Session Summary

Session Number:679
Session ID:S112
Session Title:"Everything I need to know about teams and organizations I learned at the ball park": An examination of sports as a model and metaphor
Short Title:
Session Type:Division Symposium
Hotel:Hyatt West
Floor:LL2
Room:Regency Ball B(S)
Time:Tuesday, August 10, 1999 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM

Sponsors

OB  (Robert Liden)bobliden@uic.edu (312) 996-4481 

General People

Chair Katz, Nancy R. Harvard U. Nancy_Katz@harvard.edu 617-495-9640 
Discussant McCaskey, Michael B. Chicago Bears Football Team mccaskey@host.com 847-295-6600 

Submissions

Three-Game Management: Picturing Organizational Complexity 
Presenter Keidel, Robert W. U. of Pennsylvania rwkeidel@aol.com 215-576-5823 
"Playing by the Rules" 
Presenter Margolis, Joshua D. U. of Michigan joshdm@umich.edu 734-764-9286 
"From Harlem Globetrotter to Business Team Coach: Bringing Lessons I Learned on the Basketball Court into the Executive Suite" 
Presenter O'Brien, Maureen  OB Management Consultants ObrienMo@aol.com 843-650-3183 
"Sports Teams as Model and Laboratory" 
Presenter Katz, Nancy R. Harvard U. Nancy_Katz@harvard.edu 617-495-9640 

Abstract

Managers and organizational researchers often use sports as a model or metaphor for business teams and organizations. Yet the appropriateness and implications of this comparison have received surprisingly little critical examination. Our symposium is designed to address that need by grappling with the questions: To what extent do sports serve as a useful model or metaphor for business teams and organizations? What lessons can be drawn from sports teams regarding how to manage business teams? What risks - to research, theory, and practice - exist in invoking the comparison? How does using sports as a model or metaphor influence our understanding of managers' ethical responsibilities? We will also consider the ramifications of sports comparisons in this era of increasing pluralism and diversity. On the one hand, sports comparisons can unify people from different demographic, cultural, and national groups. A reference to soccer, for example, can create a lingua franca for people who otherwise share no common points of reference. On the other hand, sports comparisons can leave many women (as well as some men) feeling excluded, and can reinforce their suspicions that the corporate world resembles a "locker room." We will also probe larger questions such as: What is the appropriate metric for evaluating the value of sports comparisons? Should it be the closeness of fit, the usefulness to managers, the rhetorical power, or the intellectual playfulness it permits?