Qatar Fencing Federation Organizational Behavior and Management - Coursework Example

Qatar Fencing Federation Organizational Behaviour and Management Affiliation: ment of Issue Qatar Fencing Federation’s big issue is that it is in chaos from the lack of effective management and the lack of motivation of the players. This has resulted in the federation suffering and is even on the verge of not recovering, if nothing is done immediately about this issue. The whole management of the federation is inexperienced and the players are not only unavailable but do not put in any effort towards their performance hence poor results. There are four parties involved in the Qatar Fencing Federation issue, and they are the President, the coaches, the managers as well as the players, and they have all contributed in different ways to the federation going into chaos. The Qatar Fencing Federation’s issue started once it hosted the Asian games in 2006. The games drained the federation’s resources in order to ensure success in these games, and attainment of good results which it achieved. Shortly after the games, the federation lacked agenda and plans on what to do next and with the President being inexperienced in the sports field, he delegated the mandate of seeking a plan to the coaches. The coaches on the other hand, similar to the president, lacked experience in the sports field and hence made weak plans about the future. They were more concerned about keeping their positions and appeasing the president than the welfare of the federation. The managers on the other hand, were simply followers of the coaches’ decisions without questions being asked. They lacked enthusiasm in the federation’s affairs as was indicated by their constant lack of attendance in the teams’ practice sessions. The last and most crucial party is the players who had not only become expatriates but wanted more benefits without making any effort in their performance. Their lack of motivation contributed to their poor results. Based on the background provided about the federation, and the issue they have at hand, the problem lies with the lack of effective management, lack of motivation as well as lack of group and team work in the Qatar Fencing Federation as a whole. This can however change if concentration is put on the management, teamwork and motivation of the players who are the key to success. The federation can once again emerge successful in the future. Relevant course concepts Management and leadership Management and leadership are two different things in any organisation. A leader is supposed to be a motivator and inspire the followers while a manager’s work is to plan and organize. A manager should also be a leader in any organization if success is to be eminent in the organization. Leadership skills are inherent, but management requires expertise in the area one is managing. Without expertise, even the inherent skills will not be enough to run the organization effectively, especially the planning and organization. Motivation and the self There are different theories of motivation which can be practiced by the manager to motivate the employees. In order for motivation however to be effective in any organization, the employees ought to motivate themselves and not rely on the manager to do so for them at all times. The manager’s role in motivation should only be to provide an environment suitable for the motivation to take place (Knights & Willmott, 2012). Employees need to be self-motivators and find their own individual drive and focus. Group and teams at work Groups and teams are two similar yet separate entities in any organization. Teams are more cloistered and hence closely knitted together whereas groups are simply just a cluster of people in an organization who share common purpose or interests. In order for success to be attained, organizing people into teams rather than letting them work as a group is encouraged. Teams have a stronger sense of identity and hence tend to last longer than groups, and their success rate in any project is much higher and quickly achieved than mere groups or working as individuals. Analysis Management and leadership The Qatar Fencing Federation president who was the leader of the organization had no expertise in the sporting department. This lack of skills first of all disqualified him as being an effective manager, and secondly, disadvantaged him from making any effective managerial plans and organization. He had military skills which were not relevant in the sporting department and this is the reason why he delegated the role of planning about the future to the coaches rather than doing it himself. The same lack of skills in the sporting field can be said about the coaches and managers and this is the reason for the failure of the federation. The president, coaches and managers were to take upon the role of a leader other than just management. This would have enabled them to be motivators to each other, and to the players who were the main area of focus for the federation’s ultimate success. The coaches whom the managers and the players look up to should be inspirational and their inspiration highly relies on having a good plan, and an effective environment for organization, which is to be provided by the president of the federation. Motivation and the self Motivation as mentioned above, has more to do with the self than with the manager, and therefore in as much as the players rely on their coaches and managers for motivation, they should also seek ways to motivate themselves. This is possible through first identifying their driving force and then their goals. If they want to achieve highly materially, that is by having a lot of money and other material possession, they need to put an effort in their performance. The players as mentioned above are expatriates and hence do not even have enough time to spend together as a team and practice. Each player has his own commitments in other places and the fencing sport comes second. Without effort, success will not be attained and so will their goals of money and cars. Motivation in this federation is not only for the players but for the whole group starting from the president down to the coaches and the managers. Each of these people needs to be motivated in order to achieve success in his or her roles, and gain the ultimate success for the federation. The president needs motivation to plan about the future of the federation. The coaches need motivation to train the players and prepare them for good performance in the games. The same motivation is required by the managers in order to perform their work. Their work involves ensuring the needs of the players are met, and this means attending their practice sessions and interacting more with them. The motivation from the management can be got from the motivation theories explained by Knights & Willmott (2012). Different motivation theories have different suggestions and solutions of the different motivators available. The president, coaches and managers can utilize some of these motivators, and try to motivate the whole group and especially the players with them. Some of the motivators seem minimal but they are effective like the motivating factors explained by Herzberg in his two-factor theory (Knights & Willmott, 2012). Groups and teams Groups are just a cluster of people with similar purpose and interests. The four parties (President, coaches, managers and players) of the Qatar Fencing Federation are a group because they have the same purpose and interests of gaining success from the federation. They are however not a team. This is so because teams have more cohesion and are closely knitted together. They also have a sense of identity which enables them last longer. In order for this group of the Qatar Fencing Federation to succeed and last longer in the federation, and not have the issues they have now, they need to organize themselves and work as a team. This is easier said than done however, until they can all come together and agree that they need to change the way they work. The players need to be more involved in the activities of the federation rather than focus more on being expatriates. Working in teams means that they need more commitment and cohesion than they have now. They need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each and every member of the team, and capitalize on them or work on them. The president should be the team leader of the team. The team leader in this case is just a figurative head of the team and not an action figure to inflict rules or punishments. He is supposed to oversee that their goals are being met and on time, and ensure that the team members are getting along well. Even though he is a decision maker, he should not be a dictator but rather a tie breaker and offer guidance (Knights & Willmott, 2012). The present situation with the federation is that people are relying on others to make the decisions, and hence the plans or decisions made favour only one group at the expense of the others. With team work however, the coaches will not be the only decision makers and planners of the federation. Each and every team member from the president to the players will be making contributions and suggestions as to how best to proceed, and then the ideas deliberated and the best of them implemented. Conclusion Summary of your analysis The analysis indicates that the parties of the federation are not carrying out their duties and roles, but are rather leaving all the work to be performed by the coaches and a little by the players. The president is the leader and the manager of the federation, and hence should be on the forefront of working together with the managers in planning about the federation. The coaches as well as the players should also make their contributions about the plan as it will also involve them. There is also a lack of motivation that has led to laxity in performance, and this has affected the overall success of the organization, threatening to completely ruin it. An all-round motivation is needed if the performance is to improve. The most notable thing from the analysis is that all the parties with the exception of the players, lack the necessary skills to be in the federation. They lack expertise in sports and specifically the fencing sports, and this is the biggest challenge in planning about the future of something they have no knowledge and skills in. Insights from applying the concepts Any successful organization needs expertise and skilled employees to run it. Without the needed skills and qualifications, then no matter how much planning and team work is put, the performance and success will only be short term and other problems and challenges arise. Teamwork may however be effective for short term planning to save the federation from the risk of collapse, before the long term solutions to the federation are sought and implemented. The lack of team work in the federation is what has led to the lack of motivation. No party is aware of the needs and wants of the other and this has led to individual working and group functioning. Action to recommend There are several recommendations that can be made to solve the issue with the Qatar Fencing Federation in both short term and long term. For the short term recommendations, the parties need to sit down and organize as well as work together as a team. The boundaries of coaches and managers or players should be put aside and they should work together to save the federation. Working as a team with the president being the team leader will involve a lot of meetings and commitment and especially in regards to the future planning of their activities. Each team member should seek self-motivators. As a team however, they should also engage in activities that will motivate them including team building and increase of the fringe benefits and hygiene factors such as allowances and salaries. On the long term benefits, qualified personnel should be employed from the president to the coaches and even managers. The new personnel should comprise of individuals with not only the skills and knowledge of fencing sports but have experience in the sport and other sports in general. This will enable the experience and knowledge to be utilized to take the federation to a higher level and be recognized. Players should also be made to be more committed to the team even if they will need to come back home to concentrate on the team alone if outside work is hindering them from putting more effort. This will be accompanied by increase in motivation in terms of salaries and other benefits such as cars and insurance to not only motivate them but maintain them in the team as well. References Knights, D. and Willmott, H. (2012). Introducing Organizational Behaviour and Management. New York: Cengage Learning. Read More