Professionalism - Introducing Sir Alex Ferguson

Running head: MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT
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Introduction
Professionalism is the conduct, actions as well as attitude of an individual in a
business environment. An individual does not necessarily have to work in a particular
profession to exhibit vital qualities and attributes of a professional (Zam 2018). Thus,
professionalism results in robust professional reputation in addition to an extraordinary level
of work principle and excellence (Cribb and Gewirtz 2015). Leaders must take on several
roles with an aim of illustrating a well-organized as well as effective environment which
stimulate its followers. Ethical leadership necessitates ethical leaders (Carraher 2015). If
leaders are principled, they can confirm strong practice of ethics in the professional setting.
However, attributes of ethical leaders primarily involves motivating, inspiring and other
visionary actions that comprise of transformational leadership (Constandt and Willem 2019).
Ethical leaders have capacity of coaching cohorts in the attainment of a sense of individual as
well as professional competency that facilitates them to outshine while showing greater level
of resilience, allegiance and gain (Cribb and Gewirtz 2015). In addition to this, ethical
leadership is regarded as a leadership style that focuses on the ethical facet of leadership in
supervision (Carraher 2015). Such leadership principle also explains the standards, principled
traits as well as ethical behaviour of leaders in professional settings as well as the ways in
which they tend connect to their followers and others linked to the profession (Constandt and
Willem 2019). Thus, ethical behaviour is understood as an approach which can be determined
through usually recognized ethical norms of behaviour (Cribb and Gewirtz 2015). The aim of
the following paper is to identify the professional sporting managerial approach of Alex
Ferguson and his approach and its relevance to ethical leadership and management. In
addition to this, the critically analyse underlying factors of these skills and their effectiveness
in the field of sport management.

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Professionalism- Introducing Sir Alex Ferguson
Sir Alex Ferguson is known as a former Scottish soccer manager as well as player
who managed the club, Manchester United from 1986 to 2013 (Ferguson et al. 2018). He is
considered to be one of the most respected and prosperous managers in the account of
professional sports. Sir Alex Ferguson has been appointed in a managerial role currently for
one of the most renowned football teams across the world (Ferguson 2015). His team known
as the British club Manchester United has been managed by Ferguson for over 25 years (File
2018). As per reports, in the period of his 27 years at the club, Ferguson secured 38 trophies
which include around 13 Premier League titles as well as two UEFA Champions League cups
(Hoye et al. 2015). In the view of File (2018), the leadership style followed by Ferguson has
been measured to be strong, aggressive and obliged to high ethical and principled standards
as well as dedication towards his players. Owing to his recognized contributions to his team,
he is still identified as an expert manager, the leadership approach of whom is measured as a
benchmark from which the beginners obtain their knowledge and skills of sports management
(Ferguson et al. 2018). Furthermore, as per studies, the exceptional achievements of Sir
Ferguson facilitated other managers from diverse areas to observe the exactitudes of his
management approach (Hytner 2015). Ferguson has been named as the Premier League
Manager of the Year on nearly 11 events. Furthermore, he has released volumes of his
autobiography in 1999 as well as 2013. He has been given the responsibility of a Commander
of the British Empire (CBE) in 1995 and knighted for the same in late 1990s.
Discussion
Professional behaviours essential in Sport Management in relevance to Ferguson’s
management style

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Professional Behaviour 1
Self-confidence is an imperative management skill necessary in the field of Sports
management which leaders must possess in order to obtain support from team members. It is
an important behaviour as confidence keeps individual highly positive, encouraged,
concentrated, and motivated and emotionally in control (Cribb and Gewirtz 2015). One
theoretical standpoint of self-confidence can be aligned to the framework of motivation. It
shows specific relevance to improve self-confidence in a range of domains of psychosocial
functioning according to self-efficacy theory. As per Peng, Schaubroeck and Xie (2015), self-
efficacy theory shows high efficiency in managing the development of motivational
platforms since self-beliefs of buoyancy function in majority of the tactics of cognitive
theories of motivation, predominantly in goal-setting theory as well as attribution theory.
By deriving insights from Ferguson’s management approach examples, it has been
observed that Sir Alex Ferguson had exhibited substantial level of self-confidence and
possessed the accurate knowledge and skills to administer his team, Manchester United
(Ferguson 2015). As per studies, Ferguson’s previous football as well as managerial
involvements for example permitted him to lead the club as well as he discerned his
capability of performing his strategies on the right path (Tu and Lu 2016). While, the club
performed bad results which consequently led the team to receive severe dismissal from the
followers, Ferguson received utmost support of the directors from the United association
(Ferguson et al. 2018). He eventually paid back their trust by leading United to an English FA
Cup success besides European Cup Winners. Such professional behavioural patterns can lead
prospective sports leaders to drive people and show trust on the approaches (Ferguson et al.
2018).
It is imperative for prospective sports leaders to know that for effective succession
businesses necessitate producing as well as developing a robust foundation. With higher