Voluntary Sport Organizations Research Articles

P01-08 Implementing school-based physical activity - putting Policy into Practice

Close to ten years ago, at the beginning of December 2012, the Danish government, announced its intention to implement comprehensive reforms of the public school system. Six months later, in June 2013, a broad-based political alliance agreed on extensive alterations in the legislation guiding Danish public schools.The discussions of the most recent major reform of Danish public schools, established a next to unequivocal consensus among the parties in the Danish Parliament, school employers and employees as well as voluntary sports organizations that children and young people should be more physically active during the school day. Thus, the updated Danish Education Act of 2013 made it compulsory for public schools to offer an average of 45 minutes of physical activity (PA) per school day.It is, however, painfully clear that the subsequent implementation of the primary policy goal to incorporate a minimum of 45 minutes of school-based PA for all pupils per day has been far from complete. According to some of the more exhaustive monitoring reports, in 2019 only six out of 10 schools fulfilled the basic PA-criterion. This was at the same level as in 2016. In spite of much political goodwill at both national, regional and local levels, significant investments of time and other resources by school authorities, professional organizations, a number of private and public foundations, individual employees and work teams, school managers and boards the number of schools actually adhering to current legislative goals related to physical activity has not changed in any substantial way from the adoption of the updated legislative framework in mid-2013 till present time.Based on this state of affairs the presentation explores the question: What factors have influenced the translation of an overall policy ambition, related to school-based physical activity, into practice? The presentation builds on the Integrated Implementation Model, as presented by Winter and Nilsen and Cairney's introduction to Policy implementation research, and covers phases two and three of a total of four into which a given political decision-making process is typically divided: 1) agenda-setting, 2) policy generation, 3) implementation, and 4) evaluation.

Framing of environmental issues in voluntary sport organizations

ABSTRACT This explorative study draws on content analysis of the environmental policy documents of voluntary sport organizations in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We develop a typology of ways in which sport organizations frame environmental problems and find four ideal typical frames: (1) a general non-committal frame; (2) a sport-specific technical frame; (3) a growth-oriented opportunity frame; and (4) a crisis frame viewing environmental issues as an existential crisis for sport. We then explain the emergence of these frames. To this task, we discuss how materialities, institutional mechanisms and wider environmental discourses matter for environmental framing in voluntary sport organizations.

Playing without goals: gendered practices in recreational youth football

ABSTRACT Participating in sports is a highly valued part of growing up in the Western world. This is especially true in the Scandinavian countries, where the voluntary sports organizations are closely connected to the welfare state. Paradoxically, sport is also an institution in which gender essentialism is prominent, even in gender-equal Scandinavia. Based on fieldwork in two football teams for 15-year-old girls in Norway, I explore girls’ experiences of gendered practices at different analytical levels. At the interpersonal level, gender was present in everyday interaction and how female players were understood as inferior to male players. At the structural level, such perceptions of gender-based differences were reflected in the allocation of the clubs’ resources. At the cultural level, differences were reinforced and legitimized by essentialist ideas of vulnerable, feminine girls and athletic, masculine boys. The gendered practices on the different levels mutually reinforce each other, with the consequence that girls’ participation in sport is devalued, both from the girls’ and the sport organization’s perspective. Revealing this circular process could improve our understanding of the reproduction of an essentialist gender regime in football. The findings also indicate limitations for implementing welfare policy through the gendered institution of sport.

The politics of organizing indigenous sport – cross-border and cross-sectoral complexity

ABSTRACT Research Question The authors studied the complexity surrounding the organization of sport in nations without nation-state status, exploring three research questions: (1) How do representatives of Sámi sport organizations in Finland and Norway perceive and act upon the proposal to reorganize Sámi sport? (2) How do representatives of the Sámi parliaments in Finland and Norway perceive and act upon the proposal to reorganize Sámi sport? (3) How do representatives of the state bureaucracy in Finland perceive and act upon the proposal to reorganize Sámi sport? Research Methods We interviewed representatives of the Sámi parliaments and Sámi sport in Norway and Finland, an external consultant in Norway and a state official of Finland constituting a total of eight key actor interviews. Results and Findings The analysis revealed the dominant role of the Norwegian side of Sámi sport, largely based on the institutional power of the Sámi parliament in Norway. In that respect, voluntary sport organizations in both Finland and Norway were reluctant to consider or were even negative towards an ongoing reorganization of Sámi sport since it was initiated by the Norwegian authorities and by the Norwegian Sámi parliament. Implications Decision-makers in government agencies involved in cross-border and cross-sectoral issues should consider the opinions of all parties involved. Moreover, concerning indigenous groups striving for self-determination in post-colonial contexts, it is important to create a unified voice in matters important to the group as a collective.

Social capital and social ties in organisations: a case study of two voluntary sports clubs

PurposeIf social capital is understood as the ability to access resources through social ties, it is clearly important to understand how people form social ties and what types of ties they form. Research has sought to do this, but it has seldom directly examined how organisations shape these processes and outcomes. The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth, comparative case study research was conducted at two voluntary sport organisations in the UK, involving 23 in-depth interviews and participant observation over a 15-month period.FindingsThe case studies showed how key organisational practices structured, in meaningful ways, people’s opportunities for interaction and the nature of that interaction, shaping the ways in which they formed ties and exchanged resources. The organisations fostered the formation of both strong and weak ties, but also “compartmentally intimate” ties.Research limitations/implicationsThe research challenges individualistic, rational choice accounts of tie formation, highlighting the role of organisations as brokers. In addition, interviewees’ accounts challenge well-accepted distinctions between strong and weak ties, by demonstrating the importance of ongoing, context-specific interaction.Originality/valueThis research offers a rare, direct insight into the role of organisations in shaping people’s ongoing social relationships. In doing so, it problematises existing conceptualisations of social capital and social ties and highlights an alternative, organisationally embedded, process-based perspective on social capital.

The role of voluntary sport organisations in leveraging the London 2012 sport participation legacy

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to understand the perceptions of national Voluntary Sport Organisations (VSOs) managers towards a mega sports event and identify the components they felt enhanced or inhibited their organisations capacity to implement a sport participation legacy. London 2012 was the first Olympic Games to explicitly attempt to deliver this type of legacy, and an exploratory, online mixed-method survey examined the perceptions of 105 senior managers from 37 VSOs, post-event. Principal Component Analysis identified four distinct factors: ‘objectives, standards & resources’, ‘event capitalisation & opportunities’, ‘monitoring & evaluation’ and ‘club engagement & implementation’, explaining 51.5% of the variance. Also, relevant organisational characteristics such as sport type, funding and sport size were examined to investigate the influence this had on their capacity. From these findings, the main recommendations are that future mega sport event hosts should: 1) Engage and consult with multiple stakeholders to engender sustained sport participation. 2) Set clear and monitorable objectives. 3) Establish funding and support mechanisms relevant to each sport. 4) Engage non-competing sports in the leveraging process. 5) Finally, event organisers should try to ensure personnel consistency.

Professionalization of voluntary sport organizations – a study of the Quality Club Programme of the Norwegian Football Association

ABSTRACTResearch Question: This research investigates Norwegian football clubs’ participation in the Quality Club Programme (QCP) as a case of professionalization consisting of two stages – short term: more education, knowledge and documentation as well as better skills and improved organizational structure; long term: potential problems related to bureaucracy and full-fledged professions. In light of this distinction, the researchers ask the clubs why they take part in QCP and what they want to get out of it. This paper also invites reflections on the more troublesome part of voluntary organizations’ participation in processes of professionalization. Finally, we explore what the clubs understand to be the driving forces behind the programme and discuss whether these factors are conducive to the aims that the clubs have for their participation.Research Methods: The data comprise semi-structured interviews with 22 football clubs analysed by theme-based coding and categorization.Results and Findings: Clubs take part in QCP because they are expected to (i.e. institutionalization), to increase their autonomy and to improve their control over important resources: volunteers (i.e. resource dependency). To achieve this, the clubs see better routines, more predictability and improved structure as imperative. This study’s results show that what clubs report as making the programme function does not always work in favour of the clubs’ aims.Implications: The findings indicate that broad, multi-institutional approaches and action-oriented theories are necessary for understanding the choices and actions of voluntary sport clubs. Also shown is how the tools chosen for organizational development could be contrary to organizations’ aims.

The Role of Accounting and Accountability in the Professionalization of Voluntary Sports Organizations

The Role of Accounting and Accountability in the Professionalization of Voluntary Sports Organizations

Leveraging Mega Events for Capacity Building in Voluntary Sport Organisations

Strengthening the work of national voluntary sport organisations (VSOs) is of strategic importance as they are considered custodians of their sport and have been entrusted with its governance, management of significant public funds and provision of services to a vast network of clubs and millions of participants. Using a mixed method approach, the study examined how VSOs in the UK and Russia leveraged the 2012 London and 2014 Sochi Olympics for capacity building. The political framing of the Games as a leverageable resource stimulated VSOs’ engagement, but it was more on a tactical than strategic basis. Three main leveraging processes were employed by VSOs including aligning organisational objectives with the Games’ strategic visions, using structured Olympic programmes and teaming up with a development partner. VSOs used the Games to enhance their organisational capacity in three areas of staff qualifications, organisational learning and performance management and created public value.

Does size matter when public management tools meet (the voluntary) reality in sports facilities?

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on leisure management in private non-profit (PNP) sports halls. The aim of the paper is to assess which strategic behaviour the PNP sports hall pursued under different types of public management steering models and whether changes in behaviour influenced utilization. The implementation of an activity-based steering model is compared with a non-activity-based steering model. Based on both qualitative and quantitative data, implementing the activity-based steering model resulted in strategic behaviour with a higher utilization, but also the size of the PNP sports hall played an important role for those deciding which strategic behaviour to pursue. To a greater extent than the small ones, the large PNP sports halls had a focus on attracting new users in order to increase utilization as well as income. Furthermore, the small PNP sports halls focus on Voluntary Sport Organizations (VSOs) as their primary user group. Based on the results, it is suggested to change the composition of the board for the PNP sports hall so that the PNP sports halls can escape its current partial deadlock as the VSOs seem to play a dominant role on both the boards and in the sports hall in general.

The Board President’s Role in Controlling the Decision-making Process in Voluntary Sports Organizations

The goal of the study is to understand the president´s influence and his skills in the strategic decision-making process. The qualitative nature of the study implied a participant’s observation during board meetings (with a total of 35 sports directors - 3 professionals and 32 volunteers), as well as interviewing the six board presidents of the sports associations that are part of the study. The main results revealed a poorly structured decision-making process, but with a determinant role of the board president in the conduction and manipulation of the said process. This was especially evident with the professional sports directors who showed higher knowledge and better preparation of the subjects. Likewise, both of the associations headed by full-time professional sports directors, along with an association led by a volunteer sports director (though strongly backed by the technical director of sport or sports manager during the meetings and decision-making), revealed greater strategic management and better organizational results. The main power sources of the board president, and the skills he uses in order to mark the decision’s direction are internal alliances with the closest sports director (volunteer and professional), anticipation through a previous expressed opinion, the use of information, sports expertise, and also the knowledge regarding the existent problems among the clubs and the affiliated coaches. The results found bad governance which shows confusing and poorly structured management practices. This study intents to contribute for the change of the relationship between the role of the board and the technical director of sport or sport manager (specially for the relevance of the last), in order to improve better strategic decision-making in the non-profit sport organizations.

The Organizational Embeddedness of Social Capital: A Comparative Case Study of Two Voluntary Organizations

Social capital is a popular, but contested concept. It draws attention to the way in which social relations and constructed forms of social organization can produce outcomes on individual and collective levels. However, it is often founded on individualistic, rational-choice models of human behavior that neglect its embeddedness. I explore the embeddedness of social capital through a comparative case study of two voluntary sport organizations in the UK. Through close analysis of in-depth interviews and longitudinal observation, I look at the processes of social capital development and the way socio-organizational context and identity shape these processes.

Event and club volunteer potential: the case of women’s rugby in England

Sports could not survive without volunteers as they are vital to the ‘playing of sport’. Volunteering in sports is typically associated with sports-club systems or sport events. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential of harnessing volunteer activity in different contexts, as a result of previous sports club volunteering experience and to establish what determines the decision to volunteer and to continue volunteering. This is important for government policy, given the current objectives to promote a ‘Big Society’ and reduce public expenditure. A total of 168 volunteers involved in women’s rugby in England completed a web-based survey. Factor analysis was employed to summarise volunteers’ satisfaction with their experience. The analysis yielded six reliable factors of volunteers’ satisfaction. Regression analysis was then applied to identify which aspects of satisfaction, which motivations, how much previous sports engagement and which socio-demographic characteristics had an impact on actual volunteering for the women’s rugby world cup, and future plans for volunteering in a rugby club at a rugby event, or at other sport events. Regression results provide statistical support for the transfer of volunteer efforts across activities. Thus, the UK government may meet its objectives to stimulate a Big Society and widen community engagement through sport volunteering, by acknowledging that social mobility varies between and within sports and is determined by the experiences, interests, motives and characteristics of both the individual volunteers and voluntary sport organisations.

Managing Sport for Public Health: Approaching Contemporary Problems with Traditional Solutions

In the area of public health, civil society involvement in attaining government objectives on physical activity participation is often carried out by voluntary sport organizations (Agergaard & Michelsen la Cour, 2012; Österlind & Wright, 2014; Skille, 2009; Theeboom, Haudenhuyse, & De Knop, 2010). In Sweden, this responsibility has been given to the Swedish Sport Confederation (SSC), a voluntary and membership-based non-profit organization, granted government authority to govern Swedish sport towards government objectives (Bergsgard & Norberg, 2010; Bolling, 2005). Research has pointed to difficulties for sport organizations to shoulder such responsibilities due to the deeply rooted logic of competition in sport and organizational structures adapted for competitive sport (Skille, 2011; Stenling & Fahlén, 2009). This article focuses on how public health is being constructed, implemented and given meaning within the SSC. Drawing on a critical discourse approach (Fairclough & Fairclough, 2012) this study explores the SSC’s role and position in public health promotion by interviewing SSC representatives and National Sport Organizations’ (NSO) general managers. Results indicate how discourses on democracy, equality and physical activity are used to legitimize the SSC’s role in public health. Also, how these discourses are compromised in practice, posing challenges for organized sport in meeting objectives of public health.

Effects of different policy approaches on sport facility utilisation strategies

The consequences of subsidising sport facilities have so far not been a focus of sport facilities research. In this article, we propose a conceptual framework for assessing the effects that different public subsidies have on the utilisation of private non-profit sport facilities. Based on theories drawn from the public administration literature three different subsidy schemes are introduced: New Public Management, Governance and Budget. How they will influence the utilisation of a sport facility is assessed using insights from institutional and motivational theory from political science along with the role the voluntary sport organisations play in sport facilities. The resulting conceptual framework consists of twelve different strategies. It is argued that it is likely that a sport facility will choose one or more of these, and which strategies it chooses will impact the level of utilisation. The aim of the article is to show plausible conjectures for future empirical research into how to increase sport facility utilisation via different policies and thus inform future research into the complex interplay between the public sector, sport facilities and voluntary sport organisations.

Does Membership in Civil Society Organizations Foster Social Integration? The Case of Danish Voluntary Sport Organizations

ABSTRACTVoluntary organizations are generally perceived as important arenas in which social integration can be fostered. There is, however, no consensus on the meaning of such integration, and the empirical evidence for the claim is lacking. This article studies social integration within voluntary sport organizations, which make up a significant element of civil society in most Western societies. The article provides a theoretical framework well suited for the study of social integration, which differentiates members according to their levels of social interaction and emotional bonding across four community types: Strong, pragmatic, mediated, and weak. When applying this framework to the case of Danish sport organizations, the distribution of members among the four community types indicates that, although sport organizations are important arenas for the development of social integration, there is also a large minority of members who do not experience social integration. This article shows that both individual characteristics linked to members and organizational characteristics linked to sport organizations exert significant influence on the level and nature of social integration. Jointly, the results demonstrate that there are grounds to reassess the general conception that sport organizations are important arenas in which social integration can be fostered.

Volunteer roles, involvement and commitment in voluntary sport organizations: evidence of core and peripheral volunteers

The nature and scope of volunteer involvement in sport is well established; however, research indicates that involvement in community sport volunteering is under threat (Cuskelly, G., 2005. ‘Volunteer Participation Trends in Australian Sport.’ In Volunteers in Sports Clubs, edited by G. Nichols and M. Collins. Eastbourne: Leisure Studies Association; Cuskelly, G., T. Taylor, R. Hoye, and S. Darcy, 2005. Volunteers in Community Rugby. Sydney: ARU). Trends indicate that volunteer hours per individual are decreasing and this can have significant implications for the successful operation of voluntary sport organizations (VSOs) and the subsequent benefits for participants and the communities in which they operate. This paper extends knowledge of the nature of volunteer engagement in sport by exploring the categorization of sport volunteers as ‘core’ or ‘peripheral’ based on self-reported levels of involvement and commitment within VSOs. Using a survey of 243 sport volunteers across three sports, we identified significant differences between core and peripheral volunteers based on their levels of involvement and commitment in their self-identified primary sport organization roles. Implications of these findings for volunteer recruitment and retention and for the provision of sport participation opportunities in the community are addressed.

Managing voluntary sport organizations to facilitate volunteer recruitment

The majority of voluntary sport organizations find it difficult to recruit volunteers, and many even regard volunteer recruitment as their main challenge. Against this background, this paper investigates management characteristics that can facilitate volunteer recruitment. Building on theory and using the scarce empirical data on the management of sport organizations, five hypotheses are formulated and subsequently tested against a large survey study on volunteering in Danish sport organizations. The results provide support for all of the five hypotheses with regard to the recruitment of volunteers for both formal positions and ad hoc tasks. Hence, in order to facilitate volunteer recruitment, sport organizations can generally be recommended to: (1) involve members in major decisions, (2) delegate decision-making and tasks across multiple committees and volunteers, (3) recognize volunteers by granting them perks and material incentives, (4) formulate a specific strategy describing how to recruit volunteers, and (5) employ electronic modes of communicating.

Understanding the Importance of Organizational Resources to Explain Organizational Problems: Evidence from Nonprofit Sport Clubs in Germany

Nonprofit sport clubs experience organizational problems regarding the recruitment and retention of members, volunteers, and coaches, and the financial situation of the club. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of different types of organizational resources on the severity of organizational problems. A theoretical framework based on the concept of organizational capacity is presented, which explains the influence of human, financial, infrastructure, and cultural resources on organizational problems. The empirical evaluation is undertaken using data from a nationwide online survey of nonprofit sport clubs in Germany (n = 19,345). The regression results show that human resources (women on the board, secondary volunteers, etc.), financial resources (Herfindahl index), infrastructure resources (own facilities, and public facilities), and cultural resources (e.g., strategic policy, formation policy, value of conviviality, and variety of sports) are significant determinants of organizational problems. The findings of this study have implications for the management of voluntary sport organizations.

Role ambiguity and volunteer board member performance in nonprofit sport organizations

AbstractWe 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.