Students Examine “The Godfather” and Chicago Sports Team Coaches for Lessons in Leadership

While corporate case studies are still the mainstay of business school curricula, DePaul University has introduced two innovative management courses this academic year that look beyond the boardroom for leadership lessons. The new elective classes, “Management at the Movies” and “Leadership in Sports,” are offered by DePaul’s College of Commerce as a creative way to get more undergraduate and graduate students interested in studying management.

“The idea behind these classes is that management issues are all around you,” said Scott Young, chair of the management department, who spearheaded the introduction of the new courses. “You can learn about management from movies, novels, philosophy and sports.”

Young, who studied film as well as business in college, teaches “Management at the Movies.” Each week students screen feature films and discuss how management theories apply to the characters and organizations portrayed in the movies. The films, and the subjects they raise, include: “The Godfather” trilogy (organizational design), “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (strategic planning) and “Whale Rider” (leadership and gender issues). Several movies – including “Jerry MacGuire,” “Quiz Show,” “Wall Street” and “Glengarry Glen Ross” – spur class discussions about business ethics.

“Motion pictures often reveal management principles in telling and entertaining ways,” Young said. For example, Young gives a thumbs-up to his favorite movie, the Academy Award-winning “The Godfather,” as a way for students to explore organizational structure and family business issues.

The Corleone family business – organized crime – has a military-style management structure involving a network of captains and lieutenants that is similar to the structure of some traditional, though legitimate, corporations, Young observed. “They also have a code of ethics,” he added. “It may be a different code of ethics than we are used to in business, but it is a strong code of ethics.”

“The Godfather: Part II,” Young said, also provides a source for class discussion of leadership succession (Michael Corleone’s rise from law-abiding outsider to Don after his father’s death) and how the “CEO” of a family business should manage conflicts between the company’s code of ethics or family loyalty (In the movie, Michael ultimately decides to bump off his brother, Fredo, for betraying him with a business partner – a decision not recommended for the corporate world).

Young said “Tora! Tora! Tora!,” a film dramatization of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the series of American blunders that allowed it to happen, can teach students about strategic planning. “There’s a total contrast between the Japanese well-oiled military machine and the American military at the time, which was asleep at the wheel,” Young explains. “What I hope students learn from this film is that they must be prepared for the business version of Pearl Harbor. They must plan for when things go wrong. For example, what if a competing product is suddenly introduced that makes your product obsolete? What do you do?”

Young said “Quiz Show,” a reality-based movie about a 1950s television game show that was rigged to appease a corporate advertiser’s desire for higher ratings, allows students to draw parallels to the recent corporate scandals involving illegal accounting practices used to boost stock prices. “It shows how the pressure of the ratings can lead companies to do unethical things.”

“At first students looked at these movies on only one level – as entertainment,” Young said. “But this course allows them to look at them in a different way – to see the management and ethics issues involved.”

Another innovative course, “Leadership in Sports,” is taught by Margaret Posig, an associate professor of management. The course allows Posig to tap into her academic expertise in corporate coaching practice as well as her knowledge of sports – especially ice hockey – a sport her daughter plays. Posig’s course explores articles, books and films that delve into the leadership styles of sports coaches and team management, including New York Yankees Manager Joe Torre, legendary Green Bay Packer Coach Vince Lombardi and Stanford University Women’s Basketball Coach Tara VanDerveer.

Students in Posig’s fall class met with DePaul Blue Demons head basketball Coach Dave Leitao and Assistant Coach Tyler Jones to discuss their views of motivation, teams and leadership. They also heard from DePaul Adjunct Management Professor and attorney Sam Manella, who talked about legendary basketball coach Ray Meyer, for whom he played as a Blue Demon while studying at DePaul.

“Many of the leadership principles in sports directly apply to business management,” Posig said. “Coaching has become a huge issue in organizations, both as a management style and individual development tool. During the course, we examine coaching as a particular style of management and integrate what we learn from the coaches with organizational workplace issues such as motivation and empowerment.”

What Posig and her students have discovered is that successful sports coaches, whether they know it or not, often use advanced management techniques more effectively than their corporate counterparts. The coaches are able to employ varied leadership styles as situations and players dictate. Many team skippers follow the acknowledge-create-empower (ACE) management model, espoused by academic researchers Roger Evered and Jim Selman, rather than the traditional command and control, top-down management style of the past, Posig observed.

“These coaches are successful, in terms of producing the highest level of performance in individual players, because they empower players to be the best they can be.” she explained. “They have the ability to develop trusting, interpersonal relationships with their players and show that they care about them as individuals. This increases the commitment of both players and coaches to development, and players become more open to correcting the ‘blind spots’ that their coaches observe. As Joe Torre would say, ‘straight communication’ is utilized by coaches to give direction and feedback to their players, which they deliver quickly and as often as possible. Managers could learn a lot from this.”

One admirable sports leader studied by Posig’s students is the late Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that stunned the world by beating the heavily favored Russian team on its way to winning a gold medal. “One thing that is interesting about Herb Brooks is that he did not choose stars to be on his team,” Posig said. “Instead, he thought it was more important to develop team chemistry, so he selected team players, not stars.

“Athough Brooks’ style was far from that of an ‘ACE,’ his team developed into a family that he truly cared about. At the time his harsh methods seemed necessary, yet in retrospect he doubted that he would do it the same way again. This leads the class to discuss whether all leadership means justify the ends.”

Posig’s students also write papers and give group presentations examining the leadership styles at play within Chicago’s hometown teams, including the Bears, Blackhawks, Cubs and Sox. Although Chicago’s teams have not achieved many championships lately, the students gave both cheers and raspberries to the local pro sports coaches and management.

Students in the fall class put Bears football coach Lovie Smith in the win column, despite the team’s record. “They talked about his character – he’s very even-keeled and not a screamer. But he holds high expectations and, as a new coach, successfully motivated the team to early wins, including the Green Bay upset early in the season. This builds trust in the new coach and confidence among players,” Posig said.

Students were critical, however, of Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz’ leadership style. “Students felt he is obsessed with the bottom line and that he cares more about money than winning,” Posig said. “He doesn’t empower his employees and has no shared vision with the coaches, players or fans. He let popular players go who, in his opinion, demanded too much money. This alienated fans.” Turnover is another big problem for the Hawks, Posig observed. “He has fired six coaches since 1995 without giving them the resources to be successful.” But the students believed that Wirtz may be beginning to turn the team around, she added, “by hiring talented young players who have a good work ethic as well as community spirit.”

Such discussions made the class useful and rewarding, students said. Tom Clemons, who took the course in the fall, said: “I enjoyed the fact that the class presented leadership as something that happens in all organizations. Whether you are coaching a sports team or running a multinational organization, many of the skills and techniques are the same.”

Note to Editors: Reporters interested in interviewing Young or Posig or in visiting the management classes, which meet for ten weeks beginning in January, should contact Robin Florzak, DePaul director of media relations, at 312/362-8592 or rflorzak@depaul.edu.