Introduction

In the recent years, Newcastle Football Club has been experiencing incidences of underperformance, with the club loosing most of its matches leading to its relegation to the Second Division League. The Club’s relegation has however contributed to constant hostility between the football club and its fans and with the subordinate staff. With the analysis regarding the club’s performance, there are however some issues that might have been the causes of the problems that the club is experiencing. For instance, it is in the realisation that the club’s staff members have been working for long hours, most of the staff members do not have educational certifications, there is inadequate training of the players, absenteeism of the employees and there is no effective communication in the club’s departments. These problems have brought so much impact to the club as a whole, with the players inclusive, as there has not been signing in of new players into the club, something which is demoralising the current players and even leading them into physical exhaustion, making them miss their weekly training routine. With these factors into consideration, this discussion looks at the demographic analysis of the club and the recommendations that will facilitate a successful implementation of the club’s operations.

Problem Statement

In the events following the club’s performance, there is a need to consider several factors that contribute to the failures of employees with regard to the poor and underperformance of the team. These factors include issues of underpayment of employees, inappropriate training, incompetence, ineffective communication and the overall performance of the club.

Underpayment of the Employees

For the employees to be productive, it is therefore necessary to pay them accordingly according to the amount of work they perform. There may be possibility of overworking employees and underpaying them. This can however demoralise employees and thus they will start becoming unproductive hence poor performance. Recently, Newcastle United lost a battle not to pay living wage to its staff, out of which they were later forced to pay the living wage to full-time staff as from the season of 2016/2017, after a meeting with the clubs in the Premier League. The situation is an evident explanation that the club had been paying its employees.

Inadequate Training

Lack of adequate training has also contributed to the club’s underperformance because the players do not extensively train. With the fact that the training ground for the club not being in good shape, the player’s training routine has been tempered with since the training grounds were undergoing renovation thereby not creating adequate training time for the players, which may just be another factor for poor performance (Jourdan, 2008).

Inappropriate Qualification and Certification

There are cases of some employees who do not own the appropriate documents and who do not qualify for certain posts as employees, being offered vacancies within the club during the recruitment of workers (Chaudhuri, 2012). Hiring of the individuals with inappropriate qualification and documentation lead to the club having workers or employees who are incompetent and not fit for the job. Incompetence among employees contribute majorly to the overall underperformance of the club since most of them do not have the skills in requirement to perform the tasks required of them, hence they may poorly perform in their service delivery.

Inadequate Communication

Lack of effective open and transparent communication among the staff members may also lead to the underperformance of the team. Effective communication helps in establishing clear expectations required of the employees, as the expectations will reveal how their performance will affect the performance of the team (Minelli, 2012). Effective communication will also build a firm relation among the employees thereby increasing their levels of trust and loyalty within the staff members.

Improper Leadership and Management

In the event that the team’s administration experiences poor leadership and management from the top leadership of club, it is definite that the entire club from the top management all the way down to the subordinate staff and players will experience the effect the effect of the poor leadership and management. The problmen occurs in terms of their performance and productivity. Proper leadership and management and leadership ensure that the club will perform adequately and effectively (Watson, 2007).

The Soft Systems Methodology

The methodology involves several stages and procedures in which the problems in situation are to be solved and change in the management. The stages involve identification of the problem, expression of the problem, generation of the root definitions, generation of the conceptual models, comparison of the models, evaluation of their feasibility to change and applying an action to solve the particular problem.

Balanced Scorecard

The concept is a strategic approach and management of performance of the club which will enable the team to translate the club’s vision and strategies into implementation through application of some perspectives. These perspectives include the funding perspective, the client perspective, business process perspective and learning and growth perspective.

In the funding perspective, timely and accurate financing data is usually important, and the club’s manager should perform whatever necessary for its provision. In the customer perspective, the manager should focus on the importance of customer focus in addition to their satisfaction. The business perspective refers to the internal business processes; the metrics on the basis of the managers knowing how the club operates. The fourth perspective, learning and growth perspective involves training of the employees.

 

Justification of the Effective Use of Business Intelligence

The application and practice of business intelligence and data analytics have had great influence to the club, subject to the changes experienced. The simple and static analytical applications has transformed into solutions that are applied in planning, the relationships of customer management and monitor the operations of the club. In the business perspective the business intelligence refers to a particular theory and methodology enabling the managers to work with a lot of expertise and information. However, the business intelligence system only results to success only if the managers develop decision making process regularly to experience the maximum benefits.

Benefits of Business Intelligence

In the recent years, many organisations have put the business intelligence which help them predict their future performance. The organisations practicing this type of methodology however experience some benefits. With the practice of business intelligence, the club has been able to obtain crucial business metrics reports. This enables the managers to get access of the club’s information. For instance, the business metrics and dashboards.

Business intelligence has helped the club save on time. The system provides for a quick response to several queries related to the club. Managers are therefore able to make quick decisions in a short duration thereby saving on time. The business intelligence system has enabled the club realise its real costs. The system gives the managers a clear vision of the operation costs of the club and the ability of the managers to make required changes in their operations to attain high profitability levels.

Performance Since 2013

Basing on Newcastle United’s performance in the last four years, the club has shown some improvement in its performance compared to the initial years before 2013. In the 2012-2013 season, the club was said to have regained the European football for the first moment since the year 2007. However in that season, the club faced several drawbacks which included ten losses in thirteen games, leading to its relegation. The team later signed some of the French players, leading to the club’s advancement to the quarters in the Europa League, which they lost their match to Benfica.

In the 2014-2015 season, the club lost seven of their first games, which made the fans angry and wanted the sacking of the then manager. In 2015, the club sacked several of its officials and replaced them with new officials, who could not save it again from relegation. In 2017, the club however returned to the Premier League, winning the Championship title against Barnsley.

Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction examines if or not the employees are satisfied and contented in the fulfillment of their required duties. Some of the measures that explain satisfaction of the employees include motivation of the employees and morale at work (Chen, 2012). Several interviews were carried and reports written about the employee satisfaction and the responses were very positive. For instance, a café steward, who is a current employee at the club, said that he has enjoyed working at St. James Park as he is happy about working with new people and learning new skills. A report in 2016 also recorded a positive response was also in place. An employee, a security steward when interviewed confirmed that working at the stadium was a dream that came true when he got employed as a staff at the club. A 2015 report that was written by a footballer recorded that he enjoyed his stay at the club as it was fun, had great benefits, great people, and great environment in the organisation. In 2014, a catering assistant recorded that working at the fast moving kiosk, handling cash sales, and taking customer orders made him feel a very important part of the team. In 2013, a match day supervisor recorded a statement enjoyed his entire time at the club and the hardest part he was to counter is when he had to leave the team. However, the trend of employee satisfaction has not been consistent in the years.

In the recent years, training at the club has not been that good with the club lacking adequate training facilities and sponsors for the facilities. The club has however made a push and is currently enhancing its new training grounds that will enable the players to train effectively. Some of the improvements made include renovation of the inside structure of the building by creating more space for work and relaxation, bringing better equipment to the gym, resurfacing the artificial pitch into a 4G platform.

Conclusion and Recommendations

For the football club to overcome underperformance, it needs to put the following into considerations. The company should reward improvement, train the managers, ensure good selection during recruitment, pay employees accordingly and promoting effective communication across the football club (Minelli, 2012). The club should invest in training the managers on how to deal with the problem of underperformance. This enables the managers to effectively handle the problem in case it arises, with the required skills. They will therefore know how to assess, identify and solve the problem efficiently since they will be in possession of the knowledge on how to solve it (Jourdan, 2008). The club should embrace an effective scrutinisation during its recruitment of workers. It ensures that the workers hired are competent and that they have the required qualifications and expertise to deliver in the particular field they are to deliver their services.

 

References

Chen, H., Chiang, R. H., & Storey, V. C. (2012). Business intelligence and analytics: From big data to big impact. MIS quarterly, 36(4).

Chaudhuri, S., Dayal, U., & Narasayya, V. (2011). An overview of business intelligence technology. Communications of the ACM, 54(8), 88-98.

Jourdan, Z., Rainer, R. K., & Marshall, T. E. (2008). Business intelligence: An analysis of the literature 1. Information Systems Management, 25(2), 121-131.

Minelli, M., Chambers, M., & Dhiraj, A. (2012). Big data, big analytics: emerging business intelligence and analytic trends for today’s businesses. John Wiley & Sons.

Watson, H. J., & Wixom, B. H. (2007). The current state of business intelligence. Computer, 40(9).

 

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