This research examines challenges associated with partnerships among a group of cross-sector organizations. The context for this study is a nonprofit organization in Canada's sport system and its numerous partners in public, nonprofit, and commercial sectors. The results reveal challenges in the areas of structure and strategy. Specifically, data uncover structural challenges with respect to problems with governance, roles, and responsibilities guiding the partnerships and with the complexity of partnership forms and structures. The data also uncover strategic challenges, in light of the focus on competition versus collaboration among various partners and the changes in missions and objectives through the duration of the relationship. The results and implications for nonprofit organizations involved in multiple cross-sector partnerships are discussed.

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 the 2008 Earle F. Zeigler Lecture was to highlight some of the issues involved in the globalization of sport that affect the field of sport management. In particular, four issues were presented: a division of labor undertaken on an international scale where transnational corporations are drawing on developing countries’ work forces to manufacture sportswear and sport equipment; the increasing flow of athletes where country of birth and origin are no longer a limitation on where an athlete plays and competes; the increased involvement of global media conglomerates in sport; and the impact of sport on the environment. The impact and inconvenient truths of these issues on sport management were addressed.

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 purpose of this study was to investigate the impact that the hiring of a professional staff person had on the structural and systemic arrangements of a voluntary sport organization. Six organizations were examined at critical decisions points following the hiring of a professional staff member. The introduction of these people was shown to result in an increase in both the levels of specialization and standardization within these organizations. The increases occurred differentially across organizational systems, with technical systems showing the greatest increases. Decision making was found to become more centralized immediately after the hiring of a professional, however it decentralized over time.

In order to anticipate changes and challenges in their environments, sport organizations must formulate strategies. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for the study of strategy formulation in nonprofit sport organizations. Based predominantly on MacMillan's (1983) work on the nonprofit sector, and using Canadian national sport organizations as an illustration, this study identified several strategic imperatives to uncover the types of strategies that could be undertaken by nonprofit sport organizations. The imperatives were grouped into two dimensions; program attractiveness and competitive position. Under program attractiveness, the following imperatives were considered: “fundability,” size of client base, volunteer appeal, and support group appeal. The dimension of competitive position included the imperatives of equipment costs and affiliation fees. The two dimensions were juxtaposed on a matrix to produce four strategic types: enhancers, innovators, refiners, and explorers. The characteristics of these types and their implications for nonprofit sport organizations are discussed.

This article discusses agency problems in sport organizations in which the same individuals are involved in both the management and control of decision making. We focus our analysis on the case of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by reviewing the behavior of selected IOC members with regard to the bidding process for the Olympic Games and the resulting reform attempts made by the IOC in an effort to address issues of corruption. After a review of examples of corrupt behavior on the part of IOC members, agency theory is introduced to discuss IOC reforms and provide some suggestions for future reform. We propose incorporating other stakeholders (in addition to the IOC members), such as corporate partners, media conglomerates, and other members of the Olympic movement (e.g., athletes, coaches, officials), into management and control functions. More specifi cally, it is suggested that these stakeholders comprise a board that oversees the operations of the IOC (similar to the IOC’s current executive committee) and be given the ability to remove and/or sanction IOC members who act self-interestedly to the detriment of the Olympic movement. Thus, by delegating the control function of decision making to a board and the management function to internal agents, greater accountability for all organization members can be achieved.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature and extent of interorganizational linkages between the partners involved in Canada's sport delivery system. Given the changes in the economic context of the 1990s and the ensuing fiscal restraints exercised by both government and the private sector, amateur sport organizations are in a period of high uncertainty. In order to deal with this uncertainty, links between organizations like governments, nonprofit sport organizations, and private sector organizations need to be established, fostered, and maintained. Organizations need to collaborate with each other in order to fulfill their objectives. Linkages between organizations will assist in the sharing of resources and in the coordination of work-related activities. In the paper, a number of examples of existing links between governments, nonprofit organizations, and private organizations are presented. Based on resource dependency theory, strategies such as contracts, joint ventures, and co-optation for establishing new interorganizational linkages are discussed. As well, related issues such as power struggles, loss of autonomy, asymmetrical relationships, and conflicting loyalties are addressed and discussed. Questions for future research also are proposed.