Athletic Training Management

Where do you want to work? • Corporate culture is rarely studied in athletic training programs. • An overwhelming majority of students claim to want to work in a democratic environment. • Yet, when given an instrument assessing their belief structure the overwhelming majority are closer to authoritarian.

Administration, Leadership & Management • Administration is a broader term, encompassing both policies and procedures. • Leadership encompasses behavioral issues. • Management is the use of specific policies to accomplish goals.

Scientific Management • Frederick Taylor • Developed in 1911 • One correct way to do a task • Teach all workers that way • Workers selected for their ability to follow orders regardless of circumstances • Result was production at the expense of dehumanizing the workers.

Scientific Management • If Taylor had been an ATC he would have assessed all possible methods for taping an ankle, selected the one best method, and made everyone use only that method. • If a worker (ATC) utilized a different method, he/she would be replaced with someone who would do the right one.

Scientific Management • Overall assumption is that once the worker understood the financial incentive, then his/her work output would increase. • Taylor was the original efficiency expert, know for his reliance on quantitative performance evaluation.

Human Relations Management • Mary Parker Follett was the first major proponent. • She believed that the people in control of something should work directly with those above and below them, rather than working only with their peer group.

Human Relations Management • Managers must interact at the beginning of planning, not only at the end. • Planning departments must continually reevaluate circumstances, allowing both workers and management input. • Failed because it still believed money the only motivator.

Mayo and the Hawthorne Studies • The data supporting Follett came from the Hawthorne Studies conducted by Elton Mayo from Harvard. • Done at the Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne assembly plant in Cicero, Illinois. • In the first study after an initial consultation with the workers, the illumination was changed.

Mayo, continued • When the lighting was increased, productivity increased which was expected. • When the lighting was DECREASED, productivity INCREASED which was NOT expected. • Equally unexpected was an increase in the control group, even though no change in lighting was done.

Mayo, continued • Other studies changing the number of hours worked per day, number of days worked per week, rest periods, etc. also found increases in productivity. • Workers perceived that they were important to management. • Established that consideration for workers was clearly in management’s best interest.

Mayo, concluded • These studies also gave rise to the term ‘placebo effect’ in that the control group also had increases in productivity. Apparently the knowledge that they were in the study was enough to motivate them to improve. As a result most research today is “blind” or “double blind.”

Leadership Studies • Iowa studies • Tested 3 types of leaders • Autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire • Results showed the subjects preferred democratic leaders, but also preferred laissez-faire to autocratic. • Under autocratic leaders, production was highest when they were present, but dropped significantly when they were absent.

Leadership Studies • The laissez-faire style actually showed an increase when the manager left the room. • The democratic style had the highest productivity that remained constant whether managers were present or not.

Leadership Studies • Ohio State studies • Two dimensions of leadership • Initiating structure • Task and goal oriented objective • Consideration • Concern with personal relationships and is related to factors such as trust, warmth, respect, and friendship

Leadership Studies • University of Michigan studies • Two dimensions • Employee oriented • Production oriented • Supervisors in the highest rated departments gave general orders rather than close supervision and allowed the employees considerable latitude.

Behavioral Science • Chester Barnard • Redefined ‘effectiveness’ and ‘efficiency’. • Effectiveness referred to accomplishing objectives. • Efficiency referred to satisfying individual motives and maintaining morale. • Money is only a part of a complex mixture of variables providing incentive.

Barnard, cont • Barnard also devised the ‘zone of indifference’. • Some things are clearly acceptable to the workers. Those are in the zone of acceptance. • Some things are clearly unacceptable at any time. These are in the zone of rejection.

Barnard, cont • The overwhelming majority of assigned tasks are either barely acceptable or barely unacceptable. • These are in the ‘zone of indifference’. • Workers need direction to accomplish all of the above.

Barnard, concluded • When combined with Barnard’s concepts of effectiveness and efficiency, it is apparent that the ability to administer is conferred from below at the lowest levels, not decreed from above.

Contemporary Management • McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y • Theory X • resembles Taylor • Average person has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if possible • Most people need to be coerced, controlled, directed, and threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort

Contemporary, cont • The average person prefers to be directed and wishes to avoid responsibility • Theory Y • Resembles Mary Parker Follett • Expending physical and mental effort is as natural as play or rest • External control and threats are not the only way to make employees work to organizational objectives

Contemporary, cont • People will work to objectives they believe in • Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards gained • Average person learns to seek and accept responsibility • Imagination, creativity, and ingenuity are widely distributed through the population • Under modern conditions, intellectual potential is only partially used

Management by Objectives • Initially management creates global objectives • These are given to supervisors who pass them down to departments where the department supervisors work with the workers to come up with verifiable objectives to meet the goals.

MBO, cont • Data tend to be quantitative rather than qualitative • Biggest weakness is that MBO can be undermined at any level by a person who does not believe. • Deming argued that setting specific objectives encouraged working to rewards rather than quality

Managerial Grid • Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid • Derived from OSU leadership studies • Grid is a 1-9 scale with concern for production on the x-axis and concern for people on the Y-axis

Managerial Grid

Human Resources Management • In the 1970s it was realized that of human resources, capital resources, and physical resources, only human resources can synthesize , that is produce an output greater than the sum of the inputs • Specialists in HR use diagnostic tools to assess conditions, set objectives, and evaluate the results

HR, cont • Conditions are assessed in three areas: • Economic • International, governmental, and union • Organizational • Nature of organization, plans, and finances • Characteristics of employees • Attitudes, experience, wages, and performance levels

HR, cont • Management activities include • Staffing • Training and development • Compensation • Employee or union relations

Total Quality Management • TQM is a collection of roles and practices that strive to meet or exceed the needs of the “customer” in an on-going planned system. • Who the customer is varies with the practice. • Ultimately the consumer is the customer, however, the athletic trainer is also a customer when considering the equipment and supplies used to deliver services.

TQM, cont • Instead of the hierarchical, control-focused, autocratic, capital-based organization comes a knowledge-based system utilizing networks, self-managed teams, and cross-functional employment. Closing the gap requires empowerment of all levels.

TQM, cont • The most important theorist is W. Edwards Deming, an MIT researcher who was hired by the US government to rebuild Japanese industry in the aftermath World War II. So-called “Japanese management” is really Deming management. In fact the Japanese government annually gives the “Deming Prize” for quality in business.

TQM, cont • Deming did not believe in dividing work between workers and management. He felt this removed labor from responsibility for the quality of the work. Quality then became the work of inspectors and those producing too many scrap pieces were fired.

TQM, cont • Concept is that if better is possible, then good is never enough. • This led to Dr. Deming’s fourteen points which are for industrial settings, but can be modified to fit health career settings.

TQM, cont • Another theorist was Philip Crosby who developed a quality standard he called “zero defects.” Crosby defined quality as conforming to requirements, the system of quality prevents problems, the standard against which everything is measured as zero defects and the cost of quality as the price of nonconformance.

Quality Circles • This is a group of supervisors and workers getting together to solve problems. • Work fine in theory. • Dr. Deming believed they were often formed by management for employee involvement, employee participation, and quality of life. They failed because after all the talking, no one took action.

Situational Leadership • Hersey and Blanchard took elements from the OSU and U Mich studies to formulate a new model. • AS Barnard looked at “zone of indifference” this model looks at the responses of the followers.

Situational Leadership • Stages of follower readiness: • Being both unwilling and unable to do the job • Being unable but willing to do the job • Being unwilling but able to do the job • Being both willing and able to do the job

Situational Leadership • Due to lack of research support this was modified to: • Directing • Coaching • Supporting • Delegating

Conclusion • Carouthers stated: “Managerial leadership consists of continuously knowing what is currently of value to customers, discovering what will be of increased value to the customers of its products/services, and creating, providing, and continuously improving strategic organizational suprasystems which, when used by the organizational members, ensure the creation of value for the customers of its products/services.”

Athletic Training Management