MEMORANDUM
Introduction:Mark Shapiro took over after John Hart (now with the Texas Rangers) resigned as the Cleveland Indians General Manager at the end of the 2001 season. In the article, "Batting Around: Mark Shapiro," talks about his role as the new Cleveland Indian's General Manager and John Hart. Shapiro has high words of praise for his former boss. In addition, he follows several of the same management guidelines that Hart did. In short, much of what Shapiro says parallels the Management Contingency Theory.Shapiro and his GM Views:Mark Shapiro may be new at the job, but that does not mean he is inexperienced. John Hart showed Shapiro the ropes before he resigned so that Shapiro would not feel lost with all of the new responsibilities. He now understands that he is the one with the control to make trades and other key managerial moves, but he knows that a price comes with that power. For example, Shapiro will now be the one in the spotlight when the team's expectations fall short of their desired goal. He has already made a trade that will test his baseball intellect when he sent All Star Roberto Alomar to the New York Mets for Matt Lawton, Jerrod Riggan, Alex Escobar, and two players to be named later.Shapiro felt that communication of his
goals throughout the team was one of the most important things Hart taught
him. Shapiro takes charge of a situation, but he makes sure that
everybody knows what his goals are. Furthermore, Shapiro feels that
as a General Manager he has to be aware of his gut reaction on most cases/players.
He keeps the players on the team who he feels give the Indians the greatest
chance of winning.
The Contingency Theory and Mark Shapiro:The Contingency Theory is a theory that utilizes situational appropriateness to handle different cases in managing an issue. Hence, if a situation required a strong vocal leader to take charge that personality type would be used, but if the situation required someone to hear the opinions of others to solve a conflict, that type of personality would be used. Situational appropriateness uses "the best man for the job." Mark Shapiro does this very well because of his deep rooted communication skills. He makes sure that everyone is capable of doing the job that they are assigned.The description of the contingency theory would be three different sized circles. The smallest circle in the middle is the Organization, for Shapiro, the organization is the Cleveland Indian baseball players. The second biggest circle is the Task Environment. This division aides the organization division in their task, which in this case is to produce a winning baseball team. The task environment includes: coaches, front office personnel, Major League Baseball, agents, trainers, and so on. The third and last circle is the General Environment. The general environment is interested in the organization, but it is not paid by the organization, for example the fans and the media. Mark Shapiro is a main member of the task environment. He makes a lot of decisions by situational appropriateness, that are for the good of the team. As in the Alomar trade, Shapiro weighed the options and then chose to trade him. Even though the trade of the All Star was not a popular choice by many fans, Shapiro looked to the future of his team. He saw that it was more appropriate to trade Alomar now, while the Indians could still get good players for him, than to wait until he wanted more money, he injured himself, etc. and couldn't play to his potential anymore. That kind of a situation took the type of manager with the courage to make some fans in the general environment upset, but if it pays off the trade will look like a blockbuster move by Shapiro. The outer circles of the contingency theory manipulate the inner circles. As an illustration, the fans and media (general environment) put pressure on the front office (task environment) to produce a desired goal, winning. Then in turn, the front office puts pressure on the players (organization) to win. The front office usually pressures the players with a loss of a job, or with monetary rewards. This is how the contingency theory works, three different sized circles manipulated eachother. ConclusionMark Shapiro is a young General Manager to one of the oldest and most prestigious baseball teams in the country. He is the type of manager that fits the type of situation demanded of him while he is in constant communication of his goals to his team. Trading Roberto Alomar is the biggest move he's made thus far in the beginning of his tenure as General Manager. He felt that it was the right move at the time due to the economic circumstances and the future of the team's success. Situational appropriateness is what makes a successful manager in the Contingency Theory System. |