Leading and Managing Organizational Change Australian Rugby Team

Question: Discuss about the Leading and Managing Organizational Change. Answer: Introduction The Australian national rugby union team, the Wallabies are among the finest rugby teams in the world and are ranked third in the world. The Australian rugby team has firmly established rivalries with France and England (Wallabies, 2017). The paper offers a weekly journal on the learning experiences related to the HRM practices of Wallabies as a sports organization. The weekly reflections will help evaluate the current management practices and their role in improving the organizational behavior. I was appointed as a Promotion Director for the Australian rugby team, and my responsibility was to make the team more popular with the help of special events and team promotions. I had to coordinate with the business manager and the marketing director and other members of the sports management. Sport is a special commercial venture where the sportsmen are the product as well as the service providers. The organization is very different from other organizations, and one needs to set up effecti ve ways of integrating proper organizational behavior within the Rugby sports organization. I took about a week to settle down and get familiar with the team and its management practices. A meeting was held last week to discuss the ensuing challenges and increasing number of difficulties faced by the Rugby team. The sports team was unable to attract and retain good coaches, volunteers, sportsman and administrators within the organization. The conclusion of the meeting was that the fundamental governance structure and the organizational behavior need to be looked into. The sports management team felt that it was not just enough to hire right people but also keep in mind the business goals and objectives. Strategic HRM practices were discussed which can take care of rewards and incentives. The focus should be on developing effective culture and strong interpersonal relationships that can handle conflicts, disputes, and grievances. After being in the Australian rugby sports management team, I understood that Sports organizations are a bit more complicated and it is challenging. I think that it is important to look into individual behaviors and perceptions of each and everyone involved. I felt that it would indeed be challenging to bring positive outcomes and enhance organizational effectiveness. The sports club was facing difficulties because of the higher commercial focus and was struggling to meet the costs. Many of the rugby players were moving to other countries lured by higher wages and better job satisfaction. This is certainly not good news for the Australian rugby. The sports management team will have to battle with the external pressures by developing mutual satisfaction between the players, coaches, the governing bodies, etc. (Taylor and Francis, 2013). A meeting was held by the sports management team to review the current status of the team and discuss the challenges. The main issues were the scarci ty of funds and lower level of satisfaction among the players and coaches. It was decided to make two different teams; one would focus on raising funds awhile others would build the morale of the rugby players and coaches. Each team member was to focus on the goals and work together. I was made the leader of the team responsible for building funds as I was also the Promotion Director for the Australian rugby team. The other team leader was assigned the role of taking care of the training, evaluating and rewarding of the rugby team and its performance. Their objective was to raise the level of satisfaction among the team members with better communication, and conflict resolution. However, I had to coordinate with the team leader of the other group. I was thinking about how to lead my team towards a new way of working together and make positive changes within the sports organization. As a team leader and the Promotion Director, I held a meeting with my team members last week and brainstormed different ideas on how to raise funds for the Rugby team and make it even more popular. I believe in the style of transformational leadership to bring about meaningful changes in my team members and the organization. I encouraged everyone to get involved and motivated them to rank the issues faced by the rugby team and develop an action plan to raise funds. Based on the discussion, our team decides on selling merchandise, getting sponsorship and hosting Exhibition matches with the local teams to raise funds and popularity of the team. I had a meeting with the other team leader, and after discussions, we came to the conclusion that a proper organizational behavior needs to be integrated into the team if it has to perform successfully and make more wins. Even if a single rugby player is not doing his job correctly or the sports coach is not performing to his optimum capacity, t he impacts can be seen immediately in the performance of the whole team. Our team began working on additional merchandise such as beer glasses, car stickers, mugs, ties, and T-shirts. The merchandised was first sold within the club as players are often self-motivated purchase merchandise and feel a part of the team. The merchandises make for a convenient gift for all people associated with the club and are an effective way of advertising the club and its players. Exhibition matches were organized between the team and the local schools and clubs for free. Sponsorships were looked for to boost commercial advantage. During my meet with the other team leader, we agreed upon that it is essential to building strong interpersonal relationships to handle any grievances, stress, and conflicts among the team players and the coach. The team members of the other group organize one-on-one meeting to unravel the attitudes of individuals in the organization. The coaches and the players were asked how they felt about their work environment, their commitment to the Rugby organization and their pay. It is essential to note here that individual performance of a player plays a major role in strengthening the foundation of rugby team performance, and hence it should never be ignored. Thus, it was suggested to use performance appraisals every month. Two types of performance appraisals were used, the administrative appraisals and developmental appraisal. Administrative appraisals focused on the salary, bonuses, promotions and training programs for the players, while the developmental appraisal should be customized according to the needs and experience of each player. It was time-consuming to plan and organize merchandised items. Finally, additional merchandise with the Rugby team logo and the players names and pictures was ready. A professional team was hired to design colorful designs and logos. It took about a week to get mugs, ties and T-shirts printed and organized the sale. Pos ters and invitations were designed to send an invitation for exhibition matches to local clubs and school. The Proper schedule was managed so that there is at least one exhibition match every week. A team was organized to take care of sponsorships. I got together with the other team leader to print out performance appraisal forms for each player and a different one for the coach to assess their performance and satisfaction level within the sports organization. Everyone in the team worked hard and is now ready to go ahead with the plans. We ensured that there was effective communication between all team members at all times. Stadium operators and local teams were contacted with detailed plans for venue and ticketing plans to host exhibition matches. Merchandise items carrying the name and logos of the team were gifted and sold to raise awareness and popularity of the sport. Performance appraisal forms were handed out to all the team members. Sponsorship was followed to build the busi ness relationship and get essential funding for the sports club. I realized over the weeks that how important is the teamwork behind the success of every organization. A strong teamwork is essential to understand the challenges and prevent any conflicts that can act as a hindrance. The conflict did arise among the team taking care of merchandised items and their sale. I intervened when necessary and made sure each and everyone was treated with respect. I gave encouraging opinions to the team members to reduce any conflict. I made sure that everyone felt warm in the working climate. After all, running the rugby team and club requires a strong physical and mental connection. It was indeed a great learning experience to go through the planning and organizing the teamwork. I learned the important role and responsibility of a leader to accomplish complex tasks. As asserted by Tsai (2011), it is essential to understand the culture within an organization and maintain a healthy environment with adequate communication and promote the organizational philosophy with the interaction between the leadership and team members. Different teams have different challenges and risks, and the team effectiveness can be worked on with effective communication and timely dissolution of conflicts. I would use the new knowledge and experience in future projects. References Tsai, Y. (2011). Relationship between Organizational Culture, Leadership Behavior and Job Satisfaction. BMC Health Services Research, 11, 98. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-11-98 Wallabies. (2017). The Roar - Your Sports Opinion Retrieved from https://www.theroar.com.au/rugby-union/wallabies/