A unified model of non-profit sport organizations performance: perspectives from the literature

Abstract

Little consensus has emerged about how organizational performance should be defined and measured. Most studies have used traditional approaches to give their own perspective about organizational performance and effectiveness, but none have recently tried to encompass these different views into one unified model. In the present paper, Chelladurai's systems view of organizations is used to integrate the dimensions of organizational performance highlighted by previous studies on non-profit sport organizations. These organizational performance dimensions are highlighted and categorized into macro-dimensions (e.g., financial resources acquisition, size, internal atmosphere, organizational operating, financial independence, achieving elite sport success and mass sport participation). Relationships between these macro-dimensions are analyzed. A multidimensional framework is developed which gives an overview of which dimensions constitute organizational performance in non-profit sport organizations and of how to measure them. Further research directions and management implications are discussed.Keywords: literature review, non-profit sport organizations, organizational performance, systems view model, unified model, sport management, performance measurement Running head: NON-PROFIT SPORT ORGANIZATIONS PERFORMANCE 3The construct of organizational performance assesses an organization's performance by evaluating the input (e.g., available resources), throughput (e.g., processing of the input) and output (e.g., goals achieved) of the organization. However, little consensus has emerged, either theoretically or empirically, to what constitutes organizational performance and how to measure it (Sowa, Selden & Sandfort, 2004). The increasing amount of literature and research on this topic is characterized by varying theoretical perspectives and research objectives, which make accumulation and integration very hard (Herman & Renz, 1999). Nonetheless, the option to move away from defining (and measuring) performance (effectiveness and efficiency) is not a viable one (Venkatraman & Ramanujam, 1986). Performance is of theoretical, empirical and practical significance. Even in non-profit organizations (NPOs), questions of performance have become increasingly important in the world of practice, as government and philanthropic funders, clients, and the public exert increased pressure on NPOs to demonstrate their impact on complex social problems (Sowa, Selden & Sandfort, 2004). The apportioned amount of subsidy is usually based on some predetermined criteria related to the characteristics, performance and effectiveness of organizations (Papadimitriou, 2007;Schulz, 2005). As a result, rational criteria and conditions for investments, subsidies and their priorities need to be established (Lim et al., 1994). Consequently, the application of organizational performance criteria to NPOs management becomes increasingly important.To our knowledge, no recent study has fully attempted to synthesize the literature on the organizational pe...

Do non-profit sport organisations innovate? Types and preferences of service innovation within regional sport federations

“…The method applied in this research can be used to facilitate the evaluation of service innovation types within non-profit organisations. Organisations developing streams of different types of innovations over time can be identified and their performance can be measured in terms of members' satisfaction, quality improvement, attractiveness or membership increase (for an account of performance measures, see Winand et al, 2014). Furthermore, given the link between attitude and innovation confirmed in the current study, further research could test whether attitude, innovation and performance are related in the non-profit sport context.…”

“…Finally, in order to get a hold on the size of the organisations being investigated, data were collected from the respective public authorities with regard to the number of members of the sport federations. Membership size is considered a reliable indicator of a NPSO size (Winand, Vos, Claessens, Thibaut, & Scheerder, 2014). Furthermore, as a contextual factor, it accounts for the number of individuals directly or indirectly targeted by an organisation's innovations (Damanpour, 1992), which is particularly important for service innovation relying on the interaction with the users.…”

Approaches and methods used for measuring organizational performance in national sport governing bodies from 1986 to 2014. A systematized review

“…However, this review deals mainly with the indicators respectively determinants 2 of OP and its management and does neither review in detail the models used nor discuss the fit of the methodological approaches applied for measuring OP in NSGBs. With the works of Eydi (2015), Eydi, Ramezanineghad, Yousefi, Sajjadi, and Malekakhlagh (2011), and Winand, Vos, Claessens, Thibaut, and Scheerder (2014), there exist three other reviews dealing with the performance of non-profit sport organizations. Although these reviews (i.a.)…”

The Role of Stakeholders in the Efficiency of Nonprofit Sports Clubs

“…Several studies about the efficiency of sports organizations have been done, but these have mostly focused on professional clubs (Barros and Leach ; Espitia‐Escuer and García‐Cebrián ; Guzmán and Morrow ; Ribeiro and Lima ). Therefore, there is an increasing need for this topic to be understood in the context of nonprofit sports organizations (Barros ; Hoye ; Winand et al ). Being nonprofit does not mean that these sports clubs are unprofitable (Kirk and Nolan ).…”