Structure of Sport Organization

The organization of sports clubs remain as the key element that determines whether they succeed or fail in the sports arena. Stated in other words, the organization of people in groups with a common goal, using the same resources is an important factor in determining the success or failure of an organization. In connection to this, the LA Galaxy is a perfect example that elucidates the importance of organizational structure in the management of sports clubs. To begin with, LA Galaxy uses a simple structure in its management. According to Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson (2009), simple structure is a structure in which the owner-manager makes all major decisions and monitors all activities while the staff serves as an extension of the manager's supervisory authority (p.314). 

Remarkably, The LA Galaxy is owned by AEG, who wholly owns subsidiary of the Auschwitz (Anschutz Entertainment Group, 2010). Whereas there are numerous reforms that are taking place currently in the reorganizing the structure of LA Galaxy, this soccer club was organized into three main department namely; sales, administration and team departments. This has been used as an organizational structure for this club for a long period of time. However, there are important changes that have been made in the recent past, with a shift from the originally known structure to a functional structure that is more diversified than the simple structure. At this point in time, the functional structure is in its second phase of development as a way of expanding the businesses of AEG under which LA Galaxy is fully owned and managed. In addition to introducing and strengthening functional structure, AEG has diversified its organization to include both vertical and horizontal dimensioning in order to expand its operations. This is an important milestone in the management of LA Galaxy as a football club.

There are various advantages that are associated with organizational structure. First, it is important to understand that when people who have the same skills, knowledge and experience are grouped together, there are tendencies to increase their knowledge, skills and experience thus resulting in high productivity. For instance, as it was mentioned earlier, people with the same skills at LA Galaxy are grouped in the same departments. Consequently, this has increased their expertise and they can deal with every challenge that arises in the club. In addition to enhancing their skills, employees develop a sense of responsibility thus enabling them to complete their tasks without fudging. The third advantage of organizational structures as it regards to the division of labor is coined in the fact that it provides an opportunity for managers to have a greater control of organizational activities. For instance, whenever problems arise that regards neglect of tasks, the person(s) responsible can easily be singled out due to division of labor.

Whereas there are numerous advantages that are associated with it, division of labor has been found to confine people to one department or area of specialty. As a result of this, people may fail to understand the operations of other departments or become less concerned with other key areas of operation that are core to the management of organizations. In addition, division of labor complicates the interaction of people from different departments. Consequently, there would be an increase in cases of communication failure which hinders the operation of the organization. Finally, since division of labor or rather organization structure separates different departments, there is a tendency for such an organization to experience sluggishness in responding to critical issues that comes up in the organization. For example, one department will need to communicate and come to a consensus with the other over an issue before taking an action. This takes a lot of time.