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ULSB PhD student Rasim Kurdoglu (rsk15) considers just what we can learn from Leicester City\u2019s lack of success this season.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Unlike most industries, managers in team sports are paid less than many of the team players. Sport is an activity in which team players\u2019 performance is directly visible, therefore clearly appreciable. But surely the manager is important too? Most people who work in a Business School would agree that managers have important leadership and decision making roles in any organization. But does that mean that they are magicians, heroic leaders who produce success or failure?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was fascinating and surprising to see Leicester City Football Club as the champions of 2015-2016<\/a>. However, the same team\u2019s struggle in the Premier League in 2016-2017 is equally surprising. So, assuming that not that much has changed about the team, the fans, the league, the stadium, then is the success and failure down to management or not?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at some academic theory and see what we can learn. The economist Friedrich Hayek<\/a> asserts that if a game is played fairly then there is nothing wrong with rewarding people for the results they achieve. In that sense, he would see no problem with managers claiming full credit for success and then reaping the financial benefits of it. Therefore, for him, managers could be understood as the creators of success or failure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The sociologist Max Weber<\/a> had a different view. He believed that social inequalities lack a rational explanation, are not the result of justified rewards for success. Instead, the successes and failures that we see in society have more to do with luck, or who your parents happen to be. Despite Weber\u2019s common sense, it seems that Hayek\u2019s is the dominant view in our time, particularly amongst the winners.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Turning back to Leicester FC\u2019s success then. Of course we should credit the value of manager Claudio Ranieri\u2019s<\/a> strategies and tactics, his team line-up, his communication skills and so on. It would be perverse to ignore his contribution, but to say that the manager was responsible for the success would be an incomplete explanation. Even more so since we currently observe a serious decline in his team\u2019s performance, although it has the same management and only a few changes in the team.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n