Managerial Analysis Podcast Final Version

The transcription is a discussion about the film Moneyball and its main ideas. The film is based on the true story of Billy Bean, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team. Bean uses data and analytics to rebuild the team after losing key players. He faces resistance from traditional scouts and the team's manager. The conflict in the film is mainly task conflict, as Bean's approach to player evaluation differs from the traditional scouting methods. He also lacks consultation with his team, which causes uneasiness and resistance. Bean develops power through his knowledge and experience in baseball, as well as his assertiveness and respect from his employees. He shows loyalty to the Oakland A's by declining a lucrative offer from another team. Overall, Bean's unconventional approach to team management proves successful. Hello, my name is Jaclyn Burseel. My name is Abby Baldwin. And I'm Estella Redman. And we decided to do our managerial analysis on the film Moneyball. Moneyball is a film based on the true story of Billy Bean, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team. The movie follows Bean as he tries to rebuild the team after losing several key players to higher paying teams. Facing a limited budget, Bean decides to use a revolutionary approach to player evolution and recruitment by relying on data and analytics rather than traditional scouting methods. He hires Peter Brand, a recent Yale economic graduate, to help him identify undervalued players using statistical analysis. Together they build a team of overlooked and undervalued players who when combined prove to be highly competitive in the league. However, Bean faces resistance from traditional scouts and the team's manager who are skeptical of his approach. Throughout the film, Bean must navigate the challenges of resistance from within the organization while also trying to prove the effectiveness of his approach. In the end, Athletics come close to winning the American League Championship, highlighting the success of Bean's unconventional approach to the team management. So true. Yep, so that was just like a quick summary of what the movie was about. I think first, didn't we want to talk about managing conflict and how Billy did so? Yeah, I think we felt that the main conflict at hand was task conflict based upon it being kind of a team environment. I think the main task conflict was the disagreement between should we take players who are highly ranked straight out of high school or are we going to take kind of the guy behind the guy who may not have been picked just yet. I feel like the people above him didn't necessarily understand that. Yeah, for sure. I feel like there was also like, I mean, there is high issue importance for Billy because his job kind of depends on how the season plays out and if he doesn't do well, he could get fired by the owner. And so this conflict of trying to figure out what they're doing wrong, how they're going to make a good team, there is a lot of issue importance based on this. And then along with task conflict, he kind of looks at the issue as a whole rather than just like looking at the issues with each player. So why other teams don't want those players on their team instead he values the player as a whole. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that makes Billy Dean's leadership style so unique, honestly, which is really cool to see. Yeah, we see that there's like some incompatible goals. Like one of the first things they have like a conference or I guess it's a little bit later on they have a conference and Billy kind of wants to introduce this new way of bringing in players by focusing on statistics rather than the skills and like things, the way that I guess the guys used to do it. And so he's bringing in this new idea and his workers don't really want to comply with this because they're like what in the world is he talking about. Right. I think that's super interesting. And I feel like the last main point that we talked about with managing conflict was the fact that he didn't necessarily consult with the group very much. I feel like we talked a lot in the lecture this morning about how it's important oftentimes that you want to hear from the people below you to know what they want and their thoughts so they're not feeling like they're lost in the decision. And so I felt there were a lot of times where Billy would decide to let go of someone or make a call to another team to see if they could do a trade. He didn't necessarily consult with the people around him or even Peter who was seemingly his right-hand man. And so I feel that could bring on conflict and just kind of uneasy feelings among the team. Yeah, for sure. No, go ahead. I agree with that. I feel like we talked a lot today about how weaknesses and strengths and things that a manager should work on and he definitely needs to work on consulting his group. Yeah. For sure. And I feel like people could get resistant if they feel like they don't have a say in anything. And we kind of see that later on just with people coming up to him and complaining and even with Art, which is the head coach, he shows resistance throughout the movie because he's the head coach and he doesn't want to comply with what the general manager, Billy, is saying because he doesn't think it makes sense. For sure. And I think that happens mainly because Billy isn't explaining why he's doing this. He's just doing it and not bringing it in his group and telling why he's making the decisions he is so people are just resisting what he's saying. Absolutely. Yeah. I feel like that kind of leads us into looking into how he developed his power. So what are your guys' thoughts on that? I mean, Billy, I guess, starts this whole thing with kind of some expert power in a sense because he does have the knowledge and the skills and the experience because he has played before. And as we saw in the movie, he chose to give up the chance of going to Stanford on a full ride and instead he chose to go and play in the big leagues. And so he has the experience of playing baseball, but he might lack the experience in more of like a professional business manner in a sense. Absolutely. And also at the beginning of the movie, we see Billy sitting at the front of a table and that kind of represents how much power he holds because the front of a table always is like the head of the table. Yeah. That's so true. I think even just kind of the qualities that he exemplifies just kind of picking quality people that he surrounds himself with. We saw this scene in the movie where one of the other coaches kind of disagreed with him and got in his face and said some not nice things and Billy simply kind of fired him. And so I think in a way, maybe some people would have been frustrated by that decision, but other employees would have kind of admired that, yeah, he has our best interests in mind. And another point with that is just he was cool under the stressful mediums. I feel like he didn't necessarily get fired up and he never really let his emotions take over. And so I know that if I was an employee under him, I'd respect that and kind of want him to lead in that. So I thought that was neat as well. Yeah, for sure. To go off of that respect aspect, I feel like Peter Brand, like he was this new employee. He like was new into the baseball world. He had just like graduated from Yale with like I believe like a major in economics. And he, you can tell that Billy kind of uses the reverent power upon Peter just like because there's a respect aspect, just because Peter's new, he doesn't really know where he stands. And so Billy kind of uses this reverent power over him, just like using the respect that Peter has for him. And also, Billy kind of uses assertiveness onto Peter simply because he is new. I'm trying to think. Yeah, going off of that, I feel like Billy is definitely a very forceful person. Like he forces things and isn't looking to like compromise in a lot of situations. He just believes that like what he wants should go. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I totally think that. And even Abby talked about earlier how even in his family, Billy was assertive. And there was a scene where he was picking up his daughter to take her out to lunch. And the stepfather was there. And the stepfather had actually given the daughter a phone. And Billy didn't necessarily agree with that. And so the stepfather tried to get in on the situation. And Billy kind of shut him down and just made sure that he wasn't inserting his opinion. And I think that that ended up applying even when Billy was in like around the team. You could definitely see that as well. Yeah. To kind of like add on to that scenario where it's like a family aspect where he's talking to the stepdad, he mentions like I kind of quoted it. He said her mother and I will discuss it. And I feel like this kind of shows like silent authority towards the stepdad because Billy isn't stepping in and saying I'm her father. I get to make these decisions. He more so said like this is a discussion for me and her mom. And so I feel like that's another way that Billy used his power towards the stepdad in like a family aspect, not so much of a work aspect. Totally. I think the last point that we kind of talked about with developing power was at the very end of the movie, Billy gets offered a $12.5 million offer to go to another team and apply his new coaching theory that he has. And he declines it. And I think that was definitely based on the loyalty to the Oakland A's. And then in the movie after, it's kind of in the subscripts that it said that the Oakland A's ended up winning a championship after that because Billy stayed with them. And I just thought that was so cool. And I think having loyalty to a company, I think even as we talked about this morning with the other scenario, when they were having all of these different CEOs come in, it kind of made the employees unsure of who they were going to take leadership from because they just weren't sure if they were going to stay at the company. So that was really cool. Yeah, I feel like Billy's definitely a really interesting character overall. Like as a manager, he has so many different traits. But even though he has loyalty, he's very forceful and demanding and just knows what he wants. So true. Yeah. I also would say that overall he does have legitimate power in this situation. And that kind of goes back to how we were talking about how he doesn't really talk to his group about much just because at the end of the day, he is the one making the decisions. And so he is above all of his employees. And so he gets to make the final say. And there's not much that other people can do about it. We can also see that he totally forgot what I was going to say. Oh, also he's kind of like non-substitutable because I feel like towards the end, you can kind of tell that he's like a little bit non-substitutable because he's the one, him and Peter are kind of the ones who introduced this new way of picking players. And I feel like at the end of the day, when he made that decision to turn down the $12.5 million deal, there's not many people who would do that. I know. And so for him to have that loyalty and being humble and sticking true to his values, I feel like that shows a lot about him as a person. I totally agree. Yeah. I think that really kind of talks about his need to power. How do you guys think that he exercised the influence once he had the position or like while he was in his position? Sorry, can you ask that again? Like kind of exercising influence. We kind of talked about that a little bit earlier. One of the points that was brought up was kind of the distribution-based influence. And Billy kind of told the guy above him that he would only win if he had a bigger budget. And so I think that was something where he knew kind of what he had and the skills that he brought to the table. And so when he told the general manager... It was the owner. The owner. Yeah. Right, that he needed more money. And even then the owner kind of said no and told him to work with it. And then kind of off of that as well, it kind of goes on a different path. But Billy was so innovative in the way he used his budget. I think that he, by having a small budget, he was kind of able to recruit these players that people wouldn't normally want. And so I think that that was also something that led people to really like Billy as a leader because he was able to kind of be innovative and use a smaller budget that most people would have felt like they couldn't do anything with. Going off of that, I feel like he was definitely very open-minded. And that's also what led people to like him a lot because they found comfort in the fact that he was going to be open to their opinions even though he was very demanding. He was still open to new things. Right, yeah, for sure. I know that Estella, you brought up like a point about how he was like super quick to like let players go. Did you want to like talk about that at all? Um... Oh, yeah. So he like didn't sugarcoat things most of the time but he was letting players go which is why he had such like a big influence because he was just straight to the point. So a lot of people weren't able to like listen to him more because they knew that he was giving the full truth. Yeah. And I think like that one scene where he's telling Peter kind of how to let a player go which like he was instructing Peter on how to do it and he's telling Peter like these are professional baseball players. Like they don't want you to kind of, you know, say, hey, like we're really sorry and kind of like beat around the bush. They want to get straight to the point. Plus, it's these players' lives, honestly. I mean, they moved all their... And it's the same with the business world. I mean, they moved their entire families to be where the Oakland A's are so they could play for this team. And then for Billy to have to tell them that they can't play anymore, like that's a huge life decision. So I think that was a really good point about being straight with him. I feel like that also, though, makes like the players that are on the team more confident in themselves because like if you know that he's being straight up with the players that are leaving, then you know that he's not keeping you and you're worried about like what if I actually don't belong here? Like what if he's just like sugarcoating it and like doesn't want to hurt my feelings or ruin like the fact that my family came here. Like they know they're there for a reason. And so I feel like when someone has confidence and they have praise from someone with a higher position, then they have more drive. 100%. I know that there was a scene where Billy goes up to a player named Danny and Danny is pushing 40 years old. So for the MLB, that is like an older age to still be playing. And Danny kind of gives Billy like some attitude because Danny was kind of saying that like you need me more than I need you. And Billy kind of like uses this influence to like kind of do like an exchange-based influence, basically saying that like Billy wants, like he said like listen, I want to keep you as a player and you want to stay in the game or the show. He like quoted at the show. And so he's kind of using this exchange-based influence saying like you get something out of this and I get something out of this so you might as well just comply with it. And I thought that was definitely a key point to mention. I thought that was really cool. That was something I hadn't noticed originally in the movie so I was really glad you brought that up. And another point that I think with exercising influence is he challenged those under him to step out of their comfort zone. And what I'm saying is that specifically with Peter, there were a lot of times where Peter, Billy would tell him to do something and Peter would kind of like step back for a sec and not understand what he was asking him or why he was asking him to do it. And the main point that comes to mind is when he asked Peter to solo let go of a player which had to be so hard for Peter especially because he'd been traveling with the team and so he made such great relationships with him. And so I think with that, Billy uses influence of kind of showing how that he would let players go and also exercising his power over Peter so kind of challenging those under him to step out of his comfort zone. And I think that's something that helps a business in general just grow so well as long as people continue to have kind of a growth mindset and make sure they're focusing on growing the company and also as individuals. I also feel like it's very important to also know that even though Billy thrived a lot in influence, he also struggled a little bit because since he kind of was like, we're doing this, we are going to look for the least valued players and we're going to recruit them and we're going to have the best team. He didn't really ask the other people, like the coach and stuff. He didn't ask them. He was like, this is what we're doing. And so he didn't really motivate. He wasn't like, this is why we should do this. It'll help us and all this. He was like, we're doing it. To go off of that, I totally agree because I feel like he didn't use much impression management influence because he didn't really care if people liked him. He wanted to change the pattern of how the baseball world was doing their thing and he didn't really care if people thought he was stupid because at the beginning of the movie, I mean, we see he loses so many games and he did not care because he knew that this would turn out well and it did because they ended up winning, I don't know, it was like 20 games in a row or something like that. And so he didn't attempt to be liked by anyone. He just did his thing and he knew that this was the right thing to do. I totally agree. I think with that, I think there were a lot of scenes throughout the movie where the coaches under him doubted him and there were a lot of meetings where they were kind of getting frustrated because they couldn't really see the plan. But something I really admire about Billy is that even though, I'm sure the media during that time was probably on him just because they didn't understand what his decisions were and they spoke negatively about him, but I think he constantly believed in his plan and I think that that was honestly such a lesson that I want to take with me is that people aren't always going to understand the decisions that you're making. Especially as a boss, I think there's going to be a lot of backlash and so I think that's something really neat that we can take from Billy, that he believed in his plan and was confident and got everyone else around him to believe in that and so that was really neat. That's a really good point. So we can kind of start talking about how Billy led others. I think that one of the things that we talked about, we were just looking at the past goal model and how he did use directive and supportive behavior because he wanted to enhance the abilities of his players. Kind of an example of this that I noticed was that he kind of emphasized that, so there's this player Scott who, how do you explain, he just retired or he got hurt, he stopped playing and Billy goes to Scott's home and asked him to come back and play, but not only come back and play, but play a totally different position that he's never played before, which was first base. And so he kind of tells Scott that at the end of the day, Scott has the skills and abilities and Billy promises to provide sport and probably more support than he would to the other players to be able to teach him first base and he kind of really emphasizes to the coaches and stuff and says that this is Scott's first time playing first base and that he will need more support and direction from his leaders. Absolutely. And even one of the last scenes in the movie, I mean we see Scott hit the home run that led them to win the game and I thought that was such a testament to Billy's leadership in that he took the time to specifically look at him and I just thought that was a really cool scene. Going off of that, I feel like even starting from the beginning to the end of the movie, he developed a lot as a person, especially through leadership because leadership is a behavior that can be learned. For sure. We talked about how throughout the whole movie, him and Art, the head coach, kind of butt heads because Art doesn't want to be micromanaged and he feels like Billy is giving way too much directive and supportive behavior and it's just becoming a lot for him. Right. And so we can kind of see that Art gets a little overwhelmed and doesn't want to listen to Billy so Billy kind of takes it into his own hands and cuts one of the guys on the team that Art kept playing. And so, yeah. Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I think with that, even though Art might have been a little skeptical about Billy, I think also that kind of goes, like Art was a great coach as well and so I think that goes to Billy's kind of picking quality people and spending time kind of prepping with them and so I think that having wise individuals around you is super important for a leader because you're able to bounce ideas off of them and make sure that kind of what's going into the business is not something that's going to harm it and I think also Billy spent a lot of time prepping with them and on his own kind of researching players that he wanted to recruit and kind of the competition that they were going to face and I think that that's something that, though it might have consumed Billy quite a bit, I think it ultimately paid off in the end for the team. Yeah. Also going off of that, I feel like when you're talking about quality people, it can also be the players on the team because he looked past the things that kept other teams away so he looked at the quality that was hidden within them that made them valuable players and so having those people on the team that he had faith in, it kind of helped him grow as a leader. Yes, absolutely. One of the points I was going to bring up is that at the end of the movie, like Jaclyn mentioned, we talked about how he turned out a $12.5 million offer. Was it the Boston Red Sox? Mm-hmm. That's right, exactly. So that kind of made me think of, towards the beginning we see that he doesn't care what he's doing, he's the boss who's doing it and I feel like towards the end, we kind of see some humble qualities showing in him and it kind of made me think of the article that we read called Humble People Might Yield Better Results and then there was also another title that said The Best Bosses Are Humble Bosses and I feel like this is a really good quality that he's enduring just because he's eager to improve himself, he's more like not being overconfident and I feel like he's going to have more willingness to learn now. So I just feel like he's developing more humble qualities towards the end of the movie. I totally agree, which I think was really neat to see. And I think also kind of another quality that we brought up was how he kind of gave the people below him ambiguous instructions and so I feel like they were open for interpretation and we kind of discussed a little bit earlier in the semester about what the right amount of guidance is based on the situation and I honestly feel like though Billy kind of had some slip-ups, I think in the end he did give the right amount of guidance to the right people and kind of told the information that they needed to know and also let them kind of handle the task in the way that they thought would be best. The first example that comes to mind is Peter and the way that he, the people he recruited, he didn't necessarily give Peter a specific type of person that he wanted to see on the team. He kind of let Peter take the reins on that and I feel like it probably, with Peter's Yale background, I think that it ended up being kind of players that Billy wouldn't necessarily have picked but better than what Billy would have probably picked. For sure. Yeah. I was looking at the leader participation model and I do think that the importance of commitment was pretty high in this situation because there is a scene where the players had just lost a game and Billy walks into the locker room and they're all dancing around, happy, playing music, and I think that the lack of commitment to win kind of was really low in that situation but it should have been high and so Billy kind of puts them in check and says, like, we are not losers, we're not here to lose, so let's, like, shape up and change this direction because I think that the team members weren't really committed to winning, they just wanted to be on a team. Absolutely. And I think the last point we kind of discussed was that, like, with that scene, he doesn't let his team strive for anything less than their best and that was something that I just really admired about Billy because he knew that they weren't supposed to lose to the team that they lost to and he knew that they were a great team of great players and so when you saw them partying after they lost, I think, like you said, like, he didn't really understand that and so I think with that, he kind of, again, he challenged them and pushed them out of their comfort zone but also knew what they had, so I thought that was a really neat point as well. And then looking at the, when you look at the past goal model, it talks a lot about, like, directed behavior and the supportive behavior of a leader and I feel like in this scene, he shows a lot of directed behavior because he increases his followers' belief that they can perform successfully. For sure. And he also, like, puts them in check and reduces role ambiguity. Ambiguity, I can't say that. Absolutely. Just one final point that I would bring up is that the beginning of the movie, we kind of see that Billy is more open to facilitate with the group and, like, ask the group, okay, what's our problem? How do we fix it? And was kind of open to working with the group to fix it but as Peter comes along, he kind of, like, results back to a consult individually kind of decision making and he only talks to Peter about his decision and even if he doesn't really talk to Peter, so you kind of see, like, the decide and consult individually so there's going to be a lower participation level for the other people at the company. For sure. And I think I can speak for all three of us when I say that we learned a lot about kind of what the type of manager that we would want to be in the business world and so I think Peter, or, sorry, Billy was a great example and so things to do and things not to do. So thank you for joining us on our managerial analysis of the movie Moneyball.