The roles of high performance directors within national sporting organizations

Abstract

This chapter offers an understanding of the roles of high performance directors and the management processes that allow high performance sport to take place. These processes entail the ways leadership occurs in a high performance environment to ensure positive team and athlete culture, teamwork and success. The chapter is based on the results of a qualitative study on the roles and responsibilities of high performance directors and represents an effort to enhance the performance of leaders and managers in elite sport. High performance sport is characterised by the effective amalgamation and synergy of elements including financial and managerial support, coaching, sport sciences and sport medicine support, talent identification and athlete pathways, training facilities and equipment, and competitions. Nations are becoming more strategic in the way they produce elite athletes (De Bosscher et al., 2008). Consequently, national sport systems have moved beyond the mere application of sport sciences and coaching as a sole base for elite athlete success. There is a rapid recognition and overwhelming evidence to suggest that the 'new' point of difference and competitive advantage for nations is effective management and governance (e.g., Bayle & Robinson, 2007; Chelladurai, 2007; Ferkins, Shilbury, & McDonald, 2005; Hoye, 2007; Hoye & Cuskelly, 2007) of high performance sport and all the processes involved. Unquestionably, high performance sport and its management is a rapidly expanding profession in many countries around the world. High performance sport management is a billion-dollar industry, and one that continues to grow in size and sophistication. Although the number of athletes represented at this level of performance is marginal compared to the overall population, the number of stakeholders involved with high performance sport (e.g., specialising coaches, team directors, performance managers, administrators, sport agencies, sport organizations, individuals and beneficiaries, sponsors and media, governments and government agencies at all levels, academics and researchers, facility managers, team owners, athlete agents, sports and other scientists) is increasingly expanding to an industry that is becoming largely compound (Sotiriadou & Shilbury, 2009). That expansion drives the need for a core of full-time experts to provide specialised administrative skills in response to the increasingly commercialised and professionalised high performance sport industry (Jones, Brooks, & Mak, 2008). A similar trend occurred during the early 1990s when the growing complexity of sport led to an urgent need to upgrade the quality of sports administration through well-trained and educated sport managers (Shilbury & Kellett, 2011). The increased professionalism of sports and sport management practices since the early 1980s led to the introduction of sport management tertiary programs across many countries (Sotiriadou, 2011). Now specialization is taken one step further to introduce modules and courses on high performance sport management and the new generation of graduates is becoming equipped for this trend. Although the field of sport management has been widely defined, the newly emerged concept of high performance sport management is in its infancy and its characteristics are far from clear. This chapter is the result of a study on high performance sport and high performance directors in an effort to respond to the need to fill this gap in an expanding field. The chapter acts as a vehicle for clarifying the concept of high performance sport management and the roles of high performance directors in elite sport.