New York Yankees Essay

Ever since they became an official organization in 1903, the New York Yankees have established themselves as one of the world’s top sport organizations. As a Major League Baseball team, they have historically achieved the ultimate goal of winning the World Series and have gained fans and profit in the process. With thirty-one different managers, the Yankees have won a total of twenty-six World Series and have built a fan base across the globe (â€Å"New†, 2008). Nowadays, the organization even makes yearly revenue close to 300 million dollars (Cohen, 2007). I chose this organization because I believe that their structure and management style is the definition of success. I will apply most of the methods and concepts from the book and from class to the Yankees, and I will discuss why I consider them to be one of the world’s greatest sport organizations today. First, when analyzing the New York Yankees from a managerial perspective, it is important to consider the structure and management style of the organization. For example, the New York Yankees have three levels of managers: the owner or executive manager who monitors the business environment (George Steinbrenner), the general manager or middle manager who negotiates and controls player transactions (Brian Cashman), and the field manager or first-line supervisor who supervises individuals within the organization (Joe Girardi). For them to be successful, all of these parts need to work together and form a systems-based organization. In this open system, where everything is â€Å"relatively open to the influences of the environment in which it lives† (Chelladurai, 2005), Steinbrenner is able to react to the goals, structures, and processes of the organization, as well as employers, customers, and so forth. Even though the Yankees did not make the playoffs this year, it is easy to see how the system is successful. All of the managers perform certain tasks, some of which include planning, organizing, leading, and evaluating. Each of these levels do these things for different time frames. When discussing the roles of the Yankee managers, it is important to note that all of them have been successful. Brian Cashman has a large decisional role because he has to make the correct decisions for the fans to be content and the team to win. Back when the Yankees won several consecutive championships in the ‘90s, Joe Torre (field manager) was a leader of the team with excellent human skills. He was able to interact with his players in a way that allowed them to perform at or above their potential, and he also had an incredible amount of knowledge for the types of players he needed to succeed. The owner and general manager had good technical and conceptual skills because it was important that they plan, evaluate, and organize the formation of a successful organization. They had to evaluate the existing organization, plan what players to trade for, and organize the business matters. I know that the organization’s main goal is to win national championships, but they also want to be effective and efficient in doing so. When the owner George Steinbrenner goes out and gets all-star caliber players to win the American League East division and the World Series, he has to pay a lot of money in order to attract them to his team. In terms of being a successful leader, it is obvious that George Steinbrenner â€Å"exerts influence in a way that achieves the organization’s goals by enhancing the productivity and satisfaction of the work force† (Chelladurai, 2005) because he is trying to achieve his goals by getting the best players in the league and making his team more productive. It has been known that George Steinbrenner spends the most money on his players in the league, so the efficiency of the team is minimized even though they have the largest fan base out of any organization. The effectiveness, however, in drawing the support of fans, emotionally and economically, is maximized, since the people want to see the best teams with the best athletes play. In 2004, â€Å"by the completion of the season, which saw Joe Torre at its helm for his ninth season, the New York Yankees had set a new team record for largest team attendance thanks to 3,775,292 loyal fans who attended home games at Yankee Stadium† (â€Å"New†, 2008). You can see here how popular the organization has become, and I can only imagine how much more money it can make in the future. In conclusion, I have analyzed an organization that I felt would help me understand the concepts and methods that are associated with sport management. Based on the structure and personnel of the New York Yankees baseball club now and in the past, I classify it as being one of the world’s most successful organizations. This statement can only be judged by the results that have accompanied the Yankees ever since its inception, twenty-six championships and a world-wide fan base.