Professionalisation of sport federations – a multi-level framework for analysing forms, causes and consequences

Abstract

Introduction:Organisational changes in sports federations are often associated with a drift from a volunteer driven to an increasingly business-like phenomenon (Shilbury & Ferkins, 2011). This process of transformation is be called as "professionalization". Accordingly, professionalization seems to be an appropriate strategy for sport organisations in order to meet organizational pressure due to challenges of a more complex and dynamic changing environment adequately. Despite the increasing research interest and the attempts for systematization on the phenomenon of professionalization it still remains unclear what does the term professionalization exactly mean (Dowling et al., 2014). Thus, there is a lack of a consistent concept of professionalization that is needed in order to explore different facets and perspectives of this phenomenon more validly. Against this background following question emerged: What is the suitable concept of professionalization for analyzing the actual ongoing processes of change, adaption or transformation in sport federations? Methods:Dealing with this question, following two-step approach was choosen: (1) In a first step a scholar's perspective at professionalisation of sport organisations will be displayed in order to explore both the common ground as well as divergences and inconsistencies in previous approaches. Therefore, a literature review is indicated. (2) In a second step, and in contrast to previous studies we will consider a practical point of view by a so called second-order observation of experts to gain valuable insights into current thinking and acting towards professionalization in sport federations. In doing so, a hermeneutical approach is used, which is about understanding the meaning of contexts by grasping the everyday world, and draw insight and meaning from it (Shilbury et al., 2013). Accordance with hermeneutics, the explorative interpretive knowledge of expert interviews was used. The interviews were conducted with a sample of six selected experts, who have both dedicated insider knowledge and the overall view of all Swiss sport federations. Results and discussion:The summaries of literature review could be categorized into two research currents. The one defines professionalization as a structural process towards professional status of occupations. The other defines it in a broader sense as an organisational change towards a business-like approach. Whereas the first perspective there is a broad scientific consensus that second isn't that clear, however. Explorative analysis of interview data reveals different themes in relation to professionalization of sports federation. First theme deals with a changed philosophy as more strategic alignment towards for-profit, efficiency and quality orientation. Second theme refers to paid work associated with more competence orientation and balanced governance between paid and voluntary work. Third theme deals with acting shift towards more rationalization and efficiency by implementation of innovative management a...

Drivers of and Barriers to Professionalization in International Sport Federations

“…In view of the narrow framework of Nagel et al (2015), we chose a deductive approach based on qualitative content analysis. As a method of analyzing written, verbal or visual communication messages (Cole, 1988), deductive content analysis seeks to enhance the understanding of a specific phenomenon (Krippendorff, 1980) by moving from the general to the specific (Burns & Grove, 1993).…”

“…For Evetts (2014), modern (Chantelat, 2001;Dowling et al, 2014) and effectiveness (Papadimitriou & Taylor, 2000). A general decrease in funding to non-profit organizations (Alexander, 2000;Levine & Zahradnik, 2012) in combination with an increasing demand for sport as a social good and entertainment (Borland & MacDonald, 2003) has significantly triggered competition between sport organizations for additional financial resources (Nagel et al, 2015). In their quest for efficiency and effectiveness, IFs increasingly adopt for-profit business methods and structures (Dowling et al, 2014;Ferkins & Shilbury, 2015;Shilbury & Ferkins, 2011).…”

“…Furthermore, the authors observe that changing the decisionmaking system proved to be most difficult and that NFs differ in pace, sequence and linearity of change. Following Amis et al's (2004) To find answers to our research propositions, we apply the multi-level framework of Nagel et al (2015). The framework is based on a review of current international literature and concepts of professionalization in sport federations.…”

“…Though interview questions were closely tied to Nagel et al's (2015) framework, we opted for semi-structured interviews to allow a broadening of the information spectrum. Inperson interviews lasted between 30 and 120 minutes, were recorded, transcribed verbatim and resulted in 185 single-spaced pages of data.…”

“…In view of researchers' understanding of current and future developments in sport management, they attribute a particular significance to this approach. Following Dowling et al' (2014) call for a systemic approach , Nagel et al (2015) developed a multi-level framework to analyze the influence of internal and external factors on causes, forms and consequences of professionalization in sport federations. The perspective of systemic professionalization appears to be of particular interest for our study as it allows us to determine whether professionalization processes are rather the result of internal or of external causes.…”