Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Art of Swedish Management

2003; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

1556-5068

Julian Birkinshaw,

Sports, Gender, and Society

In the world of professional sport, the difference betweensuccess and failure is razor-thin and it only takes onebad result for a star player or coach to fall from grace.But the story of Sven-Goran Eriksson’s turnaround ofthe England soccer team is worth taking a look at, evenif the England team’s performance in this summer’sWorld Cup ends up falling short of expectations.Eriksson, for anyone who does not follow sport,took an England team lying bottom of its WorldCup qualifying group and, 12 months later, broughtit out on top. He has restored national pride in thesport – largely through the 5-1 defeat of Germany –and has justified the Football Association’scontroversial decision to bring in a foreign coach ratherthan an Englishman.But Eriksson’s success has also put the spotlight onthe broader implications of his style of management.He comes across as a rather unlikely leader – modest,understated, a man of few words. But at the sametime he is evidently very successful. And this raises