Non-Monetary Motivation of Professional Football
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國立中山大學管理學院國際經營管理碩士學程 碩士論文 Master of Business Administration Program in International Business National Sun Yat-sen University Master Thesis 非金錢動機的奧地利職業足球員 NON-MONETARY MOTIVATION OF PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYERS IN AUSTRIA 研究生：辛柏纳 Bernhard Schnederle 指導教授：韋岱思 博士 Dr. Thijs Velema 中華民國107年12月 December 2018 i Abstract Chinese 中文摘要 在足球金錢化和來自球迷、媒體、同儕和教練對足球員源源不絕的壓力 情況下，在球隊內保持高昂的士氣對足球俱樂部來說是至關重要的。畢 竟，較高的動機可以導致更好的績效，進而提升俱樂部收入和增加球員 職業晉升的機會。當球員的動機對雙方都產生關鍵性的影響時，研究球 員和俱樂部在僱傭角色上的關係，對於了解導致較高的動機和較佳表 現因素具有重要性。更甚一層，基於球隊的規模，大多數的球員不具備 可競爭性。本文主旨在確定球員本身的動機以及俱樂部採取什麼措施 來保持隊內平衡和積極的氣氛，也包含對於自身角色不確定及在場上 表現不佳的球員。通過訪問奧地利聯賽的球員與代表，本文揭示了職業 足球的一些做法以及球員的價值觀，期望，規範和心態，發現利益衝突、 球員及教練之間缺乏溝通、團隊建立活動、教練的角色、非金錢性的利 益和社會融合都是具有討論性的議題。 關鍵字：動機、組織行為、職業足球、運動心理學、競爭行為、團體 動力學、領導力 ii Abstract English In times of monetization of football and constant pressure on players from fans, media, peers and coaches, maintaining a high morale within squads is essential for professional football clubs. After all, higher motivation leads to higher performance, which consequently leads to higher revenues for clubs and career advancement for players. As players’ motivation is essential for both sides, looking at measures taken by players and clubs in the role of employees and employers, is important to learn what may lead to higher motivation and better performance. Furthermore, given squad sizes, a large number of players hardly features in competitive action on a regular basis due to the rules of the game. This paper aims to identify what players themselves do to be motivated and what measures clubs undertake to keep a balanced and positive atmosphere among the squad, including those who struggle with their role and playing time. Through interviews with players and club representatives in the Austrian Bundesliga, this paper uncovered some practices in professional football as well as values, expectations, norms and mentalities of players. Conflicts of interest, lack of communication between players and coaches, team-building exercises, the roles of coaches, non-monetary benefits and social integration were among the most discussed topics. Keywords: Motivation, organizational behaviour, professional football, sports psychology, group dynamics iii Table of Contents Thesis Validation Letter i Abstract (Chinese) ii Abstract (English) iii 1. Introduction 1 2. Literature Review 8 2.1. Football 8 2.1.1. Football in Austria 8 2.1.2. Licensing in Austria 9 2.1.3. Recent Bundesliga Reform 10 2.1.4. Player Development 10 2.1.5. Football as Business 10 2.1.6. Football as Business in Austria 11 2.2. Motivation 12 2.2.1. Jung’s 3 Categories 13 2.2.2. Non-motivation 14 2.2.3. Fringe Benefits and Motivation 14 2.2.4. Fringe Benefits in Sports 15 2.3. Self-Initiatives 16 2.4. External Influences 18 2.5. Group Dynamics 20 2.5.1. Team Cohesion 20 2.5.2. Group Properties 22 2.5.3. Leadership in Football 23 3. Methodology 25 3.1. Sample, Method & Demographics 25 3.2. Austria as Data Pool 38 3.3. Cultural and Performance-related Similarities 28 4. Data Analysis 31 4.1. Squads and Regular Players 31 4.2. Core Statements 32 4.3. Analysis of Core Statements 41 5. Discussion and Conclusion 45 6. References 49 7. Appendix 57 iv Table of Figures Figure 1: Hofstede’s Cultural Framework Comparison 57 Table of Tables Table 1: Interviewed Players 26 Table 2: Interviewed Club Representatives 27 Table 3: Squad comparison of Austrian Bundesliga squads 2017/18 32 Table 4: Summary of Core Statements 44 Table 5: Comparison of League Size and UEFA coefficient (AT, GE, CZ, CH) 58 v 1. Introduction Nowadays, in an ever-increasingly complex business environment, more and more success factors for monetary and non-monetary success of organizations evolve. While success can be defined in different ways, employees continuously play the most significant role in organizations. After all, an organization’s competitiveness heavily depends on the performance of its employees (Sikyr, 2011). According to Jung (2011), employee performance in turn, is strongly linked to intrinsic and extrinsic motives, with monetary compensation being the most common extrinsic motive. However, intrinsic motives also play a significant role, one that in most cases cannot be measured in numbers easily. This thesis will look at intrinsic motivation within organizations in practice, in the case of non-monetary motivation in Austrian professional football1 clubs. Given that one of the main ambitions of every organization is to have its employees perform their tasks vigorously and in high spirit (Randhawa, 2007), literature on the motivation of employees does not fall short and has been covered extensively in social sciences. Ranging from established models such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to the influence of modern technology and social media to employees’ motivation, the views, thoughts and attitudes of employees have been researched over the last couple of decades, leaving little to investigate. Furthermore, cooperation, group dynamics and rivalry within teams and organizations, amongst peers and superiors/subordinates has been generously researched, providing a solid understanding of how groups and its members function on individual and collective levels. In regard to sports, attention has been paid to players’ psychology and performance, by researchers, scientists and psychologists thus far. By 1 Note: Although Association football is referred to as soccer in the United States and other parts of the world, this articles uses the more widespread term football given the wider potential readership reach. 1 looking at research in social sciences it becomes evident that it can be applied to football as well. After all, due to the nature of organizations of being a group of people, striving to achieve a common goal by cooperating, sports clubs and football (soccer) clubs in a narrower sense, symbolize organizations as well. This e.g. shows in the similarity to Mintzberg’s research (1979), categorizing the structure of organizations into five parts – the operating core, the middle line, the strategic apex and the technostructure and support staff. Applying the framework to football clubs, the parts can be seen as the equivalent to players, coaching staff, top-level executives and infrastructure personnel, respectively. Combining the basic fields of research that set the foundation for this paper – motivation, groups and sports with the latter containing elements of the former two – it is evident there is a wide spectrum of theory already available. However, there is potential room for in-depth research on several matters. Sports clubs and football clubs as organizations, as well as sports psychology, organizational behaviour and group dynamics in sports clubs have been subject to research papers in social sciences and economics. Elias and Dunning examined group dynamics in football as early as 1966. Roberts (1995) claimed that in the area of sports, the topic of motivation is less researched and understood than in other areas. Torgler & Schmidt (2007) discovered a link between individual performance and relative income position within teams; Fransen et al (2015) found a positive correlation between team confidence and perceived performance; Tziner et al (2003) discovered significant correlation between team cohesion and performance and Hall et al (2002) found a Granger causality from higher pay to increased performance. However, not too much literature is available on what specifically motivates professional football players besides monetary compensation, and no literature on the subject is available for professional football in 2 Austria, a league similar to other small leagues in Central Europe. Especially given the recent times of global monetization in football with money being pumped into the sports, resulting in high player salaries and constantly outmatching record transfer fees, it is important to understand the non-monetary motivating factors. With the ongoing monetization of football and more money being put into the industry in the form of higher transfer fees, advertising deals for clubs and salaries, the bottom line of salaries will inevitably rise. Given that money as compensation alone is only satisfactory to a certain extent, understanding non-monetary factors that might make the difference for a player deciding for a club is relevant. Furthermore, football clubs display one characteristic that is arguably more distinctly present in sports rather than traditional organizations – the one of rivalry within the team. Most of the available literature on motivation in sports only looks at teams or players, most of which leaving out the inevitably emerging inequality within said groups. This inequality is formed by the fact that only a limited number of players is allowed to competitively participate on a regular basis due to the very rules of the game. One could assume that players featuring regularly on a competitive level would be more content with their situation than those who are only able to prove their value during training session, thus creating a challenge for clubs to maintain a healthy atmosphere within the team. Therefore, examining motivational practices within clubs but also measures taken to motivate those not playing on a regular basis seems appealing. Naturally, one might draw assumptions from TV and newspaper interviews, reports in magazines and players’ social media profiles. It is to be noted though that clubs rarely open up about their internal practices and players may not reveal most of their values and 3 attitudes in widely publicized interviews. In any case, no academic literature is available on the specific abovementioned matter, indicating a research gap that is to be filled. This study should not only focus on intrinsic motivation of professional football players in Austria as such but rather on a wider range of factors that may or may not influence a player’s motivation and consequently their performance. These factors could include external influences by clubs (as a whole or on an individual level), peers, fans, the media and others. Furthermore, special attention will be paid to those players not featuring in the teams’ starting line-ups or substitute benches on a regular basis (also referred to as the match day squad).