Thesis-1996-Theodoraki.pdf (7.38 MB)
An organisational analysis of the national governing bodies of sport in Britain : organisational structures and contexts, management processes and concepts and perceptions of effectiveness
thesis
posted on 2012-10-02, 12:26 authored by Eleni I. TheodorakiSports organisations in public, commercial and voluntary sectors in the mid 1990s are
faced with an increasingly volatile environment. It has been claimed that there has been
a move away from traditional, large-scale, bureaucratic, organisational structures in
the commercial sector (which has predominantly led organisational and management
fashions in the public, quasi-public and voluntary sectors), and this research project
investigates whether such a shift away from traditionalist organisational forms is
evidenced among Britain's national governing bodies of sport (NGBs). In addition,
there has been a stimulus for NGBs to move away from reliance on public sector
financial support for sporting bodies, and to seek a stronger commercial footing. This
raises the question of how organisations are responding to the changing economic
environment and whether for example more flexible, entrepreneurial approaches are
evident among NGBs. It is with this context as background that the study seeks to
embark on an organisational analysis of NGBs in Britain. The research project was founded on configurationalist approaches to
organisational analysis which argue for a holistic investigation of organisations and the
investigation is structured in three parts. The first involves identifying the nature and
range of organisational structures which exist in NGBs of sport. This gives an account,
on the basis of cluster analysis, of a taxonomy of governing bodies consisting of six
clusters. The relationships between the organisational types are also examined in the
first stage of the research as well as the potential transition processes from one
organisational type to another.
The aims of the second element of the study are to identifY the nature of
management processes and organisational change, to explore ways in which structural features are affected by individual agency, and evaluate whether processes identified
are consonant with the structural and contextual variables from the derived taxonomy.
The third part of the research is a study of organisational actors' perceptions of
effectiveness in NGBs drawn from the identified clusters. This 'multiple constituency'
approach to understanding effectiveness evaluates both the different concepts of
effectiveness, as well as the differential evaluations of effectiveness, which were held
by internal constituencies and external assessors.
The research findings provide evidence of a number of predominantly simple
organisational structures in a variety of contexts. Management processes are identified
for each type of the derived taxonomy and organisational phenomena of
professionalisation, bureaucratisation and resource dependence are evaluated. The
review of the changing British structural context within which NGBs operate identifies
pressures exerted on NGBs to professionalise and bureaucratise their structures and
commercialise their operations. However, the review of management processes and
organisational change does not reveal a 'unidirectional drift' towards professionalised
and bureaucratised structures. In addition, effectiveness levels as perceived by multiple
constituents were not significantly higher for any of the 'post-Fordist', flexible
organisational types in the NGB sample.
History
School
- Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Publisher
© E.I.TheodorakiPublication date
1996Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.Language
- en