Written by Every team has a culture, the question is what does this culture say about the team? A culture is a set of observable behaviors that are promoted and widely accepted by the organization. Teams whose members are aligned culturally, are more engaged and have better morale which ultimately leads to greater success through enthusiasm, collaboration, and goal-oriented performance, this is the case in any organization.
By what happens to the culture of a team when management is caught up with politically and financially motivated schemes? Can a positive team culture prevail when decisions are based on high finance instead of player well-being?
“I think all of those environments, whether it’s a business environment or sporting environment, are about developing people. So, if you develop your people, your business is going to be more successful. It’s just a matter of creating an environment where that becomes a happening every day.” – Sir Graham Henry, former New Zealand All Blacks Coach
When the player and the sport stops being the focus, the culture becomes affected and the team lose their impetus; their enthusiasm; and their devotion.
In the mid-1990s Australian Rugby League (ARL) was the collateral damage in a $1 billion (AUD) power struggle between two media titans, rivals Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch in a struggle over league’s pay tv broadcast rights. Murdoch and his News Corporation responded by creating Super League which competed against Packer’s traditional Rugby League in Australia.
“At the time, all we could see was breakage, a game in pieces – fractured friendships, shattered foundation clubs, slivers of treachery, shards of dead dreams, bits of buffoonery.” declared Peter Moore, on his resignation as ARL Director after his Canterbury players secretly signed up with Murdoch’s Super League two evenings earlier.
The war that ensued in the following three years was a confusing mix of ridiculousness peppered with a few startling innovations. The fans were devastated at losing their favourite teams, but the players were the big winners initially as they were paid ludicrous amounts of money. This of course was the initial cause of division and dissention between teammates. But after two years of legal battles, in which players themselves were dragged through courts, the competition was only actually played for a single season in 1997.
The turmoil and in-fighting that this schism caused completely destroyed any unison within the teams and proved definitively that it was and still is a bad idea for a media empire to own a football code. Super League was not to last long before it gave way to the National Rugby League (NRL).