An “Organizational Triangle” to Coordinate Talent Development: A Case Study in Danish Swimming

Abstract

This case study in Danish swimming was informed by a holistic ecological approach in talent development and aimed to explore (a) collaborative relationships between the Danish swimming federation, a municipality, and a local swimming club, termed “an organizational triangle,” and (b) factors influencing the success of their collaboration at the local level. Data collection and analysis were guided by the athletic-talent-development-environment (working) model and a newly developed collaboration-success-factors (CSF) model. Methods included interviews with talent-development coordinators representing the organizations and analysis of documents. Results allowed the authors to transform the CSF (working) model into an empirical model containing the collaboration preconditions (e.g., power to make decisions), processes (e.g., strategic planning), and initiatives (e.g., efficient use of the swimming pool) and shared assumptions of the talent-development philosophy (e.g., long-term focus). The success of this organizational triangle was visible in the way the organizations increased the quality of talent development in the local swimming club.

Career development and transitions of athletes: the International Society of Sport Psychology Position Stand Revisited

“…The structural interventions at the micro-level might facilitate, for example, communication between club, coaches, and parents, or working relationship between youth and senior departments within the club. It is also possible to optimise inter-level collaboration, for example, within an "organizational triangle" involving a local club, the municipality and the national sport federation to improve functioning of the local club (Mathorne, Henriksen, & Stambulova, 2019). Helping environments to build and maintain coherent organisational cultures facilitates athletes' transition into and their functioning in the environments (e.g., Wagstaff & Burton-Wylie, 2018).…”

Transitions in the Careers of Competitive Swimmers: To Continue or Finish with Elite Sport?

“…The findings from the study have practical applications for athletes, coaches, parents, psychologists, and sports professionals. A collaborative relationship between organizational and environmental factors (e.g., school—club communication) [ 46 ] and appropriate social support (especially family support) can help to prevent elite athletes’ premature career termination during and after their normative transition, within the transition from junior to senior level. As a result, it is important to educate parents, coaches, and teammates on the different roles they can play in providing the necessary social support to athletes undergoing normative within-career transitions [ 22 , 45 , 47 ].…”

Creating a Sustainable Talent-Development Culture: Context-Driven Sport Psychology Practice in a Danish Talent Academy

“…Nevertheless, it has been argued that creating and maintaining organizational cultures is a key function of the sports psychology practitioner (Fletcher & Wagstaff, 2009). For example, Mathorne, Henriksen and Stambulova (2020) recently demonstrated with a case study that the opportunity to work and collaborate horizontally within the local sports landscape is crucial to successful talent development, at least in a small nation such as Denmark. This case study illustrates successful coordination of talent development at local level, which could be a task for sports psychology practitioners.…”

“…strong community of young athletes and coaches respectively). The less developed relationships were the inter-organizational one at macro-level (Mathorne et al, 2020).…”

“…The last decade has seen an increase in ATDE research and an expansion of knowledge in this field (e.g. Henriksen & Stambulova, 2017;Mathorne et al, 2020). The HEA, with its two working models, has shown its value as a lens to aid the study of specific environments (Henriksen & Stambulova, 2017), and recently the field was further developed with the study of interorganizational collaborations (Mathorne, et al, 2020).…”