Thursday, September 25, 2014

the great team and the great boss----MANCHESTER UNITED


     I am a student in Professor Arvan's Econ 490 class, writing under an alias to protect my privacy, using the name of a famous economist Elinor Ostrom as part of my alias.       Over the years, I have been a fan of Manchester United Football Club. After reading the article, the fist organization that came to my mind is Manchester United. I think the ups and downs of Manchester United in recent seasons can perfectly illustrate the ideas of the article.        Sir Ferguson served as the head coach of Manchester United from 1986 until 2013, and won 38 trophies. During his tenure, he is reputed as the greatest coach in history, and the Manchester United also completed a renaissance, becoming the football club that has the highest market value of foot. Needless to say, Ferguson had an absolute right when he managed the Manchester United, he could decide the sales of players in the club without being controlled by the owner of football team, amd develop long-term plans for the team, without the least apprehension of being dismissed because of poor performance in a season. Meanwhile, Sir Ferguson is indeed a powerful manager, who attaches emphasis to the training of team and is good at using young people, this can be proved by the 92 training session and Cristiano Ronaldo. He knows how to develop long-term plans, is good at reconciling players' contradictions and adjusting the locker room atmosphere, and keeps abreast with the advanced concepts of world soccer. Meanwhile, he is a manager willing to communicate with other personnel, including team's investors, players, associate coaches and even cleaning staff -- I had read the apology letter that Sir Ferguson wrote to a cleaner who was fired by the team, which greatly maintained the team's image. Under his leadership, the team had extremely healthy operation. This excellent manager had effective communication with subordinates, and could solve problems in a timely manner. Sir Ferguson is also able to stimulate players' enthusiasm, enabled players to have a strong sense of collective responsibility, the new players often reminded themselves that "I play football under the guidance of the great Sir Ferguson". After the World Cup in Germany, he tried his best to defuse the contradictions between Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, united members of the organization, thus ensured the future glory of Manchester United. I think this is the key to Sir Ferguson's success in Manchester United.       Sir Ferguson retired in 2013. His successor Moyes had poor performance and refreshed the worst records of Manchester United. Moyes also wants to be a "dictator" like Sir Ferguson, however, due to his poor management ability, he cannot adjust the atmosphere in the locker room, but he is still reluctant to change his tactical style or learn any advanced football philosophy, he guides the Manchester United to a downward trajectory.     All powerful organizations are inseparable from good managers.  Although there are differences between management models, but it is undisputed that a manager plays great role in the success of a organization.



2 comments:

  1. You seem to have converted the prompt from a discussion of effective teams to a discussion of effective management. Clearly, the two are related. But they are not the same.

    I don't know enough about football to comment on this, but another possible explanation for team success in a competitive sport is that it has the best players. It is hard to parse which better explains things. But even there, perhaps as an economist we are missing an ingredient that B&D emphasize. That is, the players must buy into the approach. Getting that sort of buy in may be more important than having the most talented players. Given the buy in, each player will do what is necessary to win, whether the particular player does well by that effort or not.

    ReplyDelete