Facilitating Sustainable Outcomes for the Organization of Youth Sports through Youth Engagement

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore how a youth sport development programme in connection with a major event may facilitate sustainable outcomes for the organization of youth sports in Norway. The context of the study involved the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports’ initiative to increase young people’s engagement within Norwegian organized sports. The result of the initiative was the Young Leaders Programme (YLP) in connection with the 2016 Lillehammer Youth Olympic Games. Young people’s perceptions of the YLP, as well as how these perceptions relate to its implementation, are evaluated to determine the extent to which the programme may make a difference to sustainable youth engagement in organized sports. Qualitative data were generated through interviews with 16 YLP participants, aged 16–20, and five implementing agents. Applying the framework of processes affecting sustainability, the study shows how certain forms of sustainability can be enhanced while constraining other forms at the same time. The findings highlight that project design and implementation play a more crucial role in creating organizational sustainability than in creating individual sustainability. Furthermore, we were able to reveal that the engagement of young people in sport events as volunteers fosters individual sustainability, of which sport organizations and sporting communities should take advantage by providing arenas where young people can re-engage in sport organizations and thus contribute as change agents to a sustainable organization for youth sports.

Effects of Sports Center Employees’ Self-Leadership on Organizational Commitment: Mediating Effects of Leader-Member Exchange

“…For the past decades, sports organizations have emphasized organizational sustainability, which refers to allowing an organization to remain financially and socially sustainable, as key in managerial strategies [21]. Self-leadership is one of the internal marketing measures to respond flexibly to the rapidly changing business environment and is being emphasized as an essential factor for the sustainable growth of an organization.…”

An Approach to the Understanding of Sports Civil Organizations’ Activity and Management in Hungary

“…Especially for the youth, sport is a consistent activity of physical and mental development of the individual and the group, therefore the organization and planning of which is of great importance for society and the economy as a social domain. The engagement of young people in organized sport is a steady concern for both national and international sport-governing bodies because youths are seen as vital to the sustainable management of sport organizations (Strittmatter et al, 2021). In the context of sectors, the regulation of these organizations may be of a private, public, and voluntary nature.…”