1. ● Born in Arkansas
● Parents run a grocery store
● Works at the store as a child - learns hard work at early
age
● Full football scholarship to University of Arkansas
● Serves as Co-captain of his team
● Gets his Masters
● Starts an oil and gas business in Arkansas, which makes
him a millionaire
● Uses that money to purchase struggling business for
$150 million
● Turns it into one of the most recognizable brands on
the planet, worth $4.2 billion
SUCCESS???

2. Jerry Jones
By: John Evans, Edgar Guzman, Kassandra Salazar, and Lupe
Vongnarath

3. Jerry Jones
Background Information
● Born October 13, 1942
● Raised in Little Rock Arkansas by Arminta and J.W. “Pat” Jones
● Worked at grocery store run by parents as a child
○ Learned hard work = more tips!
● Accepted a football scholarship from the University of Arkansas
● Co-captain and starting guard in the Arkansas football team
● In 1965, he borrowed a million dollars from Jimmy Hoffa's Teamsters union to open up a string of Shakey's Pizza
Parlor restaurants in Missouri
● Worked as Executive Vice President at Modern Security Life of Springfield, an insurance company owned by his
father.
● Earned a master’s degree in business in 1970
● Tried many business ventures, but success eluded him

4. Jerry Jones
Background Information
● Began an oil and gas exploration business in Arkansas, Jones Oil and Land Lease
○ “Wildcatting”
○ Often disrespected, led to his aggressive style
● Made $50 million during the 70s
● Sold company to Arkla, a natural gas company, for $175 million
● In 1989, bought the Dallas Cowboys and their stadium in Irving for $150 million
● Immediately fired existing coach Tom Landry and replaced him with his friend and teammate from his college
team, Jimmy Johnson.
○ A few months later, replaced General Manager Tex Schramm with himself
● In the next few years, with Jones personally involved in the team’s every aspect, the team improved by leaps and
bounds.

5. Jerry Jones
Background Information
● In the 1992 and ‘93 seasons, Cowboys won back-to-back Super Bowls
● Named the ‘Most Valuable Franchise’ in 1993
● In 1994, Jones shockingly separated with long time friend Jimmy Johnson
○ Hired Barry Switzer as head coach
● After 1995 season, won Super Bowl again, under Switzer
● String of mediocrity since 1996

7. Recall: Lewin’s Leadership Theory
• leader's characteristic behaviors when directing,
motivating, guiding and managing groups of people
• There are 3 basic leadership styles
• Autocratic
• Democratic
• Laissez-faire
• Autocratic = Command & Control
• Democratic = Team oriented & Collaborative
• Laissez-Faire = Delegative & Little Guidance

8. Jerry Jones Leadership Stats
• Strongly Autocratic
• The Cowboys
• Pepsi
• Merchandize
• Moderately Democratic
• Player Scouting (Scout Feedback)
• Qualified Feedback
• Laissez-Faire
• Absolutely not

9. Cowboy’s Head Honcho
• Owner and GM of team
• Complete control
• Down to scouting, coaching, and team selection.
Jerry’s Rebellion
• NFL sponsorship by Coca Cola
• Jerry gets sponsorship from Pepsi
• Shows NFL who’s boss.
Against the Establishment
• Took control of Cowboys Merchandise
• Lawsuit Battle with NFL
• Display of Power, NFL backs off

10. Jerry
shows
player
Interest
during draft
Jerry
listens to
qualified
scout
report on
player
Jerry
chooses
the players
he wants
w/ scout’s
opinion
considered
Example: Johnny “Football” Manziel vs. Zack Martin

11. Recall: Fiedler’s Contingency Theory
• Contingency theory is a leader-match theory
• Tries to match leaders to appropriate
situations
• Leader style is assumed to be fixed
• Task-oriented
• Relationship-oriented
• Leader’s effectiveness depends on how well the
leader’s style fits the context (situational
favorableness)
• GOAL: Select leaders for situations or change
situations to better fit leaders.

12. Which leadership style do you think Jerry
Jones is? Why?
• Wants to be liked by and gets along well with
their subordinates
• Relationships= Priority #1
Relationship-
Oriented
• Want their subordinates to perform at a high
level and accomplish all of their assigned tasks
before considering relationships
• Meeting goals and getting job done= Priority #1
Task-
Oriented

13. Fiedler’s Contingency Theory:
Jerry Jones Applied

14. Reasons for Mismatch:
Poor Leader-Member
Relations
DeMarcusWare
• Player trades
• Rumors in
headlines after
a loss
• Poor trust
JimmyJohnson
• Led cowboys to
two successful
Super Bowl
victories
• Jerry’s inflated
ego caused Mr.
Johnson to quit
JasonGarrett
• Positional
power taken
away
• “Stuck in the
middle”

16. Fiedler’s Contingency Theory:
Jerry Jones Mismatch Solution

17. Hill’s Team Leadership Model
• Model provides and assist leader with:
- mental road map to identify group needs
- suggestions on appropriate corrective actions
- making sense of the complexity of groups and
- actions to improve group effectiveness

18. Hill’s Team
Leadership
Model

19. Three Main Leadership Decisions
Monitor or
Take Action
● If No action;
monitor
● If Action is
needed…
● Analyze,
diagnose, &
gather info
Task or
Relational
● Determine if
team is in
need of
● Task or
● Relational
intervention
Internal or
External
● Focus on
what function
is required if
● Internally or
Externally

20. Jerry Jones decision making:
Action
• Fired
Legendary
Tom Landry
• Trades
Herschel
Walker ( best
RB)
• Strategy cut
cost
Task
• Ignored
relationship
• Find better
players
• Win games
Internal/External
• Rid of previous
staff
• Changed NFL
business
• Needed money
to buy talent
and win games

21. Jerry Jones 25yrs Later:
Action oriented
● Recognized his
inexperienced
● learned from his
mistakes
● Continues to have the
final say in trading,
but is now open
minded on others
opinion.
Task / Relational
● Build a stadium with
the fans in mind
● Has better
relationship with
players and staff.
● Has yet to win a
Super Bowl
Internal/External
● Organizational
Culture is more family
oriented (Nepotism)
● Has served as best
advocate for the
team by changing the
NFL rules
● Continues to market
the team brand and
grow financially

22. Team effectiveness: Performance & Development
• Did the team accomplish
goals and objectives?
• Cohesiveness of the team to
satisfy own needs
• Excellent teams accomplish
both: getting job done &
cohesive team.

23. Accomplishments
• Bought team in 1989: $ 150 M
• As GM, won 3 SB within 6yrs
• Build a stadium worth $1.2 B
• Cowboys current worth $4.2 B
Development
● Team cohesiveness
● More attached and concern about the
team
● Continues to monitor team and build
stronger relationships internal/externally
Has Jerry been an effective leader?

24. Jerry Jones
● Lewin’s Theory: Autocratic
○ Learning to be somewhat democratic
● Fiedler’s Contingency Theory: Task-Oriented, not Relationship-Oriented
● Hill’s Team Leadership Model: Jerry doesn’t follow this process.
○ Makes rash, emotional decisions
● Wildly successful financially
○ Expert marketer and negotiator

25. Questions?