Pressure and obstacles to the employment of paid managers in voluntary sports clubs and federations in Germany

Abstract

Do voluntary sports clubs and federations express a need to increase paid management, and how can this be explained? In Germany the discussion to date has been confronted with a puzzle for a long time, namely the contradiction between the often reported pressure to occupationalize on the one hand and the empirical unimportance of paid work – at least in sports clubs – on the other hand. One important difference to other countries, for instance Great Britain, is that in Germany there is no governmental pressure on the clubs – in contrast to the federations – to occupationalize. Unlike other research, our aim was not to explain the existing degree of paid management, but the expressed need for an increase. In order to systemize and complement often mentioned explaining variables from the literature, we drew on three theoretical perspectives: economic theory, contingency theory and new institutionalism of organizations theory. The empirical data was gathered through a written questionnaire, which was sent out to a large, however non-probability sample of sports associations. The response rate was 57%, which corresponds to 531 questionnaires. Surprisingly, only part of the respondents agreed fully with the statement “we need more paid managers”. One important result is that the need for more paid managers in sports clubs does not decline proportionally to the number of paid managers already employed, but even increases. In order to check the relative explanatory power of the different theories applied and respective variables, a stepwise multiple regression analysis was carried out. Out of 13 variables, seven remained in the equation, among them benefits and costs of paid managers, the desired role of a paid managing director as cultural indicator, the co-operation with business and government, as well as the increased requirements of the work. With these variables, all theories proved to be helpful in explaining the need for more paid managers. In broad areas of sports associations, to date there seems to be no pressure to employ more paid managers, in the sense of an acute threat to the organization, but only a chance which the organization can take or leave. Occupationalization is less hindered – as often assumed – by the presence of a traditional culture of voluntarism than by the absence of a culture of paid management. Occupationalization is, nevertheless, a success story. Once started, it stimulates a need for continuation.