Case Study - HR Management for MBA for Zeek the Geek Only

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AnalysisofBillyBeaneChangingtheGameDFields_51219.docx

Running Head: ANALYSIS OF BILLY BEANE: CHANGING THE GAME. 1

ANALYSIS OF BILLY BEANE: CHANGING THE GAME 2

Analysis of Billy Beane: Changing the Game

Debra Fields

Webster University

HRMG 6000

Professor Bruce Gillies

May 12, 2019

 

Compensation Strategies

In the field of major league baseball, the Oakland A’s defied baseball economic laws when they spent about $35 million and had emerged victorious in over 100 games and lost only 50 games in 2001. Additionally, they topped their division and made the playoffs as well. Most baseball teams prefer to hire high school players than university players and therefore, this made high school players very expensive. However, Oakland A’s team opted a different strategy and hired university players instead to save on resources. Their argument was that university players had already attained substantial exposure as well as competition. Nonetheless, Beane would hire new drafts and sign them for less than the going rate. Due to budget restraints, Oakland A’s club had to trade in its top players with the younger who was much less costly to try to remain within budget. Another case of concern for the team is the hiring of Scott Hatteberg. He was a player who played for Boston Red Sox for a time period of six years. He got injured and couldn’t recover fully and thus was termed a liability by Boston Red Sox who concluded never to sign him again. This said, Hatteberg’s market value reduced and that is why Oakland A’s signed him at a much lower cost. Not known to most major league baseball teams, Hatteberg was the missing piece in A’s team. The team acknowledged his uncanny knack for getting on-base.

Staffing (recruiting selection, and retention strategies)

Oakland A’s team strategy for staffing was based on sabermetrics. Roberto (2005) defines sabermetrics as a system as well as a statistical technique in evaluating players and teams. He further asserts that the basis for judging a player should be based upon the on-base record. Oakland A’s hiring prioritized university players than high schoolers since they have already participated in more games and played against better competitions. Bean conceives the fact that a young player is neither what he appears nor what he might become, but what he has achieved. The point he was trying to put across is what the player has done on a university level. Bean conceived that he could forecast the future performance of university players more effectively than the high school ones. The other staffing scheme was the case of Hatteberg, although he was injured and never got the chance to be signed up by Boston Red Sox that but did not deter him from playing when he was offered a chance by Oakland A’s. This was done due to the fact that Hatteberg was on-base scoring run. He filled the missing gap in the team.

Training and development strategies

Even though battling average was the norm embraced by most major league baseball teams but that was not the case for Oakland A’s. The team training focused majorly on a player’s ability to get on-base run. Oakland A’s relied more on choosing players by their on-base records. In respect to sabermetrics model, baseball teams always emerge victorious with players who have attained on-base run. The team’s training as well as development strategies adopted on-base run as a philosophy for the entire organization. This system was a killer strategy. Every minor league team began to conduct in walks thus resulting to higher on-base run.

Compensation was on the basis of the value of the player. Because major league baseball teams recruited high school players, Oakland A’s looked out for university players. They would hire these kinds of players to minimize costs. Oakland A’s team training was based upon an on–base record. These requirements have fully integrated the team to match a meager budget with its objective alongside as well.

The Oakland A’s focused on evaluating the company’s human capital and creating the organizational competencies is needed to reinforce the strategic direction in order to influence the HR strategy. Stephan Millard (2013), VP and Research Director of Ventana Research states that “Human capital is most organizations’ largest investment and one of their largest differentiators against the competition”. To cover its labor costs and other expenses, a company must earn sufficient revenues through the sale of its products and services competitiveness and their ability to and the pay level it sets. It follows then, that an employer’s ability to pay is constrained by its ability to compete. The nature of the products and service determines the organization ability to compensate (Cascio, 2016).

Yes, there are potential problems with the HR strategies adopted by the Oakland A’s. One such problem is that Oakland team A players get older throughout the baseball seasons. This is because the team’s strategy is to hire university players. These players are much older compared to high school players. The risk of recruiting these players is that their performance in future baseball games will be adversely affected. On-base sabermetrics tech was developed by the team in an attempt to counter the expensive costs of recruiting a player as well as to correct the market value of players. Repeating this technique by other baseball teams would further create more imbalances in the need for players. If every team would be repeating what Oakland A’s team has done, the consequence would be that college players would also be expensive. Players who have a low batting average but have substantial on-base average will be in demand thus heightening the recruiting costs. However, all these could have been avoided had the Oakland team patented their brilliant idea.

References

Cascio, W. (2016). Managing Human Resources. In W. Cascio, Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits (p. 424). New York: McGraw Hill Education.

Roberto, M. A., & Harvard Business School (2005). Billy Beane: Changing the game. Boston: Harvard Business School.rd Business School.

Milliard, S. (2013, January). Human Capital Management and Technology. Ventana Research. Retrieved from https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/324416/human-capital-management-and-technology-expert-stephan-millard-joins-ventana-research