Glory Road Management Themes

The movie that I watched was Glory Road. It is a story about how the coach of Texas Western set out to build a championship team by recruiting 7 black players to play for him. This was completely out of place in its time and there was a lot of racial tension to go along with it. As you can imagine there were many incidents throughout the movie that went along with this that have connections to different management ideas and theories that I have learned throughout this course.

One of the first incidents in the movie is when the black players arrive on campus and meet the white players that were already on the team. Here you see a classic example of inter-team conflict. I think that this is a prime example of the 5 steps of group development. In the forming stage the black players join their white teammates on campus. They were recruited either by Don Haskins or his assistant. The players joined the team in order to play division one basketball and to play for Coach Haskins. They all come to play different positions which would be part of their structure. The leadership was mainly just Coach Haskins at the beginning, although Lattin demanded some respect just by his size and overall appearance. The storming stage starts right off as the black players meet there fellow white teammates for the first time in the cafeteria. There they play some garbage can basketball after claiming to be the starter for their respective positions. I think that by the start of the season the storming stage was done as it was clear that those who started the first game deserved it and there was no dissention. After that the norming stage unfolds after Coach Haskins allows the team to play the style of basketball that they want. At that point they really start to have fun playing basketball and both the black and white players come to respect and enjoy being with each other. This strong relationship is apparent when the racial tensions flair up and the white teammates support their black team mates. It is also clear when they go to the party together and when the white teammates sit out the championship game for their black teammates so that they can make a statement. The performing stage is pretty obvious as this is when they were playing their games. They only lost their last game on the way to winning the NCAA championship game. The adjourning stage is kind of implied in the movie. I think that this is when the team arrives back home and they are getting off of the plane. The movie director shot that final scene to be like a final parting of the team. At that point they have accomplished their greatest. After that point they all go off to pursue their other life callings. There is no sadness at the end of the movie; everyone is just living in the moment of the victory. This scene is portrayed as the most important thing to happen in their lives.

Coach Don Haskins uses running as punishment for his player's selfish behavior. I think that at first it seems like he is using a task-management style because he is pushing his players as hard as he can. He does this knowing that even though they are beat up, they don't really have the option to leave. It seems like he is solely concerned with getting his players into shape and does not have any regard to their moral. However as the season approaches I think that his style looks more like a middle of the road management style. He explains to them that he was working them hard so that they would be ready to compete in Division 1 basketball and because he knew they had the talent to win. I think this is the first step Coach Haskins takes towards developing a team-management style as well. I do not believe that he was unaware of what he was doing either. I think that he wanted the players to gain each other's respect and to gain his respect before he used a team management approach. There are numerous examples that he is using this approach when the basketball season is underway. In the first game he really loosens his reigns and lets them play their own style of basketball. I think this is the first step in which they develop as a team. Before that they weren't allowed to be themselves which was hurting their team development. After that I think the success of the team really helps to bring them together. It is clear that there is mutual respect between the white and black players as they really bond together and have a lot of fun times together. I think that the racial tensions surrounding the team, and all the incidents that went along with it, are what really show you just how committed the white players are to the team and how much they really respect and care about their black teammates. When a black teammate gets beat up, a white teammate is the first one out the door to try and find the offender. The biggest sign of the respect the players have, which is a key component of team-management, is when the white players are perfectly fine with not playing in the championship game, because they know what it really means to their team. I think that this unselfish act is what really lifted the team so that they could win the championship. I think that Coach Haskins could have started with a team-management style right off the bat. I believe that the team would have come together a lot sooner and they would have developed to be an even more dominate team right off the bat. The lack of respect for each other it was really hindered the team at the beginning.

Communication was another key problem that was prevalent in the beginning of the movie. At the beginning of the movie it was clear that Coach Haskins was having trouble communicating his expectations to his players. This was especially true of Bobby Joe Hill who seemed to have no regard for his coach's orders that there would be no girls. In the movie he is portrayed as a ladies' man and thus he never truly takes his coach's order to heart. Now I think that the main problem here was that Bobby Joe Hill was using filtering, which is a barrier to communication. He was deliberately manipulating the information to make it appear more favorable to himself. I think that he heard what Coach Haskins was saying but he was manipulating it becauase he felt like he was above such rules that were being set. He seemed to have a high ego and he wasn't going to let his Coach get in the way of him meeting women. This problem was eventually overcome when Coach Haskins let up on his strict regime. He catches Bobby with his woman at one point in the movie and punishes him by making him run stairs. However he later sees Bobby saying goodbye to his girl before getting on the bus before the NCAA tournament and lets it go. I think at this point there is a mutual respect Bobby Joe Hill and Coach Haskins have developed between each other. I think that the barrier to communication was broken because they both understood where the other was coming from. Similarly there is a barrier to communication between David Lattin and his roommate when they first start rooming together. Here I think that Lattin feels like he is not being respected by his roommate. I think that the barrier to communication in this case had to do with emotions. When Lattin discovers his roommate listening in on him "entertaining a lady friend" he gets furious and makes him sleep in the hallway. Again this barrier is later broken down when they get to know each other. I think that they gave each other feedback by being on the same team. They really got to know each other through their experiences together. I think the final barrier was broken when the roommate asks Lattin if he has ever been afraid of something. This happened just after the hate messages were written all over their hotel rooms and there was blood smeared all over. Here you see Lattin step down from his macho persona and he tells a story that in effect explains why he is the person that he is. Lattin was scared when he was young and so after that he decided to adopt a persona of someone that you didn't want to mess with. This feedback ultimately breaks down the last communication barrier that existed between Lattin and his roommate. After that it is clear that they have a special bond.

In the movie it comes very apparent that Coach Haskins is not happy with the play of Nevil Shed. He is portrayed as a weak forward. He was not playing aggressively and Coach Haskins continuously tried to motivate him to try a lot harder. Finally Haskins tells Nevil to go home because he can't have such a weak player on his team. It is apparent that the last thing that Nevil wants to do is to leave the team. This is the final challenge in which Nevil has to decide where to go from there. He finally begged Coach Haskins to give him another chance, which he gets. From here it is apparent that he has set a goal to play up to the level that Coach Haskins wants in order to help his team. His goal was challenging, realistic, and specific. He knew that in order to achieve this goal he had to work as hard as he could and would have to stop playing like a weak player. His system of accountability was Coach Haskins who was carefully watching his work and who was there to keep him in line, as well to give him feedback. The reward for accomplishing this goal was staying on the team and gaining Coach Haskin's respect. Another reward was that Nevil would be happy with himself and he would not have to go home to face his dad, which is one thing that seemed to drive this goal. This also goes into the three sources of power. Position wise, Nevil didn't have much as he was barely on the team at first. However as he worked into the lineup, he gained back both his teammate's and his coach's respect. At first he had some power from his characteristics becomes he is a good player and has the ability. However since he played weakly, and appeared to not have what it took to play aggressively, he dids not get power from his personality or appearance. This changed again when he changed his play. Nevil was not really in any position to use rewards or coercion to gain power, so that is not a variable. Effort is also a source of power. At the beginning of the film Nevil doesn't have a lot of power mainly because of a lack of effort. However it is his change in his effort and his intensity that got him some power as he gained respect.

Now as I have mentioned a couple times already, the team changed a lot when Coach Haskins decided to let up his grip somewhat to let them play "their" game. In effect he empowered them because he gave them the power to decide how they wanted to play the game. This in effect elevated their performance. Before this happened however, I think there were a couple of inhibitors to empowerment. I think that attitudes about subordinates were one of them. I think that Coach Haskins felt that if they played their own form of basketball they wouldn't have the ability to win. I also think that he felt that if the players played their own style they would not be able to win. He had a strong belief in his own method and he didn't feel that his team could win a different way. Haskins also had the need for control. He liked it when his players followed his system down to the finest detail, and that is what he was comfortable with. He was not comfortable trying a different approach and that is what inhibited him from empowering his players. You can see the big difference in the movie after Coach Haskins finally gave in and empowered his players. They played up to the level they needed to be at to win.

Overall I think this movie was a perfect example of good and bad management theory at work. From analyzing this movie I got a pretty good idea of how to look at an organization and analyze its different aspects of management theory. I think that it will be a lot easier for me to do it in the future not that I have gotten some practice doing it for this movie.