Sports Management Case Study: Leadership and Human Resource

This case study examines sports management through two distinct scenarios: the NCAA and Manchester United. The analysis delves into human resource management practices, focusing on recruitment, student-athlete development, and the differences between collegiate and professional sports programs within the NCAA. It also explores the NCAA's operational scope, including media rights and administrative structures. The second case study centers on Manchester United, investigating the role of human resource management in club operations, particularly in relation to brand value and global fan base. It analyzes the impact of managers and coaches on team performance, public performance appraisals, and various performance evaluation criteria. The study also discusses the concepts of absolute and relative performance evaluations, and the assignment of responsibility for team performance, as illustrated by the case of David Moyes at Manchester United. The document provides insights into leadership, HR, and performance measurement within the sports industry.

Running Head: SPORTS MANAGEMENT 0
Sports Management

SPORTS MANAGEMENT 1
Table of Contents
Case Study 1...............................................................................................................................8
Answer to Question 1.............................................................................................................8
Answer to Question 2.............................................................................................................8
Answer to question 3..............................................................................................................9
Answer to question 4..............................................................................................................9
Case study 2.............................................................................................................................10
Answer to question 1............................................................................................................10
Answer to question 2............................................................................................................10
Answer to Question 3...........................................................................................................10
Answer to Question 4...........................................................................................................11
Answer to Question 5...........................................................................................................12
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................13

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Case Study 1
Answer to Question 1
The NCAA has a great scope in operations and human resource management. NCAA was
involved in certain activities like supporting young athletes and removing the danger of the
exploitative practices. Moreover NCAA also carries media rights and television sources
which almost comprises of 92% of the total revenue. The main activities also included
monitoring of the performance of the colleges, contracts with the professional teams, receive
benefits from the agents and to keep an outlook of the same the NCAA has gained a large
administrative cell which included 362 active members in 1950 and by the time it was 2015
the members increased to 1062. Basically human resource and sales are not so different. The
sale activities involve television and media rights which ultimately showcase the
advertisement of hiring and recruitment activities. So this way the activities are interlinked
(NCAA, 2018).
Answer to Question 2
The NCAA focuses its operations and activities on certain activities of human resource
management. These are rules related to the recruitment of the student athletes. The students
are provided with the training and skill development practices and compensations if any. It
promotes the amateur students seeking to play for different divisions. The particular focus is
on the credentials of the students to ensure the integrity among the students of the colleges
and with different universities. The entire focus relies on the students because ultimately they
will win the prize money for the college, the goodwill will increase and more members of
students will join the association.

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Answer to question 3
The human resource management programme of the college or a university sport program is
entirely different from the professional l sport teams and franchises. Individual member
institutions are not highly facilitated financially when playing at the college of university
level, whereas the professional teams are given ample amount of opportunities as well as
facilities which includes basic requirements of staying at a place. The scholarships are
awarded by the colleges or universities but that is not sufficient in terms of the facilities
provided to the professional teams. The teams get recognition along with different
opportunities to play within as well as outside the country. The training shall be provided to
the universities to enhance their skills and abilities so that they can also taste the bite of the
national exposure to deliver their competence.
Answer to question 4
The NCAA’s eligibility centre belongs to basically hiring and recruitment phase. It has two
divisions broadly categorised as phase I and phase II. In phase I the student athlete needs to
meet certain requirements which involve graduation, required grade point average and a
qualifying score on admission test. The NCAA has different perspectives in comparison to its
individual institutions. The NCAA as a whole organisation focuses on activities like contracts
with the professional teams to give exposure to young athletes, benefits received form agents
and creating a financial provision for assisting the sporting skills. Whereas, the individual
institutions focus on competing with each other in various sports like basketball, football,
volleyball, score, lacrosse, baseball and many more. They focus on giving the scholarships
and motivation to the students to perform better.

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Case study 2
Answer to question 1
Human resource management in clubs are special and related to non-sport business
operations keeping in mind the brand value and global fan base such as in case of Manchester
United. The number of matches coached by Sir Alex Ferguson led to a winning list of 894
matches amongst 1498 games. This happened because of the trust factor involved and the
performance that escalated from the period of 1986 to 2013. There are qualitative factors
which also determine the strong human resource management operations. The managers play
a pivotal role in determining the team performance and skills. The training facilities provided
by the United are also one of the ways that illustrates the sound management system (Hoye,
et al 2012)
Answer to question 2.
Public performance appraisal of coaches and managers in professional sporting leagues is a
kind of a social message that determines the ability of the team and the support that creates
the huge confidence level. These similar kind of performance appraisals are also conducted
when they are endorsing any product or acts as a brand ambassador. This determines how
well the product or any service is facilitating the general customers and it will attract large
amass (United, 2018).
Answer to Question 3.
Performance appraisal of managers in professional leagues are based on the number of
matches played by the team under their supervision, on the basis of the proper execution of
revenue budgets prepared, the performance of overall team is taken into account and
collaborative efforts are also given preferences. Different stakeholders can have different
performance criteria for a coach or a manager. At times work ethics plays an important role

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along with the integrity of the person. For others the expectancy to win the game can also be
one of the criteria. Further, the rank of the team in the League table decides the efficiency of
the coaches and managers.
Answer to Question 4.
The case illustrates about absolute and relative performance evaluations which are important
for the organisations. The absolute determines the success of the team at the end of a
particular period or on the basis of the absolute standard, on the other hand the relative
performance of the team is based on a “relative standard”, the performance of the team, the
efforts of the managers and coach against the standard benchmark. The expectations also play
an important role in determining the success of the team. In non-sport organisations also the
performance is based on both the measures (Guardian, 2018).

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Answer to Question 5.
The case study refers to Moyes’s ‘complete responsibility’ for the performance of the club. It
was a forceful act opted by the organisation indirectly. Earlier it was reported in the media
that Moyes was the personal choice for the job by Ferguson and that the recommendation was
unanimously accepted by the Board of Directors of Manchester United. By mid-April 2014
United’s position went to 7th position on the League table, with 17 wins, 6 draws and 11
losses among 34 games. The whole and sole responsibility of loss was transferred onto
Moyes which was not reasonable because a success of the team depends upon the
collaborative efforts of the entire organisation and not just on the basis of the efforts the
coach makes.

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Bibliography
Guardian, T., 2018. The Guardian. [Online] Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/international
Hoye, R., Smith, A. C., Nichoalson, M. & Stewart, B., 2012. Sport Management: Principles
and Applications. California: Routledge.
NCAA, 2018. Want to play college sports. [Online] Available at:
https://web3.ncaa.org/ecwr3/
United, M., 2018. Manchester United. [Online] Available at:
http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features.aspx?
utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Search&utm_campaign=ManUtd.com&utm_content=17
18MUWebCampaign&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImMjRuobk2gIVGyQrCh13tgKWEAAYASAA
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