Answer

Major League Baseball

Background and Context

            Majorly based in Canada and the United States, the Major League Baseball (MLB) is privately owned corporation that operates in North America. It has its main offices located in New York City in the United States while some of its other offices are located in Concord, Milwaukee, and Kansas City. As its primary objective, the Major League Baseball governs and regulates baseball operations in the countries it operates in. Therefore, it develops rules and regulations to be followed in the baseball leagues of the countries, regulates ownership of teams that play within the same leagues, and issues license to the teams while also collecting license levies. Furthermore, MLB is responsible for selling baseball broadcasting rights to local and international broadcasting companies. This private corporation came into existence as a result of a merger between American Leagues and National League.

            As compared to other major global sports corporations, the MLB’s major source of income is the income from selling broadcasting rights to local and international broadcasting companies that air the baseball league games in the said countries (Anderson, 2019). This is even evident in the contracts that it has with several broadcasting companies worth billions of dollars, including Fox, ESPN and many others.

            Furthermore, MLB has not only managed to secure good contracts but has also managed to develop an effective digital business. It has a running and reliable online official website that acts as an overall oversight for its member teams while another section sells match tickets. Even more so, the corporation runs a direct cable television network, which was recently adopted in 2009 and broadcasts live games, news that relates to the major league baseball games, as well as other relevant content to thousands of viewers across the two countries.

            One of the biggest MLB visions is to ensure for a fair and drug-free games. Since its inception, the corporation has had a strict rule against performance enhancing and illegal substances by players in the MLB league. Additionally, the corporation – along with the member teams – maintains a good relationship with the locals, all in bid to incorporate them into local teams either as players or registered fans. Therefore, with the help of teams, the MLB has enabled community outreach by extending a hand to members of the local community. In this manner, the corporation seeks to widen its foothold into the local community by promoting the sport. Similarly, this is achieved through provision of affordable game tickets to the locals wishing to attend the league games.

Analysis of Current Managerial Style and Organizational Culture

            The Major League Baseball runs a league that is made up of thirty teams, one of which is in Canada as the rest are in the United States. The thirty teams play a total of a hundred and sixty-two games in a season, out of which a few teams advance to the playoffs for the championship series and further qualify for the world series. Currently, the MLN uses the designated hitter rule, which is a rule that allows teams to use a player to bat instead of the pitcher. However, the hitter has to be chosen before a game and is totally not part of the defensive setup of the game.

            The MLB is controlled by an MLB constitution. It also has a set of professionals in its payroll, including Umpires, which advertises the league. The corporation is led by a Chief Executive Officer. Other ranks within the management of the organization includes; a chief operating officer, a financial officer, a chief communication officer, a legal officer, as well as one officer who is in charge of the media and the business affairs of the corporation.

            The organizational culture of the corporation is chiefly based on appreciation, professionalism, integrity, and operation. It awards team managers, who are excelling, on a monthly basis according to the performance of the team in the same period of time. This award is usually held in the form of manager of the month award. Even more so, the organization has also been driven by a culture of success. For instance, only high performing managers are given the contract to manage teams in the ML league. In the same manner, the organization constantly urges teams to work together in order to ensure collective success. What is more, everyone involved with the MLB corporation is expected to behave in a manner that is befitting professionalism since most of them are popular and they need to set an example for the society.

            Similarly, integrity is one amongst the major cultures in the MLB society. It is one virtue that is expected from both the players as well as the management of the teams. This also extends to the officials of the corporation, who are expected to e highly integral individuals. For this reason, the MLB has created a ban on performance enhancing substances among its players in order to ensure for a fair and common ground for competition in the league.

            In the management of the tea m, the coach oversees major decisions that directly affect the team in the field. The coach selects players, develops team strategy, and lead training sessions. What is more, the coach is provided assistance by one or more assistant coaches, who have specific duties within the team. More often than not, the lead coaches of the teams are retired players who are held in high esteem and who are believed to have high experience in the same regard.

Analysis of Key Terms and Principles

            The MLB management is a standard management structure consisting of a chief executive officer assisted by a team of executives. Moreover, other staff are tasked with the affairs of the MLB while serving under existing management.

            The CEO is the commissioner for baseball in the league, who is in charge of the entire MLB entity as well as the overall decision-making in the affairs of the MLB. Furthermore, the commissioner also controls the advisory committee. Within the executive, other members, includes the vice president who is in charge of all field operations. Furthermore, the Vice President also issues disciplinary decisions to the players who are considered to have had a misconduct. Additionally, the officer who is tasked with operations and economics department also has the duty to the league welfare talks with players association. This officer reports directly to the vice president. There is also an eight-member executive council, which is comprised of senior stakeholders such as team owners who oversee the affairs of the corporation. The council also oversees community outreach projects as well as management of funds allocated for the same.

            The umpire-in-chief coordinates the MLB, who also advises the president in matters concerning umpires. He also recommends umpires for appointment, which translates to his responsibility of recruiting empires. Umpires, on the other hand, are responsible for time management during games, and in accordance to their input, game times can be reduced to achieve shorter matches.

            The recruitment process of new players is overseen by the public relations manager. Furthermore, the manager coordinates with other media outlets to ensure that the interests and needs of the MLB are advertised all season long. Furthermore, there is a coaching coordinator, who speaks on behalf of all other team managers within the MLB. What is more, the coordinator also oversees the issuance of sporting equipment to teams in MLB and is also responsible for training of team managers. The department, for it to be effective, should come up with means to reduce its expenses, which eventually passes to fans in terms of ticket prices. This is because a reduction in ticket prices will foster and promote the corporation’s vision of attracting a larger audience (Hill, Aime and Ridge, 2017).

Recommendations

            In order to achieve the vision and the strategies of the MLB enterprise, several recommendations could be adopted that would enable it to improve its operations for the benefits of its stakeholders.

            In order for MLB to achieve its objectives of organizing drug free sporting events, it is eminent for the corporation to adopt strict laws that discourage the use of banned substances. For instance, offenders could be punished severely thus discouraging any athlete from using any such substances. Even more so, the corporation could adopt banning athletes who are found to have used such substances permanently and legal action could also be taken against them.

            Furthermore, the ML could involve the community more in the sport through standardizing ticket prices in order to make games more affordable to the public. What is more, local tournaments could be frequently organized by MLB in order to raise funds that would improve community outreach. These funds could be useful in improving situations at the community such as planting trees and taking care of environment. Similarly, the MLB could also collaborate with many more media outlets in order to advertise aggressively, thus attracting a large portion of younger audience, especially since most of the current audience is made up of the elderly. What is more, baseball activities ought to be incorporated into schools as part of co-curricular activities and thus encouraging more people to join. Finally, since there have been concerns that the game is very unpopular since most games take a considerable amount of time, it is essential to regulate the time for the matches in order to encourage more people to watch (Dines, Jones, Maher and Altchek, 2016).

Conclusion

            In conclusion, the Major League Baseball corporation has maintained an effective organizational structure and culture, which has ensured its success. However, in line with its visions and strategies, this paper has recommended several methods by which it could improve its performance. For instance, aggressive advertising, penalizing instances of performance inducing substance, as well as engaging with the public will ensure that many individuals join and enjoy the game.