Leading Change In Good Sport

Leading Change Paper

Good Sport is a successful company and with every successful company there is an existence of positive industry leading techniques and negative industry flaws. Good Sport has achieved market share from successfully managing it flaws by changing to adapt to changes within the market sector. The following structured paragraphs will describe Good Sports organizational structure, company culture, power structures, politics, change initiatives, and how Good Sport will adapt to manage all of these and continue to grow into the industry leader.

Good Sport is a fitness organization based in Coral Springs, Florida which markets various pieces of exercise equipment to the public. The founder of Good Sport is Jason Poole who found the company over 15 years ago upon retiring from professional basketball, NBA. Jason is now on the Board of Directors and the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is Marvin Wallace. Marvin has made many innovated advances within the company within the past four years and counting. He also has ideas of improving the internal relationships / departments within Good Sport, such as the Sales, Production, and Research and Development departments. The organization is expanding into other states outside of Florida such as Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina in which clubs, hotels, hospitals, and residential homes are its main focused consumers.

The managers at Good Sport play a crucial role in the upkeep of producing new innovative ideas to be marketed to all of Good Sport's markets and consumers. The first step in getting the innovative ideas to the market is internal acceptance by influencing employees to accept the changes and new ideas.

Within the company of Good Sport it is evident that a hierarchical organizational exists. The company has various layers and departments within the organization which looks to grow and expand even further than its existing structure. The current CEO, Marvin Wallace heads the organization of Good Sport and is in charge of the following departments within the company; Production, Research and Development, Sales, and Finance. Each department within Good Sport is headed by a Vice President who manages his Senior Managers in which head their Team Managers. Below the Team Managers fall the subordinates within the respective departments who complete the day to day work for the organization. It appears that due to the expansion of business and increase in sales that Good Sport will not be moving to a flat structure any time soon and will remain a hierarchical or tall structured organization for years to come (McShane and Von Glinow, 2005, p. 450-451).

Due to the company being a hierarchical or tall structured organization, the company has a more centralized style of decision-making processes. Centralization decision-making means that a more formal process of decision-making authority is held amongst the organization which means the people at the top of organizational hierarchy. The subordinates report to their Team Managers who in turn report to their Senior Managers in which makes team decisions and important choices. Communication is essential within Good Sport due to a centralized decision-making style being incorporated within the organization. As Good Sports grows into new states, nationally than most likely the organization will still incorporate a hierarchical organizational structure, but may tend to change to a decentralization style of decision-making. Within the decentralization decision-making process, important decisions are made by lower level or subordinate employees due to the complexity of the organization (McShane and Von Glinow, 2005, p. 451-452).

A low-context culture is currently present within Good Sport, meaning that written and spoken words are valued (McShane and Von Glinow, 2005, p. 121). When the new product was introduced to the Sales and Production departments a written or spoken acceptance was needed from the Vice Presidents of each department within the organization before the product was generally accepted with these departments. It took numerous meetings, presentations, and verbal acceptances to be viewed as acceptable by each department before marketing occurred. Once marketed and acceptance by consumers was expressed through sales than the departments were finally happy with their decision of accepting the final project. The various departments; Sales, Production, and Research and Development seemed to be culturally divided, but produced individual results in making the company successful. As the organization grows nationally it is evident that the company will need to focus more on their internal cultural barriers.

Due to Good Sport being a relatively large organization with numerous departments, the hierarchical and low-context cultural styles of the organization are a result of its leadership and growth potentials within its industry. At this point in time the culture of the organization appears to be divided between the various departments, but once the company converts to a more decentralized decision-making style than this will empower lower management and subordinates within Good Sport. Going to a more functional structure with decentralized decision-making employees will be forced to make important decisions in which they derive at their solution by working in close interrelated teams with other departments. The company culture will expand and it will be within management's roles and responsibilities to incorporate team leadership and a positive company culture because upper management will be dealing with new and larger responsibilities. This is how the two are compatible, but is up to the Team Managers and Senior Managers to aide in the development of structural and cultural leadership amongst their individual teams company wide.

Power is defined as the capacity of an individual person, whole team, or the complete organization in influencing others. Power does not exactly mean changing other people's actions, but the potential in doing so (McShane and Von Glinow, 2005, p. 358). Executives have the power over their subordinates due to job security and promotions within the organization and subordinates have what is known as counterpower by means of controlling their ability in working more productively. Management want the employees to work more productively because this could be the difference in making management look good or bad to higher authorities (McShane and Von Glinow, 2005, p. 359). All the various types of power; legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, and referent exists within Good Sport, but only a few are present within the simulation by the active manager. The active manager must use expert and referent power to gain the respect of the Senior Managers and Vice Presidents as