Case Study: Two Coaches

Due Date: Nov 07, 2012 23:59:59       Max Points: 100 Details: Write a 500-750-word paper that analyzes the two leadership case studies, “Coach Knight: A Will to Win” and “Coach K: A Matter of the Heart. ”  Introduction: Leadership research has been extensively done to improve leaders in the way they lead. There are two researchers that have formed models to guide leaders in different approaches or behaviors according to the situation that he or she is in. Address the following questions and concepts: 1) Through your review of Fiedler’s contingency model, would you say that the coaches are matched to their situation?

Why or why not? Has this had an impact on their effectiveness? Fiedler’s contingency model is designed to help the leader be interactive with their subordinates.

The contingency model suggest that it can be determined if they will be effective in a specific setting. The two coaches that are in the case studies are effective in their approach to leadership when it comes to producing winning teams. After carefully reviewing both coaches situation it was obvious that Coach Knight would score low in the LPCs, this low score would mean that he was task driven.

Then there is Coach Krzyzewski, he fits the situation where he would score a high LPC because he is motivated through relationships. Both coaches are matched well with their situation.

For an example, Coach Knight? the highly successful basketball coach confirms Fiedler’s contingency because he is consistent in his leadership approach. Coach Knight’s intense and task-oriented technique seems unvarying. He intensely argues with referees during games and gets very upset to the point where he acts out during games.

Coach Knight’s primary goal was to accomplish the task at hand and his minor needs were to build relationships while getting along with others. On the other hand, there is Coach Krzyzewski who spent time getting into his players head in order to understand their thinking and logic.

This is based off of the leader understanding the maturity level of his subordinates. A coach that is task-centered is very high task-oriented and they are believed to be very effective in both in majority of favorable situations.

Leaders that are high in relationship motivation are perceived to be favorable in moderately conditions. Kent (2006) stated that according to the contingency theory that leadership effectiveness is able to be better by understand when to change either personality or situational features (p. 1). 2) Using Situational Leadership II, provide evidence from the cases that show whether or not there is usage of the leadership styles by the two coaches, and adopt a position on whether or not you think the coaches are effective from this theoretical perspective.

As indicated by Blanchard, Situational Leadership’s concept is that leaders could be effective when the leader adapts the leadership style based off of the situation and capability of the subordinates (Northouse, 2010, p. 95). All in all, this particular approach explains to the leader that every subordinate has a gift or ability the needs to be water like a flower in order to maximize their potential (Northouse, 2010, p. 95). In the case of these two coaches both of them untilize what is known to be the Situational Leadership approach.

Coach Knight had a difficult time amending the type of leadership style so in response to this he surround himself among people who could tolerate and work with him.

Even though Coach Knight was consider to be out of control he still was able to be effective in his leadership because he was able to instill in his players what it took in order to be success. Out of those players that he passed this great success plan to was Coach Krzyzewski. Coach Krzyzewski was able to use what he learned from Coach Knight as his mentor to build his leadership success.

For instance, in the case study, “A Matter of the Heart,” Coach Krzyzewski used the same training rule that was taught to him by Knight years ago (Delacey, Perlow, ; Snook, 2005, p. 3). However, Coach Krzyzewski took a different route when it came to situational leadership.

Of course he drill and practice hard but he also took the time to form a relationship with his players and in return he was able to build trust, as well as, get the team where they needed to be collectively (Delacey, Perlow, Snook, 2005, p. 3). I believe both coaches were truly successful in their particular Situational Leadership styles.

If you take a closer look at Coach Knight, you find that yes, he was like a Bulldog, but he was effective in the aspect of leaving a lasting impression on his players to the point where they would follow in his footsteps of becoming a professional coach and having very successful teams. When you look at Coach Krzyzewski you see the today version of Coach Knight without the harshness of the Bulldog.

Coach Krzyzewski was very effective because he used his past experience and his new experiences to motivate and drive his team to success.

Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required. This assignment uses a grading rubric. Instructors will be using the rubric to grade the assignment; therefore, students should review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment. Reference: Kent, M.

(2006). The Oxford dictionary of sports science ; medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.