This week my guest is Dr. Richard Wolfe of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, who will be getting into the organizational dynamics of sports, going beyond analytics and sport science, to gain the competitive edge to drive your sports team performance.

About Dr. Wolfe:
Professor Wolfe is a member of the Executive Education Faculty, Ross School of Business and Faculty Director of the Ross School’s Sport and Organization Dynamics Conference. From 2001 to 2007 Wolfe served as Director of the Sport Management Master’s Program, and was the Director of the Centre for Sport Management, at the University of Michigan.

Much of Dr. Wolfe’s current work focuses on how best practices in organization dynamics contribute to sport team success. Previously, Wolfe used sport as a lens through which we can learn about various business phenomena such as innovation, leadership, communication, teamwork, and strategy.

Richard is currently under contract with Harvard University Press to write a book on big time college athletics.

Wolfe is a past Editor of the Journal of Sport Management and has published in such journals as the Journal of Management, Organization Science, Journal of Sport Management, Human Resource Management, the Academy of Management Executive, and the European Sport Management Quarterly.

From 2010 to 2017 Wolfe served as Professor of Strategic Management and Winspear Fellow at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, the University of Victoria. Dr. Wolfe holds graduate degrees in organization theory (PhD, University of Michigan), business administration (MBA, Pennsylvania State University), and physical education (MA, University of Michigan)

About the Conference:
https://michiganross.umich.edu/news/michigan-ross-announces-first-ever-sports-and-organizational-dynamics-conference

Some of the key sessions during the conference include:

Team Culture (Kim Cameron, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan): Using his extensive research on NFL locker room culture and its correlation to team performance, Cameron will lead a panel discussion, featuring the SODC Board of Advisors, discussing how corporate culture and positive organizational scholarship can help build performance in sport.

The Emergence of Excellence: Leadership in Times of Dramatic Complexity and Change (Bob Quinn, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan): Quinn will moderate a panel discussion exploring how to lead in times of disruptive change and how that ties into sport team performance.

Creating “One Team” From Diverse Individuals (Lynn Wooten, Dyson School of Management, Cornell University): Wooten’s research explores workforce diversity and how that can be leveraged to an organization’s competitive advantage. She will lead a panel discussion about the effects of and approaches to diversity in sports and maximizing its positive impact.

Leading Change: From Resistance to Cooperation (Joel Brockner, Columbia Business School, Columbia University): This panel discussion will be moderated by Brockner, who has done extensive research on leading organizational change. They will discuss how to overcome resistance to achieve change in sports organizations.

The conference is highly geared toward senior leaders responsible for sport team performance, including general managers, head coaches, assistant general managers, and assistant coaches. For more information about the conference, visit michiganross.umich.edu/sportsdynamics.