Alison Doherty

• Professor (Full) at Western University

Our study examined and compared the type, process, conditions, and consequences of radical and incremental innovations in community sport organizations (CSOs), which are a type of nonprofit membership association. Interviews were conducted with the president (or representative) of 14 CSOs engaged with both radical and incremental innovations. Radic...

Voluntary sports clubs (VSCs) are viewed by governments as an import- ant catalyst for the integration of migrants/refugees. However, research has shown that only a small number of VSCs are directly involved in ‘integration through sport’ practices. To increase the number of VSCs that are willing and able to significantly implement targeted integra...

Voluntary sports clubs (VSCs) are viewed by governments as an important catalyst for the integration of migrants/refugees. However, research has shown that only a small number of VSCs are directly involved in 'integration through sport' practices. To increase the number of VSCs that are willing and able to significantly implement targeted integrati...

While masters sport aligns with the holistic concept of active aging, related research has focused predominantly on the physical domain, and less is known about the psychological, cognitive, and social benefits of older adults’ participation. This study examined, in combination, the perceived psychological, social, cognitive, and physical benefits...

This study presents the landscape of private community sport organizations in the City of London, Ontario, Canada based on a profile of organizational features that align conceptually with critical aspects of community development. Features representing the scope—variety of sports offered, program age targets, and other offerings—and operations—non...

Concussion in sport is today regarded as both a public health issue and high profile injury concern in many contact and collision sports. This paper undertakes a comparative review of the current policies and practices of two high profile national sporting organisations of such sports—the Australian Football League (AFL) and Hockey Canada (HC)—in g...

Masters athletes are a unique group of older adults whose experiences may provide valuable insights into the role of sport for successful aging. The purpose of this study was to explore whether masters athletes' social and psychological experiences vary with their time, frequency, and perceived exertion in training and competition. Semi-structured...

Rationale/Purpose: Certification is an institutional mechanism that may, indirectly, have utility for managing the challenges that are likely to be present when the state and voluntary sport clubs (VSCs) connect for sport development. Design/Methodology/Approach: A hermeneutic-dialectic approach guides the adoption of agency theory to conceptualize...

This commentary considers return to organized sport amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of nonprofit community (grassroots) sport clubs that are the backbone of sport in many countries around the world. Local clubs can be vulnerable to challenging conditions at the best of times, and are at risk of significant negative impact if they cannot...

Rationale/Purpose: Capacity building as a tool to address sector-wide challenges has received increasing attention in research and practice. This study examines the strength and impact of readiness to build capacity on the outcomes of those efforts. Design/methodology/approach: Environmental stimuli, readiness for capacity building (organizational...

Rationale/Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the adoption of long-term athlete development in one community sport club in order to advance understanding of its actual uptake and the conditions, barriers, and facilitators that influence its adoption at the community level. Design/methodology/approach: A policy implementation framew...

Despite the benefits of participating in the physically active leisure pursuit of sport, women and girls have lower participation levels than men and boys. This study adopted Millar and Doherty process model of capacity building to describe community sport clubs’ response to local government policy on increasing the number of women and girls as pla...

Purpose: In order to provide a more complete understanding of the psychological contract in the volunteer youth sport coach setting, this study advances previous research examining the coaches’ psychological contract by exploring community sport clubs’ expectations of their coaches, and what they expect to provide in return. Design: Focus groups wi...

Recent scandals across the word of sport can be directly related to poor governance. This Research Handbook gathers the state-of-the-art research on sport governance by leading international scholars on various issues across various sports, offering a vital reference point for advancing research. Illustrating different approaches and perspectives...

Using a multidimensional framework, the authors developed the Community Sport Capacity Scale to measure the key elements of capacity in community sport organizations or clubs and investigate their relative impact on three key indicators of club performance. Presidents or their representatives from 336 community sport organizations in 20 sports acro...

Capacity building is a targeted approach to addressing organizational challenges by focusing development efforts on specific needs. Utilizing Millar and Doherty's process model of capacity building, the purpose of this study was to (a) gain insight into the nature of the conditions and processes of capacity building in the community sport context a...

The present study tested a theoretical model of the correlates of role ambiguity of major sport event volunteers. The sample consisted of 328 volunteers involved with the 2012 Ontario Summer Games. Participants completed an on-line questionnaire post-Games that included measures of role ambiguity, role difficulty, training, supervision, effort, per...

Despite the growing literature on organizational capacity in nonprofit and sport organizations, considerable gaps remain when the analysis shifts to building that capacity. This study proposes a comprehensive model of capacity building that recognizes the concepts and relationships involved in that process. The model was developed according to de G...

Research question: The purpose of this investigation is threefold. First, as indications of the acquisition and creative use of knowledge, this study explores the extent to which community sport organizations (CSOs) are pursuing innovations. Second, these innovations are categorized based on their form, type, and magnitude. Third, the role that the...

Research question: This study investigated the dynamics of the conflict process in volunteer boards of nonprofit community sport clubs. The nature and level of conflict, issues and existing conditions that incite conflict, how conflict is managed, and its ultimate impact on boards, were examined. Research methods: A multiple case study approach gen...

Managing People in Sport Organizations provides a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice of managing people within a strategic framework. This revised and updated second edition examines a range of strategic human resource management approaches that can be used by sport organizations to respond to contemporary challenges and to develop a...

Sponsorships are a critical resource for nonprofit community sport organizations (CSOs) that are increasingly experiencing pressure to generate funding beyond their traditional source of membership revenues. In order to optimize this alternative source, it is important to understand the nature of the relationship between CSOs and sponsors and its i...

This study examined the psychological contract of volunteer youth sport coaches to determine the content, variation, and influences to its development. Interviews were conducted with 22 volunteer coaches of team sports, representing different levels of play (recreational, competitive), coaching tenure (novice, experienced), and gender (female, male...

This chapter looks at sport development in Canada in terms of how sport is structured and governed, how it is financed, policies that promote and support sport development, and an overview of participation rates and trends. It concludes with a special focus on the Long-Term Athlete Development model, a framework for sport participation across the l...

The purpose of the current study was to develop a theoretical understanding of the concepts and relationships that describe the local sports council as a mechanism for community sport development through a case study of one such organization. This paper presents a grounded theory study of a local sports council whose mandate reflects ‘sport for all...

Engaging in relationships with other organizations is one way for nonprofit community sport organizations (CSOs) to acquire needed resources, knowledge, and other social benefits while achieving important public purposes and building community cohesion. This study explored the processes and outcomes of interorganizational relationships in CSOs thro...

Community sport clubs are a type of membership association largely run by member volunteers who organize and deliver opportunities for recreational and competitive sport participation. These clubs are where people are most likely to engage in organized sport, and have become a focus for achieving social policy objectives. It is important to underst...

This paper reflects on why and how there should (continue to) be an investment in sport management by investing in the application and development of theory. Good theory does not just describe, it explains. Thus, in a fundamentally applied field like sport management it is important that the body of knowledge is derived from theory-based and theory...

Building on a growing body of research regarding major sport event volunteerism, this paper shares the personal lived experience of the first author's involvement as a volunteer with the 2010 Winter Olympic Games held in Vancouver, Canada. Autoethnography was used to provide rich insight into the personal and cultural context of volunteering (Ellis...

This paper, from the Dr. Earle F. Zeigler Award Lecture presented at the NASSM 2012 Conference in Seattle, outlines the merits and challenges of interdisciplinary research for the field of sport management. This alternative approach involves relating, integrating, and relocating disciplinary thinking to arrive at a mutually-determined research prob...

This article examines the nature of community sport connections evidenced by relationships between community sport clubs and various organizations in the community. This article uses a social capital perspective to highlight the potential of interorganizational relationships through sport as a mechanism for generating community connections and soci...

Using a multidimensional framework we investigated the critical elements of capacity in community sport organizations (CSOs) and their impact on anticipated change in participation levels in the near future. A sample of 336 presidents of CSOs in 20 sports across the province of Ontario, Canada, completed a web-based survey measuring the extent of v...

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that moderate the association between substantive task and process conflicts and personal relationship conflict within Canadian intercollegiate athletic departments. The sample population was administrative office personnel in those departments (i.e., directors, managers, and support staff). Base...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the different employment statuses of under‐employment, temporary employment, unemployment and non‐participation in the labor force are associated with perceived well‐being among persons with disabilities. Design/methodology/approach The authors used data from the 2006 Participation and Activi...

This study examines whether employment status and workplace accommodations are associated with perceived well-being among workers with disabilities. Data from the 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey conducted by Statistics Canada were used to test the relationship between employment status, receipt of workplace accommodations and well...

Workers with disabilities are understudied, and workers with childhood onset of disability have been excluded from many of the studies on disability and work that do exist. This research compares the effects of childhood and adult onset of disability in a nationally representative sample of workers with disabilities. Educational disruptions due to...

This study examined the influence of corporate philanthropy (CP) toward the community (specifically organisation and employee giving and volunteering) on three dimensions of organisational commitment among a sample of head office staff (N = 91) of a large fitness organisation. Corporate involvement and corporate support for employee volunteering we...

To properly manage conflict, the mechanisms of the complex conflict process must be understood. Building on existing research, the purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the conflict process by examining nonprofit board member experiences with task, process, and relationship conflict, identifying latent conditions that influ...

We explore the relationship between multidimensional role ambiguity and individual board member performance within nonprofit voluntary sport organizations. Role ambiguity accounted for 29 percent of the variance in perceived board member performance, and ambiguity about one's responsibilities was the strongest predictor. These findings extend our u...

Given the growing body of research pertaining to nonprofit sport board performance, it is timely to review the focus and findings of this body of work, and to identify what might be priorities for further investigation. An integrated model of board performance that provides a framework for this review, and for the further discussion of current find...

The benefits of a diverse workforce are realized when an organization is characterized by a culture of diversity; for example, where there is respect for differences, flexibility, an orientation toward people vs. tasks, and equifinality. The purpose of this study was to identify personal and group forces that act on, or have the potential to act on...

This study compared the perception and impact of organizational culture on staff working in for-profit and non-profit organizations in the fitness industry. The purpose was to examine whether there was any variation in the emphasis on certain values within these organizations which may distinguish the sectors of this competitive industry. The study...

This investigation examined the impact of organizational culture on job satisfaction and intention to leave the organization through a survey of fitness staff. Organizational culture is commonly known as the values, beliefs and basic assumptions that help guide and coordinate member behaviour. The Cultural Index for Fitness Organizations (CIFO) was...

Conflict can significantly influence the performance of a group and the attitudes of their members. As with any organizational group, conflict is expected within the boards of nonprofit organizations. The purpose of this paper was to examine the nature of intragroup conflict in nonprofit sport boards, and its impact on perceived decision quality, b...

A sample of older adult volunteers (JV = 20, 65 years and older) in community sport organizations was interviewed in order to understand their experiences with volunteering. An interdiscipiinary framework of serious ieisure, oider aduit voiun-teering, and older adult leisure was used to interpret the findings. Volunteering in this context was found...

The purpose of this study was to understand the volunteer legacy of a major sport event and identify aspects of the event that shaped future voluntary action in the host community. Social exchange theory framed the examination of volunteers’ positive and negative experiences with the event as a predictor of future behavioral intentions. A total of...

This study examined perceptions and correlates of role ambiguity among sport administrators in voluntary sport organizations. Building on the seminal work of Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, and Rosenthal (1964), a multidimensional measure of role ambiguity in the organizational setting was developed for this purpose. The sample consisted of 79 paid staf...

As a pivotal part of the nonprofit and voluntary sector, community sport organizations provide opportunities for active participation, social engagement, and community cohesion. This study examined the nature and impact of organizational capacity in one nonprofit community sport club to identify factors that affect the ability of this organization...

Volunteering is a positive leisure activity for older adults, yet this group has one of the lowest rates of volunteering across many nations, particularly in sport. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore factors associated with volunteering in sport among older adults. Using Peters‐Davis, Burant, and Braunschweig's (2001) multidimensi...

This paper provides an overview of the inception, design and delivery of an 'International Sport Management' (ISM) subject involving three partner universities in Australia, Canada and the USA. This unique international learning and teaching community has provided undergraduate sport management students and sport management academicians at geograph...

Understanding how to be competitive within the fitness industry requires a fundamental awareness of the service environment at the club level. To date, research on the fitness industry has placed considerable focus on the notion of service quality, particularly such elements as equipment, programmes, facilities and ancillary services, and its role...

Managing People in Sport Organizations provides a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice of managing people within a human resource management framework. It provides the reader with the skills to understand and work with people in sport organizations and, given the significant changes in sport organizations over the past twenty years, it...

Organisational culture is known as the values, beliefs and basic assumptions that are guided by leaders and shared by employees, and that explain "how things are done around here." Organisational culture has primarily been viewed as an internal phenomenon, having an impact on staff behaviour and attitudes, and ultimately influencing organisational...

In an effort to understand the under-representation of women in coaching, social cognitive career theory was used to examine the influence of sex on the head coaching intentions, and antecedents to those intentions, among male and female assistant coaches of women’s teams. Data were collected from 66 assistant coaches who represent 15 different spo...

Post‐migration sport and physical activity experiences may assist young people with the impact of migration and settlement. To investigate the role of sport and physical recreation in the process of “fitting in” to a new country, focus group interviews were conducted with 40 ESL high school students from various ethnic backgrounds who were recent i...

A multidimensional framework that purports the need to address individual, structural and cultural barriers to gender equity in sport was used as a basis for the deductive analysis of the existing Sport Canada Policy on Women in Sport and related strategies and initiatives of one National Sport Organisation (NSO) between 1986 and 2004. Structural i...

This paper explores the perceived benefits and challenges of sport, recreation and physical education participation of culturally diverse adolescent girls and boys who are recent arrivals to Canada. The aim of the research was to further our understanding of the attitudes and experiences of English as a second language (ESL) students. Following fro...

Understanding “how things are done around here” is an integral part of managing any organization. Organizational culture may impact the attitudes and behaviour of members, and the performance of the organization as a whole. Thus, the indoctrination of positive values, that become widely understood, is the likely intention of the organization's lead...

Group norms are agreed standards describing behaviours that should and should not be performed in a prescribed context. The purpose of this study was to examine, in the context of volunteer sport executive committees, the types and relative strength of perceived committee norms. A further purpose was to explore the influence of individual and group...

Understanding the experiences of volunteers in amateur sport organizations is critical to their effective management of these nonprofit organizations. The purpose of this study was to explore cohesion in volunteer sport executive committees. Members (n = 117) of sport executive committees or boards completed a questionnaire that assessed perception...

The Gender Equity in Recreation Services Policy for the City of London (Ontario, Canada, November 1996) was the first municipal policy of its kind in Canada. It followed the development of the Sport Canada Policy on Women in Sport and the Ontario Policy on Full and Fair Access for Women and Girls in Sport and Physical Activity. It resulted from ini...

The article focuses on the management and impact of cultural diversity in sport organizations. It is proposed that the potentially constructive or destructive impact of cultural diversity is a function of the management of that diversity, which is ultimately a reflection of organizational culture, or "how things are done around here." Organizationa...

Human resources, which are critical to organisational effectiveness, must be effectively managed. Human resource management relies on the ability to explain and predict organisational behaviour (OB), which is the attitudes and behaviours of individuals and groups in the organisation; their satisfaction, commitment, performance, and so on. OB resear...

This study examined the effect of various leader characteristics on the transformational/transactional leader behavior (Bass, 1985) and impact of interuniversity athletic administrators (n = 32), as rated by their coaches (n =114). Gender, age, education, administrative experience, and athletic/coaching experience were examined as possible antecede...

While the bulk of research in sport management would primarily stem from masters' and doctoral studies, quality research by sport management scholars is now published regularly in some of the best journals the profession can offer. This research is original and exclusive to the field, however, its findings are not systematically organized. There is...

This study examined the leader behavior of interuniversity athletic administrators according to Bass's (1985) transformational/transactional leadership model. The impact of that behavior on subordinates' satisfaction with leadership, perceived leader effectiveness, departmental commitment, and extra effort was also examined. A sample of head coache...

Organizational autonomy of the interuniversity athletic department, university responsibility for athletics, and pressure from nonuniversity individuals, groups, and organizations are all concerns related to the department's dependence on various sources in its environment for financial support. The Emerson (1962) power-dependence theory of social...

Interuniversity athletic departments face an ever-increasing number and complexity of factors in their environment, which may impact on their organizational activities to varying degrees. The head athletic directors at 34 of the 45 (76%) Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) member institutions rated the degree of control of 15 environment...

Increasing financial constraints have led athletic directors in Canadian universities to consider alternative sources of funding to supplement traditional university and student support. A profile of the current structure of athletic funding was developed to provide a better understanding of who is paying for interuniversity athletics and to addres...