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.

Recent approaches to understanding change in organizations have moved beyond just looking at structure and have focused on the role of values in defining the manner in which organizations change. This article integrates the concepts of design archetypes, tracks and high impact systems in an effort to understand the patterns of change for an institutionally specific set of organizations. The sample used for the study was a set of Canadian national sport organizations undergoing institutional change. Three design archetypes (IGtchen Table, Boardroom and Executive Office) that represent institutionally specific coherent value-structure relationships were used to show that patterns of change are determined by the extent to which the coherence of organizational design elements shift over time. Using these design archetypes as a model for change, tracks were identified that provided an indication of the degree and direction of change and the extent to which design coherence was maintained. This paper shows that there is variety in organizational design coherence and that this is related to patterns of change. In addition, reorientations to a new design are signalled by changes in structures or systems that are central to the organization's purpose and as such can have a high impact on moving the organization to a new design.

Recent developments in organizational theory emphasize the need to examine the relationship between organizational values and structure. Values underpin organizational structure and give it meaning. Drawing on concepts of culture, institutional theory, and archetypes, this paper tests hypotheses on the value/structure relationship. The sample used for the study was a set of Canadian amateur sport organizations undergoing institutional change. This test shows that there is a fit between elite values and the nature of the institutionally prescribed organizational archetype.

The purpose of this paper was to broaden the discussion and debate about the continuity and change in the governance and decision making of Canada's NSOs and to develop arguments that address why institutional theory provides a strong foundation for advancing our understanding and management of this continuity and change. First, the theoritical contributions of institutional theorists are discussed. This is followed by a critical evaluation of previous institutional perspectives on change in Canada's NSOs. Then a description is given of three aspects of governance and decision making—the institutionalization of volunteer boards, the deinstitutionalization of volunteer control, and the semi-institutionalization of paid executive roles—that provides an alternative institutional explanation of continuity and change in governance and decision making in NSOs. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future research and a consideration of the implications for practice.

The formation of partnerships with the public, non-profit and commercial sectors is becoming an increasingly common way for leisure service departments in local government to fulfil their mandate under conditions of economic restraint, political pressures and increased demand for services. However, these departments often lack the capacity to successfully manage the number and complexity of partnerships initiated. While under-managed partnerships have been identified as a significant problem in the literature, little attention has been devoted to understanding the organizational dynamics that underpin them. Interviews with leisure service managers and staff in ten Canadian cities were conducted, revealing a lack of guidelines, insufficient training, poor coordination and a number of other problems contributing to under-managed partnerships. This warrants further research and attention because it can lead to unsuccessful partnerships and negative consequences for all partners involved.

The theoretical rationale underpinning this study was that decision making structures are tightly coupled to the core values of organizations and thus have a high impact on organizational design change. Taking a fine-grained approach to the analysis of decision making, the purpose of this study was to determine whether amateur sport organizations have shifted away from the dominant paradigm of volunteer-led decision making in favor of professional staff authority and autonomy over strategic decisions. Data from a population of 36 Canadian national sport organizations were used to show that changes in decision making have occurred. However, the shift in control from volunteers to professionals has not been established. In addition, change in decision making varied according to the direction of change, the decision making dimension, and the decision topic.

The period between 1984 and 1988 was one of considerable change in the Canadian sport system. National sport organizations (NSOs) were subject to institutional pressures from the government agency Sport Canada to dispense with their traditional operating procedures and move to a more professional bureaucratic organizational design. Researchers who have studied this time period have suggested that NSOs were passive receptors of these government pressures and that they acquiesced to the changes promoted by Sport Canada. This paper challenges this idea and suggests that the role of human agents and the choices they made in response to the pressures emanating from the state agency are important aspects of the change dynamic. Using data from a study of 36 NSOs, this paper shows that NSOs demonstrated resistance in the form of pacifying activities and ceremonial conformity.

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