ISL MINGGU 2

WHAT IS SPORT MANAGEMENT?

Sport management is a multidisciplinary field that integrates the sport industry and management. Sport management programs train people for management positions in such areas as college athletics, professional teams, fitness centers, recreational centers, coaching, officiating, marketing, youth organisations, and sporting goods manufacturing and retailing. Sport management is composed of two basic elements sport and management. Getting those done with and through other people via planning, organising, leading, and controlling is the contemporary definition of management. Mullin (1980) defined sport management as including the functions of planning, organising, leading, and controlling within the context of an organisation with the primary objective of providing sport- or fitness-related activities, products, and/or services.

THE SPORT MANAGERS RESPONSIBILITIES A sport manager is responsible for achieving the sport organisations objectives through efficient and effective utilisation of resources. Lets take a closer look at a couple of these terms. (a) Efficient means getting the maximum out of your available resources. (b) E Effective means doing the right thing (following the proper strategy) in order to attain your objective; it also describes how well you achieve the

objectives.

Informal Resources

Human Resource

SPORT MANAGER RESOURSS

Physical Resource

Financial Resource

(a) Human Resources As you no doubt know, human resources are people. People are managers most valuable resource. As a manager, you will try hard to recruit and/or hire the best people available. These athletes and/or employees must then be trained to use the organisations other resources to maximise productivity. Whether you are managing a team of players or a team of employees, they will not be productive if they cannot work well together.

(b) F Financial Resources Most managers have budgets. Their budgets state how much it should cost to operate their department / store / team for a set period of time. In other words, a budget tells you what financial resources you have available to achieve your objective. As a manager, you will be responsible for seeing hat your department does not waste resources.

(c) P Physical Resources Getting the job done requires effective and efficient use of physical resources. For a retailer like GS Gill Sporting House, physical resources include store buildings, the merchandise they sell, the fixtures that display the merchandise, and the computers they use to record sales and inventory. GS Gills physical resources also include supplies such as price tags, hangers, and charge slips. Managers are responsible for keeping equipment in working condition and for making sure that material and supplies are readily available.

(d) I Informational Resources Managers need all kinds of information. GS Gill needs to know how its sales in all stores. They need to know which suppliers will get them golf balls fastest and most cheaply. They need to track healthcare insurance costs for all their employees. Computers store and retrieve information like this for all of GS Gills stores, and for their home office in Jalan TAR, Kuala Lumpur. When managers at GS Gill check their voice mail, and give employees directions on setting up displays, they are using informational resources. ACTIVITY 1.2

THE FOUR MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS What do sport managers do? Lots of things, as you can well imagine. Managers get the job done through others. They also plan, organise, lead, and control to achieve organisational objectives these are the four management functions. Planning Organising Leading Controlling

This module is organised around the four management functions. Each function serves as a topic for a part of the module. Here, and in later topics, we examine each function separately. However, always keep in mind that the four functions together comprise a system; they are interrelated and are often performed simultaneously.

(a) P Planning Planning is typically the starting point in the management process. Planning is the process of setting objectives and determining in advance exactly how the objectives will be met. Managers schedule he work employees perform and also develop budgets. For example, managers schedule employees work rotations so that high-volume times in stores are well covered, and they also select the merchandise that they will sell. Performing the planning function well requires strong conceptual and decision-making skills.

(b) O Organising Successful managers put a great deal of effort into the organising function. Organising is the process of delegating and coordinating tasks and resources to achieve objectives. Managers allocate and arrange resources. An important part of allocating human resources is assigning people to various jobs and tasks.

As an example, Azmi, a manager in Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) plans for regular-season games, holiday tournaments, and post-season games. To do this, he has to organise the employees (including coaches, assistants, team doctors, equipment people, and ticket takers) so that theycover each and every game.An important part of organising, sometimes listed as a separate function, is staffing. Staffing is the process of selecting, training, and evaluatingemployees: Azmi is responsible for staffing his teams. Effective organising requires both conceptual and decision-making skills, as well as people skills and communication skills.

(c) L Leading Leading is the process of influencing employees to work toward achieving objectives. Managers must not only communicate the objectives to employees, they must also motivate them to achieve the objectives. Effective leaders have strong people skills and strong communication skills.

(d) C Controlling Only three out of ten people do the things they say they will do (H.K. Steensma, L. Marino, and K.M. Weaver, 2000). Controlling is the process of establishing and implementing mechanisms to ensure the objectives are achieved. An important part of controlling is measuring progress and taking corrective action when necessary. Effective controlling requires technical skills (you have to use appropriate measures), as well as conceptual and decision-making skills. All managers perform the four functions of management as they and their teams get the work done. However, many managers perform n non-management, or employee functions as well. If a sport manager makes a photocopy of the athletic department budget she is working on, she is performing a nonmanagement function. Most managers are called working managers because they perform both management and employee functions. The Management Functions Work as a s system. Management functions do not work in a single dimension. Managers do not plan, then organise, then lead, and then control. Each function depends on the others. For example, if you start with

a poor plan, your objective will not be met even though things are well organise, well led, and well controlled. Also, if you start with a great plan, but are poorly organised, or poorly led, you will probably not meet your objective. Figure 1.3 illustrates this process. Remember, management functions are based on setting (planning) and achieving(organising, leading, and controlling) objectives.

THE THREE LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT At various levels of management, different management skills are needed, and different management functions are performed. The three l levels of management (also called strategic, tactical, and operational management) are top, middle, and first-line management (Kimball and Lussier, 2004).

(a) T Top Managers These executive positions have titles such as chairman of the board, chief executive officer (CEO), president, or vice president. Top managers manage the entire organisation or major parts of it. They develop and fine-tune the organisations mission, objectives, strategies, and long-term plans. They report to other executives or the board of directors and supervise the activities of middle managers.

(b) M Middle Managers People holding these positions have titles such as general manager, athletic director, sales manager, branch manager, and department head. Middle managers implement top managements strategies by developing shortterm operating plans. They generally report to executives and supervise the work of first-line managers.

(c) First-line Managers Examples of the titles at this level include coach, assistant coach, academic advising coordinator, ticket manager, event manager, supervisor, and office manager. These managers implement middle managers operational plans. They generally report to middle managers. Unlike those at the other two

levels of management, first-line managers do not supervise other managers; they supervise operative employees.

(d) O Operatives They are the people who report to first-line managers. They work in the concessions, take tickets, make the products, wait on customers, perform repairs, and so on.