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The Professionalization of the International Olympic Committee Administration
Abstract
After being founded in Paris in 1894, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) moved its headquarters to Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1915. It hired its first staff member in the 1920s and continued to operate with just two or three employees until the mid-1960s, even though the Olympic Games had grown substantially. Indeed, the IOC still had only about twenty staff members when John MacAloon first visited its headquarters in the mid-1970s. It now employs more than 700 people from seventy-one nationalities in Lausanne and Madrid, making it one of the world's largest and well-known NGOs. This article traces the IOC Administration's rise from its humble beginnings to the present day. It shows how, under successive presidents and heads of administration, the IOC has followed four stages of the process of professionalization described in the sport management literature.
... It is not surprising that women were denied management positions in sports. A woman was first appointed to the IOC in 1981, almost a century after its inauguration (Chappelet, 2022). It appears that the battle for leadership positions by women in the sporting industry has been a long-drawn one because it took several decades for their concerns to be addressed by the powers that be. ...
The study explored experiences, leadership growth, and progression approaches adopted by women working within higher professional sports leadership organisations in Ghana. An interpretive research paradigm was adopted. The data was collected using interview guides and analysed with the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The study revealed interest in a particular sport propelled women in sports leadership positions to select sports-related careers and accumulate the best knowledge and experience that placed them in such advantageous positions to make meaningful contributions to sports in Ghana. The study established that women with clear-cut career advancement pathways have it easy when it comes to assuming leadership positions. It was recommended that qualitative and quantitative examinations be made to understand the differences in the experiences of males in similar sporting positions. Keywords: leadership, progression, approach, professional sports, leadership.
Research question: This paper revisits our knowledge of sport organization governance design archetypes. To do so, we focus on Canadian national sport organizations (NSOs) and pose three research questions: (1) what governance design archetypes exist based on the use of more contemporary criteria; (2) how easily can an NSO’s archetype be determined; and (3) what are the implications of these new archetypes for researchers and practitioners?
Research methods: We undertook a landscape study of 32 Canadian NSOs with data from an online survey, publicly-available information, and clarification calls. Archetypes were derived from 47 organizational and governance characteristics using a k-means cluster analysis.
Results and Findings: Our empirically-derived archetype design taxonomy showed the best fit to be four clusters (Board-led, Executive-led, Professional, and Corporate) based on key organizational values, complexity, capacity, revenue sources, and governance variables.
Implications: Besides knowing NSOs are more heterogenous than in the past, researchers and practitioners can use capacity, efficiency, horizontal differentiation, broadcast revenue, political accountability, and social media information to derive an NSO’s governance archetype. These findings imply researchers can (1) examine non-profit sport organizations’ changes over time based on a set of archetypes reflecting contemporary realities, and (2) compare and contrast NSOs’ governance more holistically. In turn, managers can better compare their NSO with other NSOs to optimize their organization’s performance. Finally, national sport agencies/funders should support NSOs’ governance improvement efforts through flexible guidelines and resources because of NSOs’ governance heterogeneity.
When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) set up its headquarters in Lausanne, in 1915, it could not have imagined the impact its decision would have on the administration of world sport. Three-quarters of Olympic sport’s world governing bodies have now followed the IOC’s lead and based themselves in Switzerland, thereby making the country the hub of global sport administration. The process that gave rise to this situation can be divided into seven main stages. It was driven by a number of key figures, including IOC and international sport federation presidents and general secretaries, and facilitated by the attractive legal, economic, and socio-political environment sport organizations find in Switzerland. This process is on-going and continues to influence the world sports market.
Higher, faster, stronger… The Olympic motto conjures images of heroes whose achievements transcended their athletic prowess, but also of tragedy and disgrace. By 1980, the modern Olympic movement was gasping for breath, bankrupt financially, politically, and culturally. But under the leadership of Juan Antonio Samaranch, and, subsequently, Jacques Rogge, the Olympics began a journey back from the brink. Michael Payne, who served as the International Olympic Committee’s top marketer for over twenty years, offers unprecedented access to the people and negotiations behind one of the most dramatic turnarounds in business or sports history. Through a multi-pronged strategy, the IOC managed to secure lucrative broadcasting commitments, entice well-heeled corporate sponsors, and parlay the symbolism of the Olympics into a brand for which cities around the world are willing to invest billions of dollars. Packed with previously untold stories from the high-octane world where business, sports, politics, and media meet, Olympic Turnaround is a remarkable tale of organizational renewal and a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of the world’s most iconic brand.
The 2008 Games in Beijing, for example, are expected to involve over 10,000 athletes from 200 countries, draw 20,000 media representatives, and generate over $4 billion in sponsorships and broadcasting rights. Packed with previously untold stories from the high-octane world where business, sports, politics, and media meet, Olympic Turnaround is a remarkable tale of organizational renewal and a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of the world’s most iconic brand.
Based on extensive research and unparalleled access to primary source material, Tarnished Rings offers an in-depth look at the Salt Lake City Olympic bidding scandal and at the presidency of Juan Antionio Samaranch.
This paper examines the current Olympic bidding crisis and evaluates the accompanying Agenda 2020 reform process at the International Olympic Committee. The organization’s decline in public opinion, particularly in Europe, is associated with its recent failure to consistently and convincingly represent the Olympic Movement (as opposed to the Olympic Sport Industry). Using IOC relations with international human rights organizations as a template, real progress in the course of the Agenda 2020 process was achieved, but then suspended or reversed by the selection of Beijing as host of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
This article offers an ethnographically based analysis of the work of the IOC 2000 Commission, the official body commissioned to propose reforms in the wake of the IOC bribery scandals. The composition and modus operandi of the reform commission, its main debates and recommendations, the actions taken upon them by the IOC Session and the record of these reforms over the ensuing decade are characterized and evaluated. Special attention is paid to the impact of the reform process on IOC governance, the Olympic Games bidding process, and the growing tensions between the Olympic Movement and the Olympic Sports Industry.
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.
This article critically explores the semantics and pragmatics of legacy discourse among central administrative players in today's ‘Olympic Family’. Through an ethnography of Olympic speech focused on the IOC administration, candidate city committees, and transnational consultants, I show how legacy discourse generates a perception of common and laudable purpose while flattening standards of expertise and reinforcing the IOC administration's preferred model of franchiser/franchisee relations with other Olympic bodies. This case study indicates the significance of discursive routines in furthering the transnational managerial revolution in Olympic affairs, sometimes at the expense of the Olympic movement.
Estudio histórico-antropológico acerca de los Juegos Olímpicos modernos y su fundador, el educador francés barón Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), quien los estableciera en 1896 y cuyo ideario ha mantenido su influencia en el desarrollo ulterior de esta manifestación deportiva. John J. MacAloon emplea un marco de teorías socioculturales y psicológicas para interpretar la creación y el simbolismo de los Juegos Olímpicos modernos. El trabajo fue publicado originalmente como una edición especial de la revista The International Journal of Sport. El autor ha incorporado en esta edición del 25 aniversario un nuevo prefacio, en el que revisa la producción académica sobre el tema aparecida tras la primera publicación de su estudio, y un epílogo en el que describe el impacto de este trabajo en su trayectoria como antropólogo olímpico y como teórico de la performatividad cultural.
Chief Operations Officer 2019-Pâquerette Girard-Zappelli (Fr.), Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer
- Christophe Dubi
Christophe Dubi (Swi.), Olympic
Games Executive Director 2014-Lana Haddad (UK), Chief Operations
Officer 2019-Pâquerette Girard-Zappelli (Fr.), Chief
Ethics and Compliance Officer 2015-
Director of Olympic Solidarity and NOC Relations 2019-Xavier Tissières (Swi
- James Mcleod
James McLeod (UK), Director
of Olympic Solidarity and NOC
Relations 2019-Xavier Tissières (Swi.), Director of
Human Resources 1997-Ilario Corna (It., Director of
Technology and information 2020-
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L'influence des frères Mayer au sein du IOC (1946-1968), un double enjeu commercial et diplomatique
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From Barcelona to the World: The Life of Juan Antonio Samaranch
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Accord entre le Conseil fédéral suisse et le Comité International Olympique relatif au statut du Comité International Olympique en Suisse
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Urs Lacotte, Directeur général du CIO : mon rêve réalisé n'est que le début du travail
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Exemployé du Olympic Museum condamné à la prison à Lausanne
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