Grading The
Apprentice
By Henry P. Sims, Jr.
From the Spring '05 issue of
SMITHbusiness
OK, I confess I'm addicted to The
Apprentice. And judging by conversations
in my MBA class, so are my students. I'm
no TV critic, but I would give the
program, and executive Donald Trump, an
A for entertainment. From week to week,
we tune in and wonder which of the
aspiring executives will survive, and we
wait for the next twist from The
Trumpster.
But good entertainment isn't always
good management or good leadership. As a
professor of management and
organization, watching the show can be
as much pain as pleasure. In every
episode I see some lessons that are the
exact opposite of the lessons I want my
students to learn. Here are a few
examples.
Teamwork: F
Teamwork is a key component of the
MBA program at Smith, because effective
teamwork is crucial to the success of an
organization. Recruiters always cite
ability to work in teams as one of their
top criteria for new hires. Does The
Apprentice encourage participants to
work in teams?
Each week, one of the participant
teams is forced to vote one of the team
members off the program. The gaming
structure of the situation demands that
participants work in competition with
team members, pitting them against each
other in a Darwinian struggle for
survival. Moreover, especially in the
board room scenes, CEO Trump directly
encourages infighting by asking
questions such as Why are you better
that the other? Why should I choose you
rather than the others?
This behavior may mirror real life,
in the sense that employees do compete
with each other for promotion and
advancement. Yet I maintain that the
show encourages interpersonal conflict
to a degree that would be dysfunctional
for any team in a real-life
organization. The Apprentice receives an
F for teamwork.
Leadership: F
The Apprentice rewards a certain
type of leader: the authoritarian.
Leaders who facilitate and motivate
through team member participation are
seen as weak, while micromanagers are
rewarded. Team leaders are often
criticized for not taking charge which
seems to mean that leaders issue orders
and enforce their decisions, while
followers are compliant and deferential.
In the modern business world,
however, effective leaders are those who
motivate followers by involving them,
not ordering them about.
Encouragement of Risk Taking: F
In one episode, a participant put
himself on the line to support his team.
Behaving in a confident and supportive
manner, the participant took a risk. Mr.
Trump saw this risk taking as
recklessness, and responded with his now
famous epitaph: You're fired! The message
to the troops was clear; risk taking is
punished in this organization.
But this is a poor management
strategy. Effective leaders always
reward risk taking, even if the risk
does not always pay off. Creativity and
risk taking are essential for
innovation, and creating a climate which
encourages employees to take risks is a
real challenge for today's corporate
leaders.
Team Empowerment: A
There is one aspect of The
Apprentice, however, that I really
admire. Each week participants are
formed into teams and given a clear
objective to accomplish without
interference or meddling from their CEO.
The team is then rated according to the
team accomplishment. This is a good
example of team empowerment an excellent
management strategy.
Overall Grade: D
The Apprentice is saved from the
ignominy of an F because of the team
empowerment the participants experience
in their weekly tasks. But don't take the
show as your model for corporate
leadership!
Henry P. Sims, Jr. is
professor of management and organization
at the Robert H. Smith School of
Business, University of Maryland,
College Park, Md.
