Moneyball Case Summary

Improved Essays
Change is inevitable and impacts all people and organizations (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2016). As with all changes, attitudes will range from acceptance to resistance (Dunican & Keaster, 2015). The case study Moneyball details the story of a change in how Major League Baseball (MLB) players were scouted and recruited (Palmer et al., 2016). Traditionally, MLB used highly knowledgeable scouts to recruit talent based upon future performance indicators, however Billy Beane and Peter Brand leveraged a statistical approach named sabermetrics which determined the best recruits based upon statistical analysis of their past performance (Palmer et al., 2016). Sabermetrics was met with change resistance from many MLB teams because it questioned the well-established …show more content…
Adapted from “Managing Organizational Change: A Multiple Perspectives Approach” by I. Palmer, R. Dunford, & D. Buchanan, 2016, p. 261.
In the Moneyball case study, change resistance was evidenced by the behaviors exhibited by the MLB teams, including Beane’s senior manager Art Howe (Palmer et al., 2016). In the case of Howe, he practiced active resistance because blocked the Beane from using the recruits he found through sabermetrics (Palmer et al., 2016). As for the MLB teams, they practiced passive resistance because they procrastinated and failed to implement the change, thereby standing by and allowing the change to fail (Palmer et al., 2016).
The Role of
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The degree of resistance can be measured by mindfulness and the tolerance of ambiguity (Dunican & Keaster, 2015). This means individuals have a tolerance level for the unknown and the higher level of tolerance one has, the less the level of resistance (Dunican & Keaster, 2015). After Howe does not allow Beane to use recruits found via sabermetrics, Beane trades the traditional star player away, therefore forcing Howe to use the new recruits (IMDB, 2011). Initially, the team begins with disastrous results, but Beane convinces Howe to stay the course, resulting in an unprecedented 20 game winning streak (IMDB, 2011). Because of Beane’s trade of the one traditional player, he forced Howe to move through the denial and resistance stages to begin the exploration stage. In this case, Beane used explicit and implicit coercion to overcome Howe’s resistance. Explicit and implicit coercion’s advantages include quickness and overpowers the resistance, however its disadvantages include riskiness if people are angered (Palmer et al., 2016). It is best used when resistance is caused by wide disagreements with little chance of negotiation and reconciliation, such as the case of Howe and Beane (Palmer et al.,

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