Culture Change in a Professional Sports Team: Shaping Environmental Contexts and Regulating Power

Abstract

Although high performing cultures are crucial for the enduring success of professional sport performance teams, theoretical and practical understanding of how they are established and sustained is lacking. To develop knowledge in this area, a case study was undertaken to examine the key mechanisms and processes of a successful culture change programme at English Rugby Union's Leeds Carnegie. Exploring the change process from a 360 degree perspective, semi-structured interviews were conducted with team management, one specialist coach, six players, and the CEO. Analysed and explained through decentred theory, results revealed that culture change was effectively facilitated by team management: a) subtly and covertly shaping the physical, structural, and psychosocial context in which support staff and players made performance-impacting choices, and b) regulating the 'to and fro' of power which characterises professional sport performance teams. Decentred theory is also supported as an effective framework for culture change study.

Driving and sustaining culture change in professional sport performance teams: A grounded theory

“…Including research that has addressed the functioning of entire elite sport organizations, and thus incorporating administrative and top-management elements (Wagstaff, Fletcher, & Hanton, 2012;Wagstaff, Hanton, & Fletcher, 2013), other inquiry has addressed the precise functioning of their performance departments (i.e., encompassing team management, support staff, and performers alone). More specifically still, an early focus of this latter area has been on the team management-led generation of high performing cultures (Cruickshank & Collins, 2012;Cruickshank, Collins, & Minten, 2013a), with a first theory of this culture change process in Olympic sport organizations recently developed (Cruickshank, Collins, & Minten, 2014). To help produce of a breadth and depth of knowledge in this area, as well as support context-specific practice in consulting sport psychologists, investigation of team manager-led culture change in professional sport is now merited.…”

“…These authors' appraisal has also provided context for different work on the precise functioning and leadership of elite sport organizations' performance departments, where attention has focused on those directly responsible for sporting performance; normally known as team managers, head coaches, directors of sport, or performance directors (e.g., Arnold, Fletcher, & Molyneux, 2012;Cruickshank & Collins, 2012;Cruickshank et al, 2013aFletcher & Arnold, 2011). As performers, coaches, and sports medicine/science staff are overseen by these specialist leaders, with the performance department often in an entirely separate location to administrative and top management groups, research in this area is bolstered by its applied relevance (Cruickshank, Collins, & Minten, 2013b).…”

“…In other work, Sir Clive Woodward reflected on the need to facilitate performer knowledge, communication, and ownership, support their families, promote enjoyment, foster "no excuse" values, and sustain a consistent line on performance preparation (Lee, Shaw, & Chesterfield, 2009). Cruickshank et al (2013a) have also reported that a culture change program at rugby union side Leeds Carnegie was aided by the "on-field" management team developing clear objectives and plans, optimizing the holistic performance environment, using multiple feedback systems, reinforcing preferred perceptions and behaviors, and harnessing their leadership and interpersonal qualities.…”

Blaming Bill Gates AGAIN! Misuse, overuse and misunderstanding of performance data in sport

“…As further contrast to Williams and Manley's (2014) interpretation that power was uniformly exercised over players, consider recent case study data from another premiership rugby club provided by Cruickshank, Collins, and Minten (2013). In this environment, the director of rugby and the head coach used extensive monitoring and evaluation tools to facilitate performance-optimising behaviours within their squad.…”

The wider context of performance analysis and it application in the football coaching process

“…Much of the work commented on in this and the preceding sections will be firmly situated in a research paradigm which would be described as a Positivism approach in that the academic work would often be interested in establishing a cause and effect type relationship, whereas, the investigations which coaches and analysts might employ are largely at club level and much more Interpretive in nature (Sparkes 1992). In such situations analysts and coaches will attempt to provide further interpretation to the situational factors which they face in an attempt to establish how specific issues might be impacting on their own team's performance within their own organisational context Cruickshank, Collins, Minten 2013). Clearly there is a lack of research which draws upon the application of performance analysis in a truly applied context as this will largely sit with the club themselves, thus assumptions are often drawn from academic work and applied to a practical context.…”