1.

Describe Coach Knights leadership style. Was it effective or not why?

To understand what kind of leadership style Knight owns, we can find some clues from a conversation between Knight and his important mentor, Joe Lapchick. Lapchick asked him, How important is it to you that people like you? Knight responded, Id like to be respected as a coach, but Im not concerned about being like. Although Knight is viewed as a great coach in the history, he is also a coach full of controversies. What he cared is the victory of his basketball team and he can do anything, even it is inappropriate to express his desire to win. First, applying previously simple studies, Knight belongs to Job Centered in the Michigan study and belongs to initiating structure in the Ohio State study. Both these dimensions refer a leader who focuses on tasks rather than people, the subordinates. Second, in Fielders contingency model of leadership effectiveness, I suggest Knight is in situation . Obviously, Knight is a task-oriented leader (low LPC) in a favorable situation since he controlled everything in IU basketball program. Besides, he had strong leader position power and a basketball team he worked in should be an environment of structured tasks. Knights outstanding accomplishment can be a proof to conclude that he is an effective leader. Third, when it comes to more recent studies, how Knight led makes him more a transaction leader. He demonstrated active management-by-exception behavior to punish those who do not perform up to the standards. For example, he let star players stayed in the bench if they did not work hard and he grabbed players by the necks to show his unsatisfying with his players. However, to some extent, Knight also behaved like a transformational leader. He clearly spread the mission of the basketball team and asked players to place interests of the team before their own interests but how he motivated people makes him closer to transactional leadership.

Knight loved to compete, pursued perfect games, and expected his players absolute best because he desired to win. Knights assumptions about what motivates people are self-actualization need of Hierarchy of Needs Theory and need for achievementt. He tried his best to fulfill and maximize the potential. He adopted the same concept and requested his team to accept it and do the best they can. Remember Knights top discipline: doing what you have to do, and doing it as well as you possibly can, and doing it the way all the time.

Knights assumption about human nature is theory X from Douglas McGregor. Knight explained that players would only do what a coach asks them to. If a coach can tolerate mistakes, then, same attitude we would see on the players. Thus, he assumed that normal people are lack of responsibility and ambitious to pursue perfect games.

Knight himself is motivated by self-actualization and he wants his team can think in the same way as he does. Besides, he believed human nature is lazy, so if Knight intended to make lazy people

work hard and place self achievements on top of everything, he must push players really hard. His motivational toolkit is filled with tough drill and insulting verbal barbs. He is an extremely directive leader without having interests in keeping good relationship with people, since Knight assumes that focusing on tasks is the most efficient way to lead a team to victory.

2:

What solutions alternatives are made for the problems in case?

Back to 2003, I did my intern in Carrefour which is the second largest retailing store in the world. I worked in the Customer Service Department. My job is to be the bridge between customers and stores. I had to visit stores regularly to pretend I was a consumer or do the survey of customers to see if there is anything we can improve. To clearly express my observations to managerial level, I was required to turn in a formal report once a week. In the beginning, I thought my job is not as important as I expected before I accepted this internship. Plus, my job was not monitored personally since I was always in different stores. In this way, I worked passively in my daily tasks and this attitude directly affected the output of my weekly report. After three weeks, I got a call from the supervisor. She said she would like to join me to visit the store next time. I felt nervous for that coming day because I almost did nothing in past three weeks. At 9am, I arrived in the store and she was already there. She told me she wanted to make sure each corner in or around the store was checked and that preparation was also the key to create a fantastic shopping environment and satisfy customers. On the day, she was very attentive to help the customers she met and played an active role to talk to customers who seemed to be unhappy. She ended with a three pages evaluation form in that day. On the way back to the office, she told me that customer service may not be the department always under the spot light, however what we did was to connect with consumers most closely. This was the fifth year since she joined Carrefour and she was fulfilled to see each store improved itself every moment. She said she knew what she recorded today will become valuable opinions for the entire company and became the force that keeps the organization moving forward. I can feel that she was proud of his job.

After that day, I arrived in stores a half hour earlier, greeted customers attentively, and tried my best to figure out the potential problems causing people uncomfortable. Although I was merely an intern, I still can contribute myself in these eight weeks. The words and the behaviors of that supervisor motivated me successfully. I would conclude that she reminded me the need of achievement. People always have their own achievement to reach all the time, but sometimes we tend to forget or ignore it. The supervisor simply reminded me, Dont waste your time idling here in such a beautiful summer! In fact, I did feel happier while working after that meaningful day. A successful motivation can change the way you behave and think.