The Chappell Way (B): A Case Study in Team Building and Group Dynamics

Abstract:

This case is about the second phase of Indian national cricket coach, Greg Chappell (Chappell) describing the poor performance of the team that culminated with the World Cup debacle in March 2007. Chappell had undertaken various initiatives to bring about a radical change in the Indian team as part of his 'Vision 2007' and make them top contenders for the 2007 World Cup. The coaching method, which was personally researched by Chappell and his business partner Frazer, could best be described as unconventional. In addition to unconventional training drills the team was also subjected to lectures on concepts in lateral thinking and other concepts and methods that are generally used in management training.

After some initial success in the 2005-06 season, the team went through a string of bad performances. All the "experimentations" conducted by Chappell came a cropper and criticisms of the coach gathered momentum. This led to the recall of players like Sourav Ganguly (Ganguly), Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, who were not considered to be in the scheme of things of Chappell, into the team just a few months before the World Cup. The team had a disastrous World Cup and Chappell faced a lot of flak for the debacle. A rift in the team and the difference between senior members of the team and the coach came out in the open following which Chappell quit as coach. Experts felt that Chappell had tugged at the fabric of the team by the way in which had ousted India's most successful captain Ganguly in 2005. His people management skills, alleged cultural insensitivity, and his alleged modus operandi of leaking potentially damning information about individual players to the media were widely criticized. Others felt that he was a victim of the system in India marked by a "star culture". The players, the captain and the BCCI also came in for a lot of criticism.

The case will help understand various issues in human resource management and organizational behavior and generalizations can be made to the corporate setting.

Issues:

» Understand the issues and constraints in team building, team management and performance management

» Understand the issues related to communication and management in the multicultural setting

» Understand and the various concepts of power and politics, group dynamics, conflict management, etc

» Appreciate the importance of people skills for a coach / leader / manager

» Understand the issues and constraints in coaching (Generalizations can be made to coaching in a corporate setting)

Contents:

Key Words:

Indian cricket, Coaching, Chappell, Management training, Team building, Group dynamics, Organizational development, Attitude, Leadership, Power and politics, Performance management, Action learning cycle, BCCI, personality, People skills, People management, Six hats technique, Lateral thinking, communication, Outward Bound Learning program.

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