The Sports Industry and Strategic Choices
The sports industry, as an institution, has its own structures and cultures that direct the everyday activities of individual clubs to produce excellent performance. As a result, the management must make numerous strategic choices in order to fulfill the organization's goals. The first action in the Essendon case is the appointment of James Hird as the club's new head coach and Dank as the sports scientist on Robinson's advice as a result of the club's shortcomings under the prior direction of another trainer, who was let go before the end of his contract. Therefore, this first decision by the management forms the foundation of the doping saga through use of outlawed supplements, without the knowledge of most of the high-ranking managerial staff.
Steven Dank
The employment of Dank as the sports scientist of the Essendon football club is to head the supplements program which aims at increasing performance. The individual is hired through recommendations by Robinson who also becomes the coach for the fulfilment of the team. The rationale behind these changes according to the club management and findings on the failures of the team is that the team is lagging behind in the utilization of supplements which improve the recovery time of the players in the field. However, there is no review of the nature of the contract to the individual which ignores the policy framework and culture of the organization. For instance, Dank makes the decisions on the nature of the supplements such as AOD-9604 and the thymosin beta-4 variety which is later discovered to be illegal later after the tests on the 34 players injected. Secondly, the individual fails to consult the sports doctor who is critical to the team’s wellness yet when the person raises concern on the same, evidence suggests the program continues secretly. Also, despite warning from the management to stop the supplements program, Dank only reduces the usage of the same but continues, however, to seek the same from other pharmacists and sports scientists. Another critical decision and action by Dank are to misguide the players to sign consent forms with only a drug with uncertainty on the legality of usage yet the administered drugs are different and illegal. Most of the players, therefore, agree to the program on the knowledge of it is an approved supplement only later to realize it is not.
The rationale behind the actions by Dank is to ensure that the supplements enable the team to have a high performance which is evident in the strong results while running the program and poor outcomes when it stops. Besides, the vision is a strong culture of the foundation indicating that the team will do what it takes to be a winner. The weight of the statement after the doping saga leads to the removing of the banners with the vision since its implication could mean the management knows the use of the illegal supplements to make the players perform highly in the Australian Rules football league. Ideally, if the management has the same thinking after exposure, then Dank could have thought the same way and used his position to achieve the results. Though from an individualistic perspective Dank has to be aware of the legality of the supplements, the lack of clear communication channels and contractual agreement on the demands of the job could lead to the nature of actions by the person. Also, the need to coordinate with other departments for the success of the organization can lead to actions such as lack of consultation with the clubs doctor Reid, as well as reporting to the management on the nature of supplements injected to the players.
The responsibility of Dank for his actions reveals that another previous club under investigation by ASADA links him to illegal use of substances hence handed a lifetime ban as a sports scientist. However, the fault is not entirely Dank’s since the sports industry is an institution. Despite a resignation by some of the management staff such as the CEO and Hird later, the authors of the institutional theory posit that the organization has to have clear structures, policies, and guidelines of the code of conduct by all the employees. The practices and norms, therefore, form part of the culture of the institution and responsible for guiding the actions of the employees. In this case, the management of Essendon did not only fail to specify the role of Dank in the team but also lacks monitoring and evaluations of the club’s process. As a result, some of the actions by the employees such as Dank are not able to be realized in time despite the warnings from Doctor Reid. Besides, the confirmation of the process to employ the individual, without proper interrogation of the procedures, reveals that the culture of the organization allows it room to break rules of staffing. Additionally, the reason for hiring a sports science and performance coach in the first place is to improve its position to attract more support base hence successful. The league of the Australian football also allows the use of supplements that are within the limits of the law and doping agencies. Lack of inspection on which type of supplements a club is using, or proper documentation of the same put the club management also in the same sport as Dank as both have a liability to the doping scandal at the club.
James Hird
As the head coach and manager of the team, some of the decision by Hird also contributed to the escalation of the scandal leading to the resignation as a way to allow space for improvement of the club, after the legal troubles. The role of Hird logically demands that he interacts with the players in the training and performance sessions to ensure that they are fit and ready for next game. Also, the person is responsible for ensuring all the departments involved in the preparations of players are doing their work right. However, the person fails to take actions after the team Doctor warns of the nature and consequences of the supplement substances administered by Dank. Instead, they take it up as an issue of failed liaison for accountability purposes and instruct Dank to report to Reid the next time. Subsequent activities seem to keep Reid out of the program. Also, the individual fails to monitor the fitness of the players leading to lack of knowledge of the use of illegal substance injection performance.
The reasons behind such actions for Hird could be that the individual concentrated on the fulfillment of the club through enhancing the supplements program under the guidance of Dank and Robinson. Also, the high results could make the club attractive which also translates to not only security of job but the advancement of Hird’s Career. However, this strategy could contribute substantially to his failure to coordinate with other team members in the management of the team such as the doctor and sports scientist to drive the agenda as an entity. According to the scholars of the organizational culture, the functionalist perspective requires that the different functions and roles within an institution should complement each other to achieve a common objective. Therefore, there is need to communicate with the team players, the coaching bench, the supplement program officials as we as the executive. Lack of focusing on these aspects can lead to failures due to actions that are driven by self-interest, such as the case for Hird.
As a way to accept responsibility for the actions and decisions, Hird accepted a twelve-month suspension from active coaching, lack of salary in one year, dropping a legal suit against AFL and ASADA, and eventually resigning from the coach of Essendon club. However, the primary reason for the acceptance is due to the renegotiating of the extent of punishment for liability in the case by AFL and ASADA. In regards to the team, there is the need for the person to gain a competitive advantage and campaign for support after the suspension of participating in the league ended. According to Hird, he has a role to play in redeeming the image of the club, restructuring its leadership, as well as training and development of the players. The element of stakeholder management gives insight into the use of institutional theory in regards to the structures and rules of not only Essendon as a club but as participation in the AFL league. If the environment is not favorable for growth in future then executive succession is necessary hence the resignation of Hird. The significance of the new managers means alteration of the flexible culture in the team, new strategies, and a new image that can restore hope in fans of Essendon for its leadership to success and high performance.
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