Case Harvard Coach Knight

Coach Knight: The Will to Win Question # 1 Describe coach knight’s leadership style was he effective or not, why?

PART-A Coach Knight was having autocratic leadership style and he seems to be task oriented. Following are the characteristics of his leadership style.         

Disciplinarian Obedience oriented High demanding Perfectionist Treating players as reboots Negative reinforcement Communication by using foul language Tight supervision (Theory X) Use of power

PART-B Coach Knight is effective if we talk in term of team performance because IU basketball team was winning in Knight’s reign and after joining Texas Tech team, which was not performing well, was converted into winning team by Coach Knight. If we talk about players, they were dissatisfied by Knight’s method of coaching. In universities sports are considered as secondary thing, but coach knight implementing his policies which might cause dissatisfaction for students.

Question # 2 What solution/alternatives you suggest for problem(s) in the case.

Problem Authoritarian policies of coach Knight

Alternatives     

Firing coach knight from job. Request for changing policies. University should focus on implementation of proper policies. Hiring friendly coach. Removing basketball team from university.

Best Alternative University should hire friendly coach.

Rationale Coach Knight is highly perfectionist and he does not want to lose matches and he is so much demanding that it affects the social life of students, it makes difficult for students to concentrate both on sports and studies. Coach Knight is also reason for bad image of university which is created by different controversies.