MMS716 Trimester 1, 2018: Critical Analysis of Australian Grand Prix

This essay critically analyzes the Australian Grand Prix (AGP) as a sports organization, examining its history, structure, and goals through the lens of organizational theory. It discusses whether motor racing qualifies as a sport, highlighting the physical and mental demands on drivers. The essay also explores the unique features of sports industries, such as competitive balance and brand loyalty, and assesses how AGP aligns with these characteristics. A comparison between organizational theory and behavior is presented, emphasizing the importance of both for AGP's success. The analysis extends to the goals of AGP, including enhancing sporting opportunities, promoting the race globally, securing its Formula 1 status, and increasing visibility. Finally, the essay delves into the effectiveness and efficiency of AGP's goals, organizational complexity, and strategies to mitigate challenges, concluding with the importance of aligning organizational understanding for overall success. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments.

Australian Grand Prix
Australian Grand Prix [AGP] is a motor race which is organised in Australia; it is one of the
oldest motor race held in that region. It is successfully running since 1928, where it for the
first time was held at Phillip Island. This is one type of a racing competition held between
several parts of Australia mainly in Melbourne, currently they have been contracted to be the
host of ‘Formula one' race for further few years (Fairley, Tyler, Kellett & D’Elia, 2011).
Before its success, it used to have a joined ventures with some other races held in Australia
like the Tasman series or the Australian Drivers series. Since 1996 till now this is held in
Melbourne Grand Prix circuit at Albert Park, winners of the race are presented with a round
trophy named as Jack Brabham and Lex Davison Trophies (Fairley, Tyler, Kellett & D’Elia,
2011). There are many talented drivers who represents their skills but certain famous winners
are Lex Davison and Michael Schumacher. Nowadays, Australian Grand Prix is considered
as the first race of F1 world championship and also sponsored by Swiss Watchmaker Rolex
(Fairley, Tyler, Kellett & D’Elia, 2011).
History
This event is counted among one of the very old races held near Sydney in 1927. Begin as
100 miles road race on a small area of Phillips Island, during that time it used to have
rectangular road field only without any new addition to it also all the machines for cars and
constructor were brought from Europe (Cairns, 2014). After these initial successful years of
Grand Prix it was gone into a phase of war and country was involved in World War II,
immediate after war era all the Pre-owned cars and race field were reconstructed again and
was again in use. Lex Davison took race to a higher level by introducing many big expensive

formulae for this and bought many trophies for Grand Prix. The top Europeans formula team
come up to competition and also very famous Tasman formula was responsible to bring back
grand prix to other higher level of achievement and finally, it returned to power(Cairns,
2014).
Under the assessment of this organisation, we will cover organizational theory and research
over it taking further goals and structure of Grand Prix, their strategic alliances and more
among this applying the observation with critical theory.
Is Australian Grand Prix a sport organization:
About Australian Grand Prix organisational theory if we take this into count, Grand Prix
comes under a sports organisation or not? Looking at its working, motor race is considered as
a sport or not depends on the people what they think most people think sports are the one who
take physical efforts so they believe auto racing isn't a "real" sport but according as per view
auto racing requires a great deal of physical effort and risk is also involved, even if drivers
“only” turn a steering wheel and push pedals (Cairns, 2014). Drivers sitting in a race car
sweat up to 4kg of their weight which is equivalent to athletes running over the field. The
famous formula1 Racer Ernest Hemingway valued motor racing as one of the most extreme
sports on the planet, even there heart beats goes up to the dangerous level of breathing,
therefore driving a formula 1 car exerts stress on driver (Sanderson, 2016). After countering
such points it concludes that racing is equally important as a sport and it is considered one.
Therefore, the entire organisation related to car racing is sports organisation as Australian
Grand Prix is one of them.

Uniqueness and features of sports industries
Now, if we see sports industry and their organisation in all, then there are many features of
sports which require a proper management and techniques, such features are made by the
audience who enjoys and have passion towards their team, athletes or competitions
(Sanderson, 2016). Sports and their industry has many features added to it, therefore ‘Smith
and Stewart' has stated 10 unique features about sports organisations some of them listed are
 Competitive balance keeps a proper balance between club and teams to secure the
market value and other competitors to keep fans interest towards their organisation.
 Sports products are main important to keep it attractive to their audience and also
people are interested towards it.
 High brand loyalty as sports are their organisation is funded by many of the brands
and this makes them unique in themselves.
 Provide different behaviour among the people like supporting their favourite players
on the field, wearing their favourite team's t-shirts or purchasing the products signed
by the players etc (Blomme & Bornebroek‐Te Lintelo, 2012).
 After a bad loss the championship goes on and players are always boosted to get
ready for next win.
 Agrees with the fact of being with new technologies regarding sports science and not
follow the old science.
 Limited availability as in other organisation production can be increased by public
demand but in this, it has been the same method, same field, same sport.
After going through all these uniqueness Australian Grand Prix is not much affected
by this. As they follow all the features without affecting their audience and funding of
racers, Just on the part of being more constructive AGP has to work more on their

cars, fields and all other destructions occur during the race (Blomme & Bornebroek‐
Te Lintelo, 2012).
Difference between Organizational Theory and Behaviour
Organizational theory and also organizational behaviour have a deep connection, as theory
mainly looks after working and management and how it works and also their unique
characteristics. On another hand; behaviour comes under public interaction looking for cause
and effect (Niczyporuk, 2016). Taking this in mind theory has to maintain a proper loop
between their staff for proper and smooth working as in one sport organisations there are
many working hands of their different specialised field having different ideas and practise,
also have influence over each other, So to maintain it, observes all norms and values of
organisation and resume working, similar to this finding a right structure for organisation for
better functioning and mechanism and for further innovation and creativity (Francescato &
Aber, 2015). Therefore taking these two part as difference among each other one look after
the favourable time for further successful innovation and idea and other look after relation
between staff for maintenance, if we talk about AGP on this perspective as a result of these
theories AGP is quite successful over their better quality staff as well as qualified for the
same.
Critical Thinking
At the workplace of any organisation helps in good judgement skills, problem-solving,
analysis, job performance, creativity, and knowledge therefore at a workplace these qualities

are required for better performance and quality of same. Research has found that a better
running organisation of any of the fields for their job success (Francescato & Aber, 2015).
Goals of AGP
Goals of sports organisation are all similar which lead them to become successful
organisation are as follows
 Ensuring better quality in sporting opportunities irrespective of other Australian sports
organisations.
 To promote AGP worldwide by offering many events interstate as well as inter
countries to national level racing experience.
 To secure AGP’s place as Formula 1 race even after 2023 and making it a super hit
show.
 To raise the profile of all the racers of AGP by giving better international training
experience.
 Increase greater visibility to online media and information services, by making it
reach to different untouchable parts.
 Recognition as one of the top sports organisation to conduct formula 1 race
experience among others.
 Increasing fund by getting sponsors and making it a public affair and having high
financial supporters.
 Increasing membership of organisation by making open for all and keeping limited
eligibility.
 Increasing governmental interest and legislation towards the success of an
organisation.

These goals are very important for AGP to be on top always as considering racing nowadays
this has become one of the very popular sports among all especially in Australia. Also there
are many small clubs who joined other big names of racing from other countries so make it
strong in its own country. AGP has to encounter these goals and work for them for better
years and growth of AGP in future coming years. For implementing such goals AGP is to
begin with a big name of marketing and campaigning by a group of trained personnel of the
same field (Niczyporuk, 2016).
Effectiveness and efficiency of Australian Grand Prix
It is very common for organisation to set up their common goals, it can be done with
consideration of others and compete these goals is always a good idea it can just result into
lack of coordination because of which this can just lead to a very bad outcome in ways all
people of the same organisation if runs in different directions with different opinion
(Niczyporuk, 2016). For example, in AGP if one of their racers is not well prepared and
trained and he is fresher for a 50 lap race but he is sent to one of that and in competing for his
goals, he met with an accident and injures himself even organisation has to pay off the loss
which occurred because of this. Therefore, goals are made to compete but according to
certain levels of each stage (Sawyer, 2016). When discussed about effectiveness and
efficiency of organisation's goals one should be familiar with the meanings of both the words
 Effective -it means ready to bring out purpose, producing an unexpected result.
 Efficient – producing best results without wasting time and effort.
Organisational effectiveness is measured by relation between employee performance and
company profits to relate this to working with organisation. There is no specific math formula
for measuring effectiveness of organisation, each one have their own parameters to measure
also it helps in bearing loss likewise. Organisational efficiency look after funding that how

well organisation uses their money basically this is based on the relationship between
fundraisers and its expenditures and helps in increasing profits through its debts and equity
(Sawyer, 2016). If we see measures of both the effectiveness have measures like - Testable,
Time dependency, Quantitative therefore on the other hand if we see efficiency and their
measures Performance, Simple, Complete likewise taking these points into consideration
AGP have to work on their effectiveness for their organisation to run it successfully for a
long way and for a longer time (M. Proulx, 2012).
Complexity of organization structure
Organizational Complexity is basically the amount of all the resources involved in its team,
system, department, and project, full functioning of these resources of organisational.
Therefore to keep these away from complexity organisation have to use some methods to
overcome all of that one has to measure the level of complexity of their organisation, some of
the measures to look after AGP's complexity are
 A number of people required for a particular work and how many are involved for the
same for example at the time of race if 4 people are required for changing wheel but
10 are appointed for same then this may cause complex structure (M. Proulx, 2012).
 Activities mean the number of process and steps you need to follow up the work
should be accurate and not the delayed one.
 The number of data required to a considered process which results in a good decision.
 A number of parts required in racing cars and for their maintenance.
 A number of employee’s roles in the organisation for different fieldwork and
speciality (SUGARMAN, 2017).
Analysis of complexity

These are the main points to analyse the complexity of organisation which makes their
working complex and full of difficulties but there is some method to overcome it like taking
four key main points are-
 Get aligned- make awareness of understanding good and bad for the organisation and
not for the single individual but for all because profit and loss both are equivalent to
all.
 Get aware- to make it aware of the outside world about our actions and what we
deliver and also our strength and weakness.
 Get smart – to learn all new technologies and their implementation to support
effective thinking and performance.
 Get results- after mapping of goals and aims to measure your objective and work for
the same (Scott, 2015).
It is well said by one of the famous scholars; till you know your weakness and loops you can't
work to overcome and solve it, therefore, the solution always comes when you break your
problems into chunks and solving each part with simplicity and extra care (Whiteside, Yu &
Hardin, 2012).
Trade-offs
When we have many desires our life but we are in position to buy according to the spending
capacity of ours earning then we use the method of trade of this when we buy the things
which are more important than the other which are lesser then this so we put thought in every
purchase according to our bank account which does not fulfil our satisfaction. So like this
making purchase of one item we trade off another one therefore, if we apply this theory in
organisation working then trade-off is explained opportunity cost this leads to sacrifice one
product to buy and invest on other (Falk & Zhao, 2010). This can be done in either of the

ones by cost or benefit, if we apply this in functioning of AGP organisation uses trade off as
the main process to maintain funding of organisation. Like if it is done on the basis of cost
then the first one has to make list of requirements of the organisation further separating them
into two where one is urgent buying and other is not, after comparing products by this they
trade off less important product and shift it to later purchase and buy things which will give
more benefit on early buying (Falk & Zhao, 2010). So using benefit as the trade-off is more
beneficial.
Organizational Design
Organizational designs give shaping to the company and their employees in a proper
structure, on early starting of organisation one can skip forming their structure but once it
grows they need better efficiency and accountability. By this it results in better resources and
communication, these designs are made in different ways and are of different types like the
functional design, customer, matrix and strategic business, taking a deep look over this
 Functional design- this basically designed for all the basic functions of an
organisation like hiring up a manager for managing accounts, resources etc later
manager appoints there analyst and coordinators, therefore, they work together to
meet market strategies.
 Customer design- the objective of this is to position employee according to
department best for customer services (Whiteside, Yu & Hardin, 2012).
 Matrix- this mixture of two different structures like a company works after looking at
the demands of customer likewise according to reference for business.
 Strategic business- this is when organisation form different profit and loss centres for
their team and looking at their balance team managers work for their team (Whiteside,
Yu & Hardin, 2012).

If I have to choose an organizational design for AGP it would be customer design as
AGP’s important part is their audience as the sports mainly designed by the audience. For
any of the sport main key points is an advertisement of the event held which can make
popular only by gaining audience and making it public and famous. So it should mainly
design according to working of audience and public for better publicity (Niczyporuk,
2016).
Strategic management
Now the other key important is the strategic management of an organization, there are
different levels and types of strategic management if the company has many competitors
in his business or into the same sports then for a successful running each has to plan some
strategies to run it (van Knippenberg, 2011). As we see different authors have given many
types of strategies and their level but by summing them up we conclude with three of
main strategic levels of organisation and they cooperate strategy, business strategy, and
functional strategy therefore by briefly knowing them cooperate strategy is established at
the highest level of organisation and defines what business is all about and how it works
for results (van Knippenberg, 2011). It involves long-term results and focuses on
resources. Next is a business strategy which says how the business will attempt to achieve
its mission, it also includes scope and management of the organisation and at what level it
will achieve and maintain, third is functional strategy this focuses both cooperate and
business strategy and look after all marketing, personnel, funding, and management. Now
the application of these strategies is done first by looking at some factors like by looking
at the old performance of the organisation, looking at resources, environment settings,
competitions of present performance and third forecasting future (van Knippenberg,
2014).

Different levels of strategy
Strategy may work at different level of an organisation- business level, functional level or
corporate level and strategy of organisation also changes according to different level,
corporate level strategy works at the highest level of decision making and covers working
on objective of organisation at this level the decision tends to be more value-oriented and
conceptual as compare to another level. Business level strategy is when organisation has
two different businesses and treated as business unit also requires different strategy to
different product. Thirdly functional level strategy relates to single functional level
strategy also provides strategy to specific function (Jamshidi, Doostipasha, Razavi &
Gudarzi, 2018). Therefore, for AGP corporate level strategy will suit as this will help
AGP in strengthening their objective of the organisation also, this will help in allocation
and acquisition of resources. This sports organisation needs a proper decision-making
method to be followed; also it will coordinate other business strategies.
Blue ocean strategy
This is about a market where there is no competition for the product or very less
competition (Day, 2012). This theory revolves in searching all those businesses which
have fewer firms operating and there is no pricing pressure and creates new consumers
with decreasing cost, in this competition is irrelevant but believe in capturing their own
blue ocean (Adamsen, 2014).
Platform strategy
This is an approach to enter in a market which revolves around the task of platform
participants in this customer can choose to pay for services independently (Adamsen,
2014). This is something which lifts you up and others stand and rely on you, therefore,

the main characteristics are to ‘plug n play'. Platform strategy is considered for the AGP
as this will help in succeeding, as platform requires three main fold of success that are
connection, gravity, and flow (Day, 2012). Connection means how easily one can connect
to platform and share, gravity means how well consumers and producers connect each
other and flow means hoe well exchange of value takes place.
Three goals of platform theory useful for AGP-
1. The toolbox- creates connection and makes easy for others to plug into a platform
like AGP works for the connection with their audience and sponsors to make a leg
for the racer and funding out money. For example, Wikipedia provides writers to
collaborate on an article (Loop, 2016).
2. The magnet – attracts participants to platform with social media. Both consumer
and producer should be present to achieve critical mass. For example, Apple needs
to attract both developers and users.
3. The matchmaker – fosters the floe with a connection between consumer and
producer both it captures data about participants and pull the data towards
consumer and producer, for example, Google matches the supply and demand of
online content (Loop, 2016).
For new product development first the organisation has to look after Weather they want
something new to the world product or some brand new innovation to the existing product
if we consider this AGP I don’t think they need more products or any alteration for any
innovation or any new product, AGP is already full with their sufficient resources of
organisation (Buehler & Nufer, 2014).
Competitive advantage