Teamwork och det nya ledarskapet - en begreppsanalogi

The purpose of this essay is to further the understanding of contemporary management theory by conducting an analogy-study of the source to many of the terms today used in knowledge-intensive companies. The way a football club deals with knowledge work differs from how a conventional company deals with it. However, many of the terms, such as teamwork and coaching, are shared by the two types of organization. By using the analogy-method we hope to create a wider understanding for the shared concepts. We have used a hermeneutic perspective throughout the essay, which first and foremost means that we focus on understanding and explaining social phenomenons. The terms used; team, teamwork, leadership and coaching are all terms that are interpretable, which means they are perfectly suited for a hermeneutic analysis. On the basis of interviews and relevant observations we have critically analysed the major theories and concepts in modern management literature. We have concluded that there are discrepancies regarding what type of leaders are better suited for different types of situations. The context in which the leader is working is often crucial for the type of leadership favourable. Contemporary management literature often consider “coaching” as an entire philosophy whereas the organization we studied – Malmö FF – see “coaching” more as a term used to describe a certain type of leadership. Additionally, we have recognized a demand for a strict type of authoritative leadership within the team, as supposed to the charismatic leadership advocated by contemporary theories. Originating in this discrepancy we have discussed the fundamental reasons to why this divergence exists, and what we can learn from it