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Considering Ongoing Professionalization in Sport Organizations: A Case Study of the ACT Brumbies Super Rugby Club
Abstract
The increasing commercialism of sport has been accompanied by pressure for sport organizations to become (more) professional. The kitchen table or boardroom approaches that may be ingrained in accepted values within organizations are being challenged by contemporary business principles of sport organization governance. While considerable work has been conducted under the banner of the professionalization of sport, there has been limited research addressing the ongoing professionalization of organizations which have already moved away from being volunteer based and are operating in a business-like manner. This research provides a case study of the ACT Brumbies rugby union club in Australia addressing this issue with interviews conducted within three key stakeholder groups of this organization: Board members, operations staff, and players. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of twelve stakeholders. Results indicated that the ongoing professionalization process had differing impacts on operations for various employees.
... Whether influenced by internal or external factors, sport organizations are constantly changing (Clausen et al., 2018;Sharpe et al., 2018). Organizational change is defined as an "observed and/or experienced difference over time in some organizational characteristic, activity or idea" (Van de Ven, 2021, p. 437). ...
... Although some research has examined change from different stakeholder perspectives (e.g. Legg et al., 2016;Sharpe et al., 2018;Welty Peachey & Bruening, 2011), as discussed in the literature review below, these studies generally treat stakeholders as homogenous, amalgamating internal and external stakeholder perspectives as one, thereby perpetuating the assumption that various stakeholder groups experience radical change in similar ways. This is problematic since stakeholders undertake different roles in the change process; thus, it cannot be assumed that they are homogenous in their change experiences. ...
... parents). Sharpe et al. (2018) Interviews with internal stakeholders (i.e. Board members and staff) and one external stakeholder group (i.e. ...
Research purpose
This study compared how internal and external stakeholders experience radical organizational change in sport organizations.
Research methods
A case study of U SPORTS was built through 32 internal and external stakeholder interviews and organizational documents (e.g. strategic plans, annual reports), and analyzed thematically.
Results
Findings showed how internal and external stakeholders experienced radical change both positively and negatively but in different ways. For internal stakeholders, themes included planning and preparation, stakeholder involvement, an increased workload, the loss of institutional knowledge, and challenges associated with gaining buy-in and support for the changes. For external stakeholders, themes included communication and consultation, decision-making, stakeholder responsibility and involvement, and the number and pace of change.
Implications
Findings highlight the importance of knowing and responding to stakeholder concerns, and the criticality of various internal stakeholders (i.e. staff, Board, and committee members) for maintaining institutional knowledge during radical change.
... These requirements have been intensified by the emergence of for-profit sport organizations (FSOs), such as fitness centers (Thiel & Mayer, 2009;. In line with these challenges, many sports clubs are required to professionalize their structures, processes, and staff (Arnott, 2008;O'Brien & Slack, 2003;Sharpe, Beaton, & Scott, 2018). Professionalization means, in this regard, that the clubs are becoming more business-like or more similar to FSOs (Dowling, Edwards, & Washington, 2014). ...
... Despite this development, recent studies analyzing the professionalization of sport organizations (e.g. Sharpe et al., 2018;Vos et al., 2012) still focus on the conceptual differences of NSOs and FSOs (see Auld & Cuskelly, 2012;Heinemann, 1995;Horch, 2018). NSOs follow a nonprofit mission and are not allowed to distribute profits to directors or members (non-distribution constraint; Anheier, 2014). ...
... Therefore, it seems not appropriate to assume that NSOs in mixed sport industries are less professionalized than FSOs per se, and to analyze the professionalization of NSOs separated from FSOs, as previous studies have done by focusing on pure non-profit sectors (e.g. Arnott, 2008;O'Brien & Slack, 2003;Sharpe et al., 2018;Shilbury & Ferkins, 2011). The aim of this study is to analyze professionalization forms (e.g. ...
Research question: Sport management scholars are used to differentiate between non-profit and for-profit sport organizations (NSOs and FSOs). However, NSOs and FSOs often co-exist in the same market (i.e. mixed sport industries) and may show similar professionalization forms (e.g. strategies, processes, staff). Therefore, the research question of this study is which professionalization forms can be identified among sport organizations in mixed sport industries and how NSOs and FSOs are distributed among the identified professionalization forms.
Research methods: Exploratory factor and cluster analyses were conducted to identify professionalization forms among 71 Swiss ski schools (i.e. a mixed sport industry). Subsequently, the ski schools’ profit orientation and performance were investigated to describe the identified clusters.
Results and findings: The results show two professionalization forms that conceptual sport management literature would expect of NSOs and FSOs. However, the analysis reveals three additional professionalization forms, each one applied by both NSOs and FSOs.
Implications: This study is the first to identify professionalization forms among NSOs and FSOs in the same sport market. The findings imply that professionalization forms are independent of the profit orientation, which complements existing professionalization literature. The identification of relevant professionalization forms facilitates the understanding of professionalization for sport managers and helps to determine their organization’s position in the market.
... Therefore, some decisions become more likely than others and perfectly rational decisions are bounded (March and Simon, 1958). Attempts to mitigate new issues may conflict with the current features of the NSF, undermining its effectiveness and efficiency (Ortmann, 2010;Parent and Hoye, 2018;Sam, 2012;Sharpe et al., 2018). Supposed causalities and adaptations that are deemed successful lead to these being prioritised in allocation of resources. ...
... For example, in the organisational context, the traditional beliefs and ideals of amateur sports, such as sport for sports sake, fair play and humility, are viewed by some as outdated and a hindrance to the financial growth and progress associated with professional sport (Clausen et al., 2018). There are also the organisational considerations of replacing volunteer staff with full-time paid employees, professionalising governance structures and procedures as well as investing in high profile performers and coaches in order to compete (O'Brien & Slack, 1999;Sharpe, Beaton, & Scott, 2018). The transition into professional sports has also proved challenging for individual performers. ...
Currently little is known about the development of high-performance cultures in emerging nations. This study is the first of its kind examining an emerging rugby nation’s transition from an amateur to a professional full-time fifteen-a-side programme. Eleven full-time professional male rugby union players, the Head of the Hong Kong Rugby Union’s (HKRU) Elite Rugby Programme(ERP) and the HKRU’s peripatetic sport psychologist were interviewed. Inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interview data revealed four emerging themes, namely; 1) an amateur environment that required change; 2) ERP’s professional culture building blocks; 3) leadership strategy and managing key stake holders and 4) managing on-going challenges in the ERP’s professional culture. Theoretical and applied implications for practitioners and programme leaders responsible for driving cultural change in their respective environments are discussed.
... Building big data driven strategies in sport business The distinctive characteristics of sport, such as its intangibility, inconsistent and uncertain nature, the value co-creating consumption process (Hedlund, 2014) and the connection between the training of athletes and business operations (Sharpe et al., 2018), highlight the importance of BD in addressing the unique challenges faced by sport organizations. To develop an agile data-driven strategy, it is essential to integrate different units of the organization to derive a unified and accurate view of the organization's current operations and consumer demands. ...
Purpose
As big data (BD) has increasingly become an important tool for managers and researchers to transform sport management practices, the purpose of this research is to highlight diverse data sources and modern analytical techniques that will leverage BD as a means to advance scholarship in sport management.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive review of existing BD literature in sport management outlines new perspectives on BD research method and the application of BD in sport management.
Findings
First, through a thorough review of the literature, a domain-specific conceptualization that incorporates the field's mission and priorities was developed. Second, potential data sources and different types of analytical opportunities was identified, highlighting strategies for developing methodological approaches that leads to novel research questions. BD analytics can allow for more flexibility in improving methodological capability to analyze data and, thus, provide more granular and predictive insights. Finally, this paper concludes with a discussion of BD's impact on three domains of sport management, whereby the organizations yield data-driven decisions.
Originality/value
BD has the potential to transform the sport management operations and bridges the research-practice gap. BD research in sport management is instrumental for accumulating new knowledge and/or testing existing theories, either in a deductive fashion or by taking an inductive approach, as the field embarks to advance scholarship.
... experimental scenarios) as well as a range of perspectives including pragmatic, philosophical, and critical platforms. Sharpe, Beaton, and Scott (2018) consider ongoing professionalization in sport organisations. Dickson, Naylor and Hedlund (2018) address the memorisation of Rugby World Cup sponsors. ...
Inspired by the spectra of rugby union research presented at the 2017 World in Union International Rugby Conference, this special issue brings together a selection of the more recent empirical developments within the business of rugby. This initial paper is presented as a contextual precursor to the six special issue papers that follow. Combined, these papers draw on a variety of methodologies as well as a range of perspectives including pragmatic, philosophical, and critical platforms. We believe the research presented in this issue provides a rich and diverse source of learning for researchers and practitioners interested in the global business of rugby union.
The current research was carried out in order to identify and explain the main and important drivers affecting the professionalization of sports federations in Iran. This research is one of the mixed researches (a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods) in terms of its implementation. In addition to the qualitative study with the theme analysis method using semi-structured interviews, in the quantitative part, the model arising from the research was tested with the confirmatory factor analysis method. The statistical population of this research in the qualitative part was made up of managers and officials of the National Olympic Committee and sports federations, university professors, as well as specialists of organizations and organizational strategy (12 people). The interviewees were selected by purposeful sampling. In the quantitative section, employees of the National Olympic Committee, selected sports federations and the Ministry of Sports and Youth were selected (210 complete and correct questionnaires). The results obtained from the research identified two endogenous and exogenous factors during the professionalization process with subcategories including: the expectations of the subgroup members, the management department, the structure of the decision-making process, the specific characteristics of the federation, pressure from stakeholders and the competitive environment. Confirmatory factor analysis data also showed a good and sufficient fit of the identified factors. In general, professionalization is known as a multifaceted and complex phenomenon that various factors influence its formation and creation. In the meantime, sports federations should be able to use the best solution in the face of professionalization in the sports environment by knowing the factors.
Bill Yole is the social media coordinator and webmaster for the ACT Brumbies Super Rugby team. This interview covers Yole’s role with the club, including the day-to-day social media operations at the Brumbies and how content creation is key to the engagement of fans locally and internationally. This is particularly vital to Yole’s role because of the Brumbies’ international exposure through competing in Super Rugby, which is played in seven nations, and the number of representative players in national teams alongside several of the Brumbies players’ having heritage in the Pacific Islands. Yole also discusses how he took advantage of opportunities during his studies to secure full-time employment after he completed his sports media degree at the University of Canberra.
Full text of this paper is available here: http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/ijsc.2017-0060
Full paper available here: http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/IJSC.2017-0029 or linked here: https://olanscott.com/2017/04/27/academic-publications-as-of-27417/
In recent times rugby union in Australia has undergone significant change. We argue that the nature of this change can be largely explained in terms of the rise of postmodern structures and practices in Australian society. Most sport managers, however, have not heard the tribunes of postmodernism announcing its imminent arrival, and neither would they be familiar with its modern antecedents. This article reviews the origins of postmodernism and its impact upon the rugby union sporting landscape. It is argued that postmodernism has removed the traditional metaphysical, mythical and social barriers that were thought to divide business from sport. As a consequence, the traditional, and for some supporters, sacred practices of rugby union were undermined by an expanding consumer culture. Thus, rugby union in the postmodern world is not only a sport, but also a business that craves for media attention, corporate support and audience interest. The implications of these changes for rugby union's future are foreshadowed. Yes Yes
This study explores how trust is manifested and impacts on the levels of collaboration that take place in sport governance networks. A case study approach was used as the guiding method to examine the contributing factors that facilitate or inhibit trusting relationships between boards within sporting networks. Three sports from Australia were employed as the population for the study and 36 in-depth interviews were conducted with participants from national and state organizations operating within those networks, two federated and one partially unified. Interviews were analyzed using an interpretive process, and a thematic structure relating to the issues and impact of trust and distrust within the three networks was developed. Extant levels of trust, transparency, the capacity to build trust, and leadership emerged as the key themes in the study. The degree to which each of these dimensions was embedded in the cultures and processes of each network varied significantly. Leadership specifically, as a key finding, was shown to be an important factor in fostering col-laborative relations at the governance level of these systems. A number of implications for sport governance practice and possible extensions for sport governance research based on these findings conclude the article.
Research question: International and national sport federations as well as their
member organisations are key actors within the sport system and have a wide
range of relationships outside the sport system (e.g. with the state, sponsors, and
the media). They are currently facing major challenges such as growing
competition in top-level sports, democratisation of sports with ‘sports for all’ and
sports as the answer to social problems. In this context, professionalising sport
organisations seems to be an appropriate strategy to face these challenges and
current problems. We define the professionalisation of sport organisations as an
organisational process of transformation leading towards organisational
rationalisation, efficiency and business-like management. This has led to a
profound organisational change, particularly within sport federations,
characterised by the strengthening of institutional management (managerialism)
and the implementation of efficiency-based management instruments and paid staff.
Research methods: The goal of this article is to review the current international
literature and establish a global understanding of and theoretical framework for
analysing why and how sport organisations professionalise and what consequences
this may have.
Results and findings: Our multi-level approach based on the social theory of action
integrates the current concepts for analysing professionalisation in sport
federations. We specify the framework for the following research perspectives: (1)
forms, (2) causes and (3) consequences, and discuss the reciprocal relations
between sport federations and their member organisations in this context.
Implications: Finally, we work out a research agenda and derive general
methodological consequences for the investigation of professionalisation processes
in sport organisations.
To learn more about the governance of sport organizations, this study explored what meaning board members
of national sport organizations (NSOs) attach to the concept of “strategic capability”. In so doing, the inquiry
also identified factors considered to constrain or enable board strategic function. This paper draws on a body of
knowledge developed over 38 years on board strategic function, primarily from the commercial setting but also
from the emerging body of work in the nonprofit and sport governance setting. Located within the interpretive
research paradigm this study engaged a range of different qualitative methods including cognitive mapping
and visual imagery. Working across two NSOs in New Zealand, four elements were generated that served as
reference points in mapping out the meaning of a strategically able board. These were categorized as the need
to have capable people, a frame of reference, facilitative board processes, and facilitative regional relationships.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of subunit interests, power arrangements, and organizational capacity in a program of radical transformation of a group of Canadian National Sport Organizations (NSOs). Using real-time data collected over a 12-year period, six case studies were constructed to provide insight into the role that these internal dynamics had on the propensity of organizations to change. Results showed that NSOs that completed the transformation possessed leadership with the technical and behavioral capacity for change, had an organizational structure in which volunteers were willing to share power with professional staff, and engaged in an all-encompassing transformation process that embraced the entire organization. By contrast, those NSOs that failed to complete the change lacked effective transformational leadership, had a structure in which power was retained centrally by volunteer board members, and were characterized by ongoing struggles among subunits to protect their own interests.
This study explored sport governance practice from the lived experience of one informant spanning a 30-year period in the governance of two sport organisations (basketball and cricket). Hermeneutic phenomenology, the methodological framework used for this study, seeks to grasp the everyday world, and draw insight and meaning from it. The method involves a series of in-depth interviews with one research participant, supplemented by document analysis. Interviews were analysed using an interpretative process which blended the world views of both the participant and researchers. The participant lived through an era of increasing professionalisation within sport. His narrative, which tapped into his governance expertise at state, national and international levels, provides insights into the transition from an amateur to a commercial culture, referred to in this paper as ‘two worlds colliding’. From this narrative, three related themes were identified and labelled, ‘volunteer and cultural encounters’; ‘structural encounters’; and ‘adversarial encounters’. In drawing on hermeneutic philosophy, and highlighting that which has been hidden from view, direction for future research and practice within the sport governance domain is offered. These directions invite scholars to think about future sport governance research as it relates to federated structures and how collaborative governance theory can sharpen the focus in this domain.
This study contributes to the emerging empirical studies on roles and responsibilities of boards in nonprofit organizations by identifying competencies of volunteer board members. We identified how two types of constituents—volunteer board members and sports members—perceived competencies of volunteer board members in community sports clubs. We used the repertory grid technique to draw cognitive maps and to reveal the perceived reality of these constituents. Our results suggest that constituents within a group share similar perceptions of competencies of outstanding performing board members, while they agree less on perceptions of poor performing board members. This study reveals that cognitive (e.g., having a long term vision, having professionalism), emotional (e.g., being reliable, being honest), and social intelligence (e.g., listening to others, being jovial/nice to be with) competencies are necessary to be perceived as an outstanding performing board member.
This paper seeks to develop a theoretical model of professionalisation and professionalism built on notions of conditions, dependencies and strategies in relation to occupational associations. These notions are found in a fragmentary way in the general professionalisation literature, as well as in the literature pertaining to the professionalisation of accounting. This way of organising processes of professionalisation can enhance understanding of histories of the professionalising activities of occupational associations of accountants by highlighting complementary and mutually supporting findings as well as identifying contradictions that remain in need of resolution. The model structures conditions of professionalism (professional power, associational control and sustaining ideologies), dependent relationships with other social institutions (work, markets for services and the state) and associational strategies. In particular, this arrangement needs to be established and maintained by occupational associations of accountants in the process of professionalisation, through apposite strategies.
In this conceptual paper we examine how organizations can develop capacity for change, which we define as the allocation and development of change and operational capabilities that sustains long term performance. Making change happen without destroying well-functioning aspects in an organization and harming subsequent changes requires both capabilities to change in the short and long term and capabilities to maintain daily operations. The change literature includes a number of process prescriptions on how change can be mobilized such as, framing, participation, pacing, and sequencing, routinizing change, and recruiting. We examine how these process prescriptions contribute in developing an organization's (1) capabilities to change, (2) capabilities to maintain daily operations and (3) capabilities to implement subsequent change processes. While participation, pacing and sequencing are likely to have adverse effects on daily operations, routinizing change and recruiting personnel are likely to have positive effects on subsequent change processes.
It can be argued that the successful management of change is crucial to any organisation in order to survive and succeed in the present highly competitive and continuously evolving business environment. However, theories and approaches to change management currently available to academics and practitioners are often contradictory, mostly lacking empirical evidence and supported by unchallenged hypotheses concerning the nature of contemporary organisational change management. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to provide a critical review of some of the main theories and approaches to organisational change management as an important first step towards constructing a new framework for managing change. The article concludes with recommendations for further research.
Organisations today are under siege from a variety of areas, but perhaps the one that has created the largest impact is the need to improve performance. When all organisations are faced with absorbing change at an ever-increasing rate, the ability to improve performance while undergoing change is critical to long-term success. In order to increase one's ability to be effective in this effort, an organisation needs to look at several interrelated dynamics, including: How employees make the connection between what they do, and how they do it; the clarity of understanding around principles and organisational values; understanding the fact that structure drives behaviour; and planning by outcomes. This paper outlines how these dynamics interrelate, as well as how to help ensure that your organisation can realise its performance potential while undergoing change.
Sport governance research is growing in volume and routinely highlights the tension between volunteers and paid professionals in relation to shared leadership, board motivations, and board structures and performance. Using governance as the lens through which progress is viewed, this paper demonstrates sport's transition from an amateur, volunteer-driven pastime to a more business-like sector. Empirically derived data, from a larger action research study examining the strategic capability of New Zealand national sport organisation boards, are integrated with prior research and theoretical developments to exemplify the state of sport governance theory and the sector generally. Outcomes from the review of sport governance research, combined with a selection of results from the study of strategic capability, highlight the challenges associated with volunteer board engagement, given the increasing demands for strategic thinking and action, while also balancing this task with the conformance, policy and operation roles.
Racial and nationality-based stereotypes of professional baseball players have been prominent in the U.S. media since the 1800s (Voigt, 1976). To determine the manner and extent to which such stereotypes exist in the media today, a qualitative document analysis was conducted on the nation's top two general-interest sport magazines, Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine from 2000 to 2007. Based on framing theory, the purpose of the study was to determine what differences existed between the frames used to describe athletes of differing nationalities and races. The results revealed that stereotypes based on race and nationalities were maintained throughout the study in both publications, further perpetuating such stereotypes in the minds of readers. In addition, differences existed in portrayals of athletes of the same race but different nationalities. Implications for sport managers and suggestions for future research are addressed.
The aim of this paper is to summarize literature relevant to the professional organization and to present a contemporary analysis of the archetype concept in this field. In order to understand recent and ongoing changes in professional organizations, the paper begins with a review of how the professional archetype evolved from the 1960s to 1990. Then, with examples from contemporary accounting, health care and law organizations, it considers the processes by which an institutionalized archetype can change. Forces for change - such as deregulation, competition, technology and globalization - can challenge the interpretive scheme and eventually delegitimize the existing archetype. At the same time, significant environmental changes can override isomorphic pressures and de-institutionalize the long-accepted structures. Thus we herald the emergence a new professional archetype - or perhaps several competing archetypes. Finally, the paper reviews the evolving field of professional organization as a whole, and understands the extant archetypes. A typology of professional organizations is proposed that currently seems to have three clusters of organizations possibly three competing archetypes - namely, the traditional professional partnership, the specialized 'Star' form and the corporate global professional network, or GPN.
This paper draws on a comparative case study of the implementation of a planned change initiative across three different divisions of a multidivisional oil company to investigate the influences guiding division-level change agents in their choice of a change management approach and the impact of different approaches on change outcomes. While the contingency perspective suggests that change management approaches should be chosen to fit with change content and context, we found that change agents navigated amongst three concerns: substantive concerns related to goal attainment, political concerns related to conformity to corporate demands, and relational concerns concerning relations with employees. We identified three different change management trajectories across the three divisions based on alternative ways of balancing the concerns. The data show that, regardless of the change management approach adopted, change tends to be diluted in implementation. However, the various trajectories have differential consequences for other important dimensions such as corporate approval and relationships with employees.
This article explores how the boards of small firms actually undertake to perform strategic tasks. Board strategic involvement
has seldom been investigated in the context of small firms. We seek to make a contribution by investigating antecedents of
board strategic involvement. The antecedents are “board working style” and “board quality attributes”, which go beyond the
board composition features of board size, CEO duality, the ratio of non-executive to executive directors and ownership. Hypotheses
were tested on a sample of 497 Norwegian firms (from 5 to 30 employees). Our results show that board working style and board
quality attributes rather than board composition features enhance board strategic involvement. Moreover, board quality attributes
outperform board working style in fostering board strategic involvement.
The role of values in determining how organizations are structured and operated has become an increasingly important area of study. As yet, however, little work has explored the way in which values affect the change process. Drawing on insights from the institutional theory, change, and values literatures, this article presents a set of propositions that explore the change-values relationship. The propositions were examined using real-time data collected over a 12-year period from a set of Canadian amateur sport organizations undergoing pronounced institutional change. It was found that organizations that contained members who held values congruent with the prescribed changes were able to successfully engage in the transition process. Conversely, those organizations with members who opposed the change entered into a period of largely superficial conformity, mainly in response to certain coercive pressures, but ultimately reverted to designs more consistent with the values held within the organization.
The growth of professionalism in sport in Australia has had a significant impact on players and administrators in many sporting organisations. This changing environment has caused sporting organisations to review their organisational goals and objectives. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether Laughlin's (1991) model of organisational change can illuminate our understanding of the differing impacts of environmental disturbances on sporting organisations. This is achieved by examining the organisational change processes that have occurred within the Queensland Rugby Union (QRU) during its recent history. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews with individuals at differing functional levels within the QRU were used to examine change and its impacts on the QRU. These data were analysed using Laughlin's model of organisational change. Although Laughlin's model succinctly describes historical changes in the QRU, its capacity to explain fully the current change process is limited. The shortcomings of Laughlin's model are considered from the standpoints of critical theory and postmodern approaches to the study of organisations. It is concluded that organisational change is a complex phenomenon that filters through the organisation with differing ramifications at different levels. It is demonstrated that Laughlin's model can be modified to reflect more fully and adequately the complexity of changes across differing levels of the QRU. It is suggested that similar modifications will prove useful for the description of change in other sport organisations.
Nonprofit governance models rarely incorporate board intragroup dynamics as a significant board factor that influences performance. However, intragroup dynamics such as cohesion and conflict have demonstrated a relationship with board performance suggesting that board intragroup dynamics play a larger role than previously thought. In order to better understand the relationship between intragroup dynamics and performance, a systematic quantitative literature review was conducted. Through an extensive search process and the application of a series of inclusion criteria, 43 papers were identified and reviewed. Three types of intragroup dynamics (cohesion, the board–CEO relationship, and boardroom climate) were shown to have a positive relationship with performance whereas the relationship between performance and two other intragroup dynamics (conflict and power patterns) was mixed. It was concluded that intragroup dynamics should be a central factor in board governance models. Using the findings of this review, directions for future research were identified.
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 staff and 143 volunteer board members from provincial voluntary sport organizations. Respondents completed an online questionnaire that included items pertaining to role ambiguity, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, effort, and demographic variables including age, gender, position, organization tenure, and position tenure. Preliminary support was found for a three-dimensional model of role ambiguity consisting of scope of responsibilities ambiguity, meansends knowledge ambiguity, and performance outcomes ambiguity. Role ambiguity was negatively associated with age, job tenure, and organization tenure, with more years of experience reflecting greater role clarity. Greater role ambiguity was also associated with lower levels of satisfaction, organizational commitment, and effort. In addition, ambiguity pertaining to scope of responsibilities was the primary predictor of both satisfaction and organizational commitment, while performance outcomes ambiguity and means-ends knowledge ambiguity significantly predicted effort. Implications for the management of role ambiguity in voluntary sport organizations, and the merits of a multidimensional approach to understanding this phenomenon, are discussed.
This study explores how trust is manifested and impacts on the levels of collaboration that take place in sport governance networks. A case study approach was used as the guiding method to examine the contributing factors that facilitate or inhibit trusting relationships between boards within sporting networks. Three sports from Australia were employed as the population for the study and 36 in-depth interviews were conducted with participants from national and state organizations operating within those networks, two federated and one partially unified. Interviews were analyzed using an interpretive process, and a thematic structure relating to the issues and impact of trust and distrust within the three networks was developed. Extant levels of trust, transparency, the capacity to build trust, and leadership emerged as the key themes in the study. The degree to which each of these dimensions was embedded in the cultures and processes of each network varied significantly. Leadership specifically, as a key finding, was shown to be an important factor in fostering col-laborative relations at the governance level of these systems. A number of implications for sport governance practice and possible extensions for sport governance research based on these findings conclude the article.
There is increasing pressure on Canada's National Sport Organizations (NSOs) to seek non-governmental sources of funding for the operation of their programs. Although there was some evidence of the re-commodification of sport and leisure given in the 1986 Nielsen Task Force on Program Review, this pressure to seek corporate funding has manifested itself in the two most recent federal Task Force reports on the sport system in Canada, Towards 2000 and Sport: The Way Ahead. One area in which NSOs are being urged to seek alternatives to government support is in that of corporate sponsorship. Despite the growing pressure to acquire funds from the business sector, there is a surprising paucity of analytic literature on the subject of corporate sponsorship of sport in general, and of amateur sport in particular. This paper analyzes the issue of corporate sponsorship of sport from the perspectives of the three central agents involved: the government, corporations, and NSOs. It is argued that there are a variety of different motives behind corporate sponsorship as opposed to government support of sport which do not necessarily coincide. The implications of an increased reliance on the corporate sector by NSOs are discussed.
It has been 80 years since the concept of professionalisation began to take root within the sociology and management disciplines. Similarly, the study of the professionalisation of sport has a relatively prominent and longstanding history within the discipline of sport management. Notwithstanding its continued usage and importance, there has been little systematic attempt to examine how the concept has been operationalised within sport management. In light of this recognition, this review piece draws upon extant sport management, sociological and managerial literature to (i) explore the various ways in which the concept of professionalisation has been employed within sport management, and in doing so, (ii) identifies potential research gaps and future avenues of inquiry within the sport management discipline. The review identifies three broad classifications of professionalisation (organisational, systemic, occupational) and calls for more research surrounding broader conceptualisations of professionalisation that remain relatively unexplored by sport management scholars.
Increased interest in organizational change (i.e., shifts in an organization's structure, strategy, and processes) has led to considerable diversity in the theoretical approaches used to explain the phenomenon. This theoretical diversity has caused some scholars to suggest that a more complete understanding of organizational phenomena such as change is obtained when different theoretical perspectives are used in conjunction with one another. This paper examines a process of change that has been occurring in Canadian national sport organizations. Utilizing the theoretical approaches found in work on resource dependence theory, institutional theory, organizational culture, and the role of transformational leaders in managing change, the paper shows how these approaches explain different aspects of the change process. It also shows how a more complete understanding of change may be gained by using more than one theoretical perspective.
The complexity of political, regulatory, and technological changes confronting most organizations has made radical organizational change and adaptation a central research issue. This article sets out a framework for understanding organizational changes from the perspective of neo-institutional theory. The principal theoretical issue addressed in the article is the interaction of organizational context and organizational action. The article examines the processes by which individual organizations retain, adopt, and discard templates for organizing, given the institutionalized nature of organizational fields.
The literature that has focused on the change in amateur sport organizations in Canada, has suggested an evolutionary movement toward a more professional and bureaucratic design. While this view of change in Canadian national sport organizations provides strong descriptive support for understanding these organizations, it neglects the differences between them. The central premise of this paper is that changes in these organizations should not simply be explained as system-wide trends toward increased professionalization and bureaucratization. Rather the variety in organizational design may be understood by identifying common design archetypes that exist within this institutionally specific set of organizations. It will then be possible to more precisely identify the nature of the change process that is occurring.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact that the hiring of a professional staff person had on the structural and systemic arrangements of a voluntary sport organization. Six organizations were examined at critical decisions points following the hiring of a professional staff member. The introduction of these people was shown to result in an increase in both the levels of specialization and standardization within these organizations. The increases occurred differentially across organizational systems, with technical systems showing the greatest increases. Decision making was found to become more centralized immediately after the hiring of a professional, however it decentralized over time.
This paper reports the findings of the first stages of a research project which investigates the organisational structures of the National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) in Britain and the strategic management styles which these organisations employ.
Under which conditions can professional knowledge and values be integrated successfully into the organization and management of a family firm?
Organizational transformation, qualitative and fundamental changes in an organization, occurs as a result of an organization's adaptive mechanisms being overwhelmed by internally or externally induced contingencies. Current approaches to change derived from equilibrium models are not adequate to describe the transformation phenomena. An emerging paradigm, dissipative structure, provides an alternative perspective on transformation by proposing that non-equilibrium conditions provide the opportunity for a new organizational order, resulting in an increased ability to manage complexity. Conditions, processes, and functioning of organizations from this perspective are discussed.
Discusses the shift in focus of change management from change itself to the people facing change and the impact on the most powerful drivers of work behaviour: purpose, identity and mastery. Observes that leaders need to align these behaviours with organizational change by explaining the who, what, where, why and how of the change. Describes the change management cycle: understand the current situation, develop a change plan, enlist others to develop critical mass and track and stabilize results. Presents the “TRY” (test, recalibrate, yes) model to help change leaders’ resistance to change and lists what is needed in leaders to increase their ability to manage organizational change effectively.
This theory-building article advances prior research related to change drivers and the organizational change process. First, we identify the most frequently identified steps in the organizational change process. Second, we summarize the literature related to change drivers, clarifying each driver, and we link each change driver to the most frequently identified steps in the organizational change process. This allows exploration of the relationship between change drivers and the steps in the change process, as well as discussion of how change drivers vary in terms of their effect. Our contribution to organizational change theory include reviewing and clarifying change drivers in prior research, and linking the drivers to specific steps in the organizational change process.
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 understanding of the drivers of individual board member performance within voluntary sport organizations and the multidimensional nature of role ambiguity. The study supports previous arguments that knowing what to do is fundamental to one's performance, and more critical than knowing how to do it, and what difference it makes.
Manuscript Type: Empirical
Research Question/Issue: This study explores the most appropriate board structure for national governing bodies (NGBs) of sport in the UK. Sports are a very important aspect of UK society, involving a significant number of participants and spectators, occupying a key role in furthering the nation's health, and, at the elite level, a source of considerable national pride. From a governance perspective, NGBs of sport are non-profit organizations, managing both professional and amateur sports, and administering the allocation of considerable amounts of funds, especially public funds. The study was motivated by a renewed interest, not least from government, in ensuring NGBs had an appropriate structure to ensure optimal decision-making for their stakeholders.
Research Findings/Insights: We interviewed 22 senior administrators involved in sports in the UK. Our interviews sought to ascertain their views on the appropriateness of applying a number of key board reforms, currently seen as good practice, to NGBs of sport. The overall consensus is as follows: (1) NGBs should reform the composition of their boards to better reflect business demands; (2) board size should be in the range of five to 12 members; (3) NGBs should have different individuals occupying the positions of CEO and chairman; and (4) boards of NGBs should possess more non-executive directors.
Theoretical/Academic Implications: This research adds to our understanding of governance in non-profit organizations generally and NGBs of sport in particular. Ascertaining the views of key administrators and advisors in sport provides a novel contribution to the governance in sport literature. Our findings allow us to develop a number of propositions capable of being examined further in subsequent research.
Practitioner/Policy Implications: The results of this study feed into an important on-going debate regarding the appropriate governance structure of sport NGBs in the UK. A key finding is that boards in NGBs should move away from being only representative, but should also include members with specific business expertise as well as a greater element of non-executive monitoring.
This article evaluates the impact of New Labour’s ‘modernization project’ on two key non-departmental public bodies for sport, Sport England and UK Sport. Our analysis concentrates on identifying the sources of the general momentum for modernization in the sport sector, how it has been interpreted by government in relation to the two organizations, the nature and consequences of modernization for both organizations, and the future of modernization. The analysis is informed by a range of public documents produced by government and by the two sports agencies, together with a series of seven interviews conducted with senior staff and members of Sport England and UK Sport and with senior civil servants in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Our conclusions suggest that modernization has resulted in a narrowing of the two organizations’ objectives, the adoption of business-like principles and a ‘command and control’ regime in relationships with key frontline delivery partners.
In 1996/97, the first season of openly professional rugby union was played in England. For many of the clubs which opted to become involved in the professional game, this was the end of an era. In some cases, over 100 years of institutionalised amateur practice was brought to an end, and professionalism became the dominant mode of operation in these organisations. In order for those clubs which chose to professionalise to operate effectively, the values and related organisational structures which were the very essence of amateurism, had to be deinstitutionalised. Deinstitutionalisation is the erosion or discontinuity of organisational activities and practices, which through the force of habit, tradition, or history, have come to be accepted as legitimate. This paper provides a case study analysis of the process of deinstitutionalisation as it occurred in one Premiership rugby union club. Using data collected through a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with both the adherents of amateurism and the proponents of the new professional organisational structure, this paper identifies some of the forces that contribute to deinstitutionalisation. Following Oliver's (1992) theoretical lead, we empirically show how political, functional, and social pressures contributed to the process of deinstitutionalisation, and how these are mediated by inertial and entropic organisational forces. We also extend Oliver's analysis by showing the way in which the manipulation of organisational symbols can play a role in the dynamics of deinstitutionalisation.
This article examines the theoretical and empirical organizational change literature over the period of 1990-early 1998. Research dealing with monitoring affective and behavioral reactions to change is also reviewed. in closing, general observations and suggestions for future research are offered and it is concluded that the organizational change literature continues to be responsive to the dynamics of contemporary workplace demands. To make the present effort manageable, we made two decisions. The first dealt with the literature base to be surveyed. Given the breadth of the 1987 and 1989 yearly reviews as contrasted with the specialized focus of the 1992 review, we primarily consider theory and research on organizational change, in general, through early 1998, focusing on work since 1990. The first research theme, dealing with content issues, largely focuses on the substance of contemporary organizational changes. Research in this category has typically attempted to define factors that comprise the targets of both successful and unsuccessful change efforts and how these factors relate to organizational effectiveness. The second research theme to be discussed, dealing with contextual issues, principally focuses on forces or conditions existing in an organization's external and internal environments.
"Strategic Sport Marketing is a comprehensive text for sport management students as well as practising sport administrators. Integrating the unique product characteristics of sport with traditional marketing theory, it presents a strategic sport marketing model that recognises the diverse markets for sport: participants, sponsors, spectators at the event and lounge-room fans." "Case studies and sportviews selected from international sports and media illustrate the unique features of sport marketing. With detailed examples and step-by-step processes, Strategic Sport Marketing is a practical tool and theoretical guide to sport marketing internationally." "The second edition of this widely used text is fully revised and updated. It includes two new chapters: 'Customer satisfaction and service quality' by Linda van Leeuwen and 'Sport and the Internet' by Daniel Evans. There is also an increased focus on sponsorship and the role of services theory in the delivery of sport."<br /