa J. S. et al, 2002. Does it pay to fire the coach? Evidence from Argentine professional soccer. Available at:< http://www.javeriana.edu.co/fcea/coleccion_universitas_Economica/Vol_12/Vol.12_6_2012.pdf> (Accessed on 29 November 2013) Heuer A. et al, 2011. Usefulness of Dismissing and Changing the Coach in Professional Soccer. The Usefulness of Coach Dismissal and Change, 6(3): 1-7 Jara M., Paolini D. and Tena J. D. 2012. Management efficiency in football:An empirical analysis of two extreme cases. Available at:< http://uclouvain.be/cps/ucl/doc/core/documents/coredp2012_44web.pdf> (Accessed on 29 November 2013) Kulper S ., 2013. Arsene’s Austerity: Has football’s economist got it wrong when it comes to the game’s finances? Available at:< http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d363b054-6548-11e2-8b03-00144feab49a.html#axzz2m1YYQAzr> (Accessed on 29 November 2013) Robertson D., 2013. Kubiak’s fate as unknown as cause for Texans’ slide. Available at:< http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2013/11/poor-performance-on-field-leaves-gary-kubiak-n-hot-seat/> (Accessed on 29 November 2013) ‘Skipjack Partners’ 2013. Should You Fire or Coach a Poor Performer? Available at:< http://managefearlessly.com/blog/should-you-fire-or-coach-poor-performer> (Accessed on 29 November 2013) Talentowski B., nd. You’re Fired! The Cause and Effect of Managerial Turnover on Team Performance: A Study of Major League BaseballAvailable at:< https://www.iwu.edu/economics/PPE18/7Talentowski.pdf> (Accessed on 29 November 2013) University of Colorado, 2012. New study examines record of football teams after coaching changes. Available at:< http://www.colorado.edu/news/features/new-study-examines-record-football-teams-after-coaching-changes> (Accessed on 29 November 2013) Read More