Good Sport Leadership Change

Founded by former basketball player and Chairman of the Board Jason Poole, Good Sport is a fitness equipment manufacturing company in its 15th year of business. Currently the company is in its prime years of business and with the leadership of CEO Marvin Wallace, has been successful enough to market its products to residential homes, gyms, clubs and hospitals. Moreover, the company has extended its products to neighboring states such as Georgia and the Carolinas. In an effort to keep up with the latest trends and equipment designs, Good Sport is looking to striving members of the company with fresh and new ideas. (University of Phoenix, n.d.) Costs of production and marketing costs play an important role in the products that Good Sport chooses to embrace. However, one of the biggest leadership challenges that management faces is getting the employees to accept changes in the company. These changes include the products that are being marketed, the way that products are produced and marketed, in addition to accepting the leadership that is in charge of selling their ideas to the different departments.

According to Von Glinow (2004), “Organizational structure refers to the division of labor as well as the patterns of coordination, communication, work flow, and formal power that direct organizational activities. An organizational structure reflects the organization’s culture and power relationship.” (p. 46). With a vice president over each the sales, finance, research and development and production department, followed by four senior managers who oversee four team managers, Good Sport operates on a formal hierarchy. This type of functional structure allows work to be completed under direct supervision. Nonetheless, despite the hierarchical organizational structure, the culture differs in each department. For instance, the sales department culture is informal and the employees are easy going, however, the production department has a distinct work culture where everyone prefers to keep their professional distance. In addition to the hierarchical structure, the company also operates on a narrow span of control which, “refers to the number of people directly reporting to the next level in the hierarchy.” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005, p. 18). Because the company is still fairly new, it is ran by the founder and decisions are made by members that have been with the company since its birth. This type of organizational design is also known as centralization, wherein decisions are made by those at the top of the organization.

Organizational culture is defined as, “the basic pattern of shared assumptions, values and beliefs considered to be the correct way of thinking about and acting on problems and opportunities facing the organization…defines what is important and unimportant to the organization.” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005, pg. 9). Good Sport exhibits a task oriented culture as its main focus is to ensure the company’s success and future in the industry. However, because the company is divided into four departments, the culture is also somewhat competitive. Management leadership faces many challenges to getting their production ideas approved by each department. In fact, the manager in the simulation was faced with various resistances to change in each department level. Accordingly, each department wants to surpass the other departments in sales and expansion of the products, in an effort to ensure the company’s future. This is where culture and structure of the company are related. In deed, the two are compatible because in an essence, one compliments the other. The current focus of Good Sport is to remain the leader in the fitness manufacturing field thereby ensuring the company’s future and in and as a result, as seen in the simulation, the hierarchy can be manipulated to that effect. Hence, one can rise through the organization due to the fact that Good Sport rewards successes of their employees through promotions, pay raises and other sorts of incentives.

Good Sport operates on three different power structures in each department, with the third level being that of the vice president of that department. The vice presidents are given power based on their ranking alone in addition to the fact that they have been with the company since its organization. However, the team manager and senior manager positions require distinct skill and a bit of political manipulation to obtain. As seen in the scenario, a manager was able to manipulate his way through the ranks to the position of CEO based not only on his leadership style but most importantly on how he was able to manipulate the approval of the different departments of the company. It would appear that Good Sport operates in a functional capacity. The type of operation creates an “us vs. them” type of attitude between the different departments which in turns hampers the overall success of the company.

Politics are also a part of the organizational culture at Good Sport. Matt Fernandez was passed over for the promotion to become the next vice president and he was not pleased to see the manager in the scenario get the promotion instead. Tamara Watkins, vice president of research and development, is uncomfortable dealing with her former subordinate as a peer. Similarly, Samuel Olsen, vice president of sales, is not sure of a research and development employee becoming vice president of productions. Additionally, team managers and team members are talking and have reservations because they are not familiar with the newly promoted vice president’s management style. To further illustrate the politics in place at Good Sport, consider the manner in which the manager was promoted from team leader to senior manager and finally to vice president. Although Matt Fernandez was next in line for promotion to vice president, the recently promoted team manager received the vice president position instead. This obviously created conflict in the workplace, additionally; it created communication and resistance problems between the newly promoted vice president and other employees of the company. In any organization, the ultimate goal is to increase company profits and/or reduce costs likewise, as the manager in the simulation was able to achieve these things faster; he was thus rewarded with promotion through the ranks faster. Therefore the goals set by the company’s leadership are what in turn drive the culture of the company.

In relation to the simulation, there are a few effective options that were omitted as choices for the striving manager. In particular one of the choices for combating the problems the manager faced with his subordinates after he was promoted. Instead of the allocating