Managing sport for social change: The effects of intentional design and structure in a sport-based service learning initiative

The current study focused on addressing a gap in understanding the design, structure, and management of sport-for-development (SFD) initiatives, in this case an initiative rooted in sport-based service learning. Sport, and specifically SFD, has been shown to facilitate positive outcomes such as social capital development through expanding networks and community building. Some studies have focused on impacts on volunteers in sport and SFD programs. These volunteers have developed networks most often through informal relationship building activities. Building on this knowledge, the current mixed methods study investigated the social capital development of alumni of a college service learning through sport course. Survey data (n = 93) and individual interviews (n = 22) with participants who had completed at least one semester in the course indicated that social capital development was facilitated. In particular, the intentional design, structure, and management aspects of the course and program provided opportunities for social capital development.     

Managing sport for social change: The state of play

Sport-for-development (SFD) provides a platform for sport to be used as a tool or “hook” to contribute to positive outcomes in areas including economic development, social inclusion, cultural cohesion, healthy lifestyles, education, gender equity, as well as reconciliation and peacebuilding. The area of sport for social change (SFSC) represents a sub-field of SFD that uses sport as a catalyst to build social capacity and develop socially and physically healthy communities. The Managing Sport for Social Change special issue of Sport Management Review brings together a collection of conceptual advances, empirical research papers and teaching case studies from a range of social and cultural perspectives, with a focus on managing sport for social change; aimed at engaging critically with sport management theory and praxis, and discussing associated practical and policy implications. Theoretical gaps and recommendations for future research, including: local engagement, innovative research methodology, and a broadening of the scope of research are also discussed.     

The role of management in achieving health outcomes in SFD programmes: A stakeholder perspective

There is an abundance of social issues, both health-related and otherwise, that health professionals and sport managers can address using sport as a mechanism. However, there is much debate regarding the impact sport is making in achieving development goals. In this study, the authors utilised a case study design to explore how stakeholders perceive the management of health-focused sport for development (SFD) programmes to contribute to the achievement of desired programmatic goals. The authors provided a side-by-side assessment of a sport-plus and sport-plus programme, through a qualitative case study design. Results indicate that while stakeholder perceptions of goal achievement are similar, the strengths of each type of programme vary. The authors discuss implications for these differences and the importance of stakeholder perspective in SFD.     

A community capacity building approach to sport-based youth development

Positive youth development (PYD) is the most popular framework guiding sport-for-development (SFD) research. To date, much of this work has focused on how sport programs are purposefully designed to promote PYD outcomes. However, the youth-context interactions that form the theoretical basis of PYD occur across all aspects of youth ecologies, meaning youth SFD organizations are most effective when they enhance the capacity of communities as well. Although the need to expand current youth-centred perspectives has been noted by SFD scholars, implementing this insight into practice has proven difficult. In this paper, the authors provide a conceptual advancement to the literature through three objectives. First, a theoretical basis for linking PYD and community capacity frameworks is provided. Second, specific capacity building strategies are critically explored within the context of youth SFD organizations. Third, a community capacity building approach to sport-based PYD is presented and discussed in light of key considerations.     

League Bilong Laif: rugby,education and sport-for-development partnerships in Papua New Guinea

League Bilong Laif (LBL) is a sport-for-development (SFD) programme that was established in 2013 as a three-way partnership between the Australian Government, the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government (Department of Education) and the Australian Rugby League Commission (National Rugby League). As a contribution to addressing low rates of school attendance and significant problems with anti-social behaviour within PNG communities, LBL was designed to contribute to (1) improvements in student engagement with education in and out of the classroom; and (2) communication of positive social messages, with a focus on respect generally, and gender equity in particular. This paper discusses the qualitative review of the pilot phase of the LBL project, and the implications for programme design and delivery for education outcomes through a SFD programme. Data were collected through a combination of 23 interviews and focus groups with 33 individual representatives from relevant organisations and government departments in the areas of sport, education and community development. Preliminary findings indicate that despite a challenging beginning, the LBL programme has made some progress in terms of the initial development of programme aims and stakeholder engagement, largely because of the rigorous design process that kept desired programme outcomes at the forefront.     

Embracing the sportification of society: Defining e-sports through a polymorphic view on sport

In this paper, the author argues that, regardless of whether e-sports qualify as sports, they should be examined in sport management because they are a manifestation of sportification. Sportification means to either: (a) view, organize, or regulate a non-sport activity in such a way that it resembles a sport and allows a fair, pleasurable, and safe environment for individuals to compete and cooperate, and compare their performances to each other, and future and past performances; or (b) add a sport component to an existing activity in order to make it more attractive to its audiences. As the sport industry itself is embracing e-sports as a sport, scholars should embrace e-sports as a manifestation of sportification and examine their negative and positive effect on our industry.     

Sport-for-development: A comprehensive analysis of theoretical and conceptual advancements

Over the past decade, the field of sport-for-development (SFD) has experienced significant growth and diversification across research and practice. In this review paper, the authors provide a comprehensive analysis and discussion of the theoretical and conceptual developments within SFD, addressing a gap in the literature. Following a sport-focused review of SFD literature, the authors first identify five theoretical and conceptual frameworks that have emerged from within the SFD space. As a second step, they analyze and discuss scholarly work that has utilized these theories and frameworks. Building on a comparison of key messages, themes, and concerns, the authors highlight that to date, limited SFD scholarship has truly applied, extended, or challenged existing frameworks and conceptualizations. Motivated by this review, they posit several conceptual advancements, and offer directions for future research and theoretical development.     

eSport: Construct specifications and implications for sport management

The purpose of this article is to add to the conceptual discussion on eSport, analyze the role of eSport within sport management, and suggest avenues for future eSport research. The authors suggest that debates surround the degree to which eSport represents formal sport, and disagreements likely stem from conceptualizations of sport and context. Irrespective of one’s notion of eSport as formal sport, the authors suggest the topic has a place in sport management scholarship and discourse. Such a position is consistent with the broad view of sport adopted by Sport Management Review, the perspective that eSport represents a form of sportification, and the association among eSport and various outcomes, including physical and psychological health, social well-being, sport consumption outcomes, and diversity and inclusion. Finally, the authors conclude that eSport scholarship can advance through the study of its governance, marketing, and management as well as by theorizing about eSport.     

The role of sport in community capacity building: An examination of sport for development research and practice

Population health promotion and preventing disease remain important global policy goals. Because of the complex nature of health, and the recognition of the limits of individual-oriented health promotion strategies, recent decades have seen increased interest by public health researchers and practitioners in community-level approaches to health promotion. Increasingly, community-level approaches have been based upon the theoretical concept of community capacity. Community capacity is seen as a critical mechanism for supporting and promoting community-level health and through the sport for development (SFD) model, there is evidence of sport being an important practice for community development. However, little is known about the potential role of sport as a mechanism for building community capacity. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to examine the efficacy of sport to contribute to the process of community capacity building. Using seven established dimensions of community capacity, there is evidence that many SFD practices can effectively facilitate dimensions of community capacity when conducted in intentional, culturally relevant ways. Specifically, sport has demonstrated efficacy in building local skills, knowledge, and resources, increasing social cohesion, facilitating structures and mechanisms for community dialog, leadership development, and encouraging civic participation. More research is needed to understand sport's ability to promote capacity building through collective action, developing value systems that support democracy and inclusion, and encouraging critical reflection. To increase the usefulness of sport to support community health development, SFD principles should be included as part of sport management university curricula. Additionally, practitioners need grounding in community and human development research to support non-sport components of programs. Finally, participatory action research techniques should be used by researchers and practitioners. Sport-based development often generates high interest from residents, funders, and policy makers. By applying principles of community capacity building, sport may be uniquely positioned to enhance sustainable community health development initiatives.     

Organizational justice in sport

Research on organizational justice in sport has evolved during the past fifteen years. Much of that research has focused on the perceived fairness of equity, equality, and need when making resource distributions (distributive justice) in intercollegiate athletics. Generally, those involved with intercollegiate athletics believe resource decisions based on equality and need are the most fair, but decisions appear to be based on different principles. Scholars have also begun examining the fairness of decision-making processes (procedural justice) and the communication of those decisions (interactional justice), and how organizational justice impacts organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction. Additionally, research has expanded to include sport settings beyond intercollegiate athletics. This article summarizes the state of research by first reviewing the general organizational justice literature to conceptually describe the constructs of interest before providing a detailed examination of sport management specific research. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research on organizational justice in sport management.     

Power and discourse in the politics of evidence in sport for development

The field of sport for development (SFD) has been criticised for the way that evidence has been produced and used to account for and demonstrate the perceived success of SFD programmes. Much of this critique has highlighted shortcomings in approaches to monitoring and evaluation (M&E), which underpins a perceived weak evidence base concerning what works, why and within which contexts (Coalter, 2007, Coalter and Taylor, 2010, Pawson and Tilley, 1997). Conceptually a lack of evidence discourse (Nicholls et al., 2010) has emerged. This paper explores and analyses the power dynamics that shape this discourse and argues that an understanding of the dominant neoliberal context within which SFD is located is critical. While offering a Foucauldian framework, the power, knowledge and discourse related to political actors in SFD processes are examined. This paper addresses two key questions: what is power and who is it for? Whose interests are served in the interpretation, generation and reporting of evidence? The paper concludes that the role of the sport development practitioner (SDP) is underprivileged and to enable the field of sport for development (SFD) to move forward, the very people who implement the programmes need to be better understood. Furthermore it is argued that a deeper understanding and interpretation of the terrain of the sport development practitioner (SDP) within UK and international shores are a necessity if a more open and transparent knowledge transfer process, surrounding evidence, is to be entered into.     

‘Let them see a different path’: social attitudes towards sport,education and development in Sāmoa

Drawing on ethnographic data collected over 12 months of field research, this paper contributes to the growing body of literature on sport for development (SFD) by giving voice to alternative constructions of the educative potential of SFD. It does this by exploring the social attitudes of youth, educators, community leaders and government officials in the Pacific island nation of Sāmoa towards sport, education and development. Imagining sport to be like ‘school outside’, my Samoan interlocutors construct sport as an educative platform that prepares young ‘academically unfit’ men to engage an increasingly global political economy in ways classroom education cannot. Viewing international sport as a form of ‘development education’, my interlocutors perceive the educative value of SFD as being rooted in the potential for sport to help move underperforming boys into transnational flows of remittances to the family. In this way, Samoans perceive sport as enabling ‘at risk’ youth to serve their families, to learn English and to become globally minded, ultimately equipping them with the skills needed to achieve transnational futures once beyond their reach. In allowing a grassroots understanding of SFD to emerge, the paper challenges the assumption that the institutions of sport and education are compatible, mutually reinforcing and complementary. Specifically, viewing sport as an alternative to schooling may serve to reintegrate underperforming young men back into an education-to-employment pipeline, but it also carries important implications for the de-skilling of youth and the perpetuation of their positions of marginality. The paper calls into question the role of education and sport in and for development, highlighting important questions that SFD stakeholders should consider.     

Managing sport-for-development and healthy lifestyles: The sport-for-health model

With increased globalization and modernization of people’s lives, lifestyle behavior has changed substantially in many countries around the world. This change has brought two key behavior modifications: a reduction in physical activity and an increase in unhealthy eating patterns. Consequently, non-communicable diseases have overtaken communicable diseases as a key health risk area. In response to this issue, healthy lifestyle initiatives and sport-for-development (SFD) programs are now implemented across the world, including projects in the heavily affected Pacific Islands region. In this paper, the authors critically reflect on their lived experiences and the underpinning management processes of the Wokabaot Jalens, a health-focused SFD initiative in Vanuatu. The authors propose the sport-for-health model as a flexible conceptual tool that establishes the nexus between sport management, health promotion, sociocultural development, policy, and sustainability. The authors provide practical and theoretical implications and suggest that the model can underpin and conceptually support other SFD initiatives—and specifically health-related development projects—in the Pacific region and beyond.     

Re-engaging local youth for sustainable sport-for-development

Despite increasing evidence that sport-for-development (SFD) programs can contribute to community development, there remains a lack of empirical inquiry into different socio-managerial aspects of SFD. For example, in attempts to achieve locally sustained SFD programs, the roles, responsibilities and potential impact of re-engaged youth need further investigation. The authors define re-engaged youth as previous program participants who have maintained strong links with the organization and who return to the program at a later stage as volunteers or staff members. In this paper, the authors examine ways in which Re-engaged youth of the Blue Dragon Children Foundation’s SFD program contribute to sustainable management and indirectly to community development within a disadvantaged community setting in Hanoi, Vietnam. Following an interpretive mode of inquiry, the authors conducted and analyzed two focus groups (six participants each) and 12 in-depth interviews with re-engaged youth (n = 7) and key program stakeholders (n = 5). Overall, re-engaged youth represented key drivers for organizational success; they served as program culture experts, role models, leaders and mentors, and creators of a family feel in SFD and beyond. The authors argue that re-engaged youth are demonstrating a number of important change agent capabilities that enable them to uniquely gauge and best respond to the needs of program participants and local communities in complex sociocultural environments.     

Community-oriented practice: Examining corporate social responsibility and development activities in professional sport

Professional sport teams are increasingly engaging in activities that target community development agendas. Previous researchers have examined why teams engage in such activities and the value they derive from a corporate social responsibility (CSR) perspective; however, an understanding of the nature and focus of such activities is only beginning to emerge and further research attention is necessary. To address this gap, the authors draw on both CSR and sport-for-development (SFD) literature to examine community activities undertaken by professional sport teams. An exploratory case study methodology was employed, using a multi-case design to examine the activities of 70 professional sport teams across the commercially dominant league in each of three regions (Australia, the UK, and the US). A total of 1243 initiatives were recorded and analysed to build a profile of the nature and focus of the community activities undertaken. These were classified into 14 specific categories and analysis identified three core groups of activities: giving, activating and capacity building. Teams primarily targeted health and education agendas; however, differences were observed across regions. Teams in the US engaged more heavily in giving activities, whereas teams in the UK more commonly engaged in capacity-building activities. Variations were also observed with respect to target agenda, demonstrating differences within practices across regions. The authors propose community-oriented practices as a concept to describe the community-focused activities undertaken by professional sport teams at the intersection of CSR and SFD, and a working definition of this concept is offered.     

Sport-for-development: Inclusive,reflexive, and meaningful research in low- and middle-income settings

Research in and around sport-for-development (SFD) has increased steadily since the first scholarly work in the field was conducted in the 1990s. As SFD has grown into an established and respected area of study, it has also diversified in its research approaches and methodologies. In this article, we reflect on our experiences as researchers in low- and middle-income countries and specifically discuss the combination of traditional research methods and innovative approaches to qualitative inquiry within two distinct projects that were funded under a single SFD program. We highlight the efficacy of a flexible, innovative, and locally-relevant research design, and advocate for inclusive, reflexive, and participatory research approaches during the monitoring and evaluation processes. Finally, we identify likely success factors and challenges for current SFD research, and offer recommendations for future qualitative inquiries in and around sport-based development programs.     

Managing sport for health: An introduction to the special issue

Sport is often viewed as vehicle to achieve positive health outcomes. While sport's potential to contribute to health is rarely disputed, sport is not always managed in ways that specifically prioritise health objectives, and evidence regarding sport's contribution to health has been inconsistent to date. This special issue was designed to advance a research agenda in relation to the management of sport for health. Articles published in the special issue examine sport management practices that impact health, both positively and negatively. The authors identified three overarching themes, with respect to how sport can be managed towards the achievement of health outcomes: sport should be aligned with community needs and should be empowering; sport should be adaptable and evolving to ensure sport culture values health; and, sport organisations should leverage partnership for health to promote organisational sustainability. In future research, scholars are encouraged to further examine the three identified themes and expand on other findings presented in the special issue, towards a stronger evidence base in relation to the management of sport for health. Opportunities exist to continue to advance knowledge regarding the potential for management strategies, models, and practices to lead to positive-and importantly, negatives-health outcomes through sport. If sport management scholars and practitioners are to meaningfully contribute to health agendas, health objectives must play a central role in reshaping sport systems and strategies toward the achievement of such outcomes.     

Get real: Using engagement with practice to advance theory transfer and production

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that strengthening links with practice through authentic and collaborative instruction, research and professional service, significantly reduces these two gap-enhancing problems and represents an ideal opportunity to apply, test and, perhaps most importantly, generate theory. Authenticity, or connectivity with practice, through the use of practical content as well as interaction, provides a valuable mechanism for enhancing, if not accelerating, knowledge production and transfer. The sport management literature widely supports the merits of experiential learning, as an authentic method of advancing knowledge acquisition. Moreover, while sport academia and sport business may comprise distinct cultures, there is a common purpose for research: an understanding of unique, emerging phenomena. As such, authentic research and learning environments have the potential to yield multiple benefits that include (a) enriching student learning outcomes, (b) fostering healthy relationships with industry, (c) establishing a mechanism for external funding, (d) serving as a platform for scholarship, and (e) challenging faculty to upgrade instructional methods and content; ultimately enhancing professional competency and connectivity of faculty and students alike, and thus, advancing the discipline.     

“Looking back (and forth)”: Acknowledging the people who make personal narratives plausible

The past decade has seen a noticeable rise in the number of people embracing autoethnography as an “alternate” research methodology. As a result, a plethora of first-person narratives and pieces of creative non-fiction now exist for truth-seeking scholars to access for authentic inspiration. The author’s unique contribution to the ongoing conversations was first inspired by the professional confessions of a friend and former colleague. Sociological introspection, packaged as a piece of creative non-fiction, should stimulate sociological imagination, evoking a memorable, equally meaningful reaction. In this paper, the author’s goals is to inspire rather than inform, encouraging readers to take time to think about their sport management memories and the meanings attached to their sport management experiences. Readers should question the plausibility of producing professional narratives of self. Readers are encouraged to have a conversation between themselves and the various leaders, legends, and legacy-makers they have followed in order to become who they are. The author encourages readers to reflect on the things they have seen, the places they have been, and the lived experiences they have produced along the way. Readers are prompted to consider the costs and consequences of presenting autoethnography through the guide of creative non-fiction.     

Organisational impression congruence: A conceptual model of multi-level impression management operation in sports service organisations

The management of images projected to consumer audiences is a key task for sport service organisations; however, the number of “touch points” (interactions between employees and consumers) adds complexity to the process. In this article, the authors present a conceptual model of organisational impression congruence (OrgIC), proposing that organisations will elicit positive consumer-related outcomes if there is alignment between the desired organisational image(s), those projected by the organisation at the management/strategic level, and those projected by customer-facing employees. The conceptual model is underpinned by theories associated with impression management, reputation (as an outcome of impression management action), and cognitive dissonance theory as the basis for outcomes of in/congruence. The authors discuss possible implications and outcomes in relation to previous literature emanating from various fields (e.g., sport management, management, and marketing), and suggest directions for future research. Through the model of OrgIC, the authors contribute to theoretical development and discussion, and provide a tool that could be useful for evaluating the way that sport service organisations present themselves to consumers, and other external audiences.