INTEGRATING SOCIAL ACTION AND STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINTS

Abstract

A number of researchers have examined structural and systemic change within Canada's national sport organizations. The predominant approach within these studies has been to identify environmental factors, primarily the state, as the cause of change. We argue that there has been an overemphasis on the role of the environment in directing the change process and suggest that a more integrated view is needed. Consequently, our paper focuses on understanding change by integrating institutional theory, a deterministic approach to explaining organizational transformations, and the more voluntaristic notion of strategic choice. A case-study approach is used to examine the organizational changes that occurred within a Canadian amateur ice hockey organization. Our results show the importance of institutional pressures, strategic choice and the interconnectedness of both these factors in the change process. Three specific issues are raised: the temporal dimension to the scope of strategic choice; the manner in which structures that are initially constraining can become resources; and the impact of conditions of uncertainty on determinism and voluntarism.