Global Sport Leadership

Stephen Frawley, Laura Misener, Daniel Lock, Nico Schulenkorf

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781351590242
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book explores the global developments in sport leadership and practice.

Drawing on the vast and ever-growing leadership literature, the book examines advances in leadership theory and practice in the context of the challenges faced by those working in global sport management positions. It explores the various dimensions of leadership, with a particular focus on the development of leadership theory. It also looks at the operational and contextual elements of leadership in a global sport environment and finally reflects on the status quo, and explores future challenges and research opportunities for leadership and global sport management.

1 Global sport leadership

Setting the scene

Introduction

Sport plays an important role in the lives of millions of people around the world. Whether it be watching the Olympic Games or the Football World Cup every four years, or participating in a weekly ParkRun event, sport impacts society socially, economically, and environmentally. Given the scope of this impact and the services needed to ensure each sport, and the associated competitions, can take place week after week and year after year, having people with the right leadership skills is crucial: whether that includes highly paid CEOs of professional leagues or volunteers delivering sport programmes in disadvantaged communities. Sport is both business and emotion, and it is imperative that leaders working in sport understand this unique feature. As such, leadership of sport is not solely important in the domain of elite sport. In fact, leadership is equally relevant to encouraging sport participation (in all its forms) in order for participants to realise the associated health and social benefits.

As the sport economy has grown dramatically across the globe over the past 40 years, so has the number of universities and colleges offering sport management and sport business education to train future managers and leaders. In addition to offering sport-specific subjects such as sport marketing, sport development, sport event management, sport media, and sport governance, many tertiary institutions offer sport-specific leadership subjects and programmes designed to provide students with the skills to lead in a fast changing business and political environment.

Global Sport Leadership was conceived with the express intent to engage sport management students and scholars with current, critical, and applied sport leadership knowledge. To achieve this aim, the book explores some key leadership issues that are faced by sport managers today, including implementing leadership development, leading in high performance sport environments, leading in sport for development environments, and understanding failed leadership. In the book, we address these issues from a critical management perspective. Specifically, we believe that sport, overall, can play a positive role in society; however, it also has a long history of corruption and ethically challenged management.

The book is structured in ten chapters. In this introductory chapter, we outline the purpose of the book and provide an overview of each chapter. We discuss how leadership as a concept has been defined and briefly explore the different approaches to understanding leadership that have emerged in the research literature in recent years. We also discuss the emergence of the sport/business leadership domain and possibilities for future leadership research.

In Chapter 2, we articulate the social identity approach to sport leadership in relation to three main objectives. First, we seek to provide an insight into why understanding groups is of fundamental importance to sound leadership. Second, we explain how valued social identities provide a basis for shared understandings of group values, mission, and visions toward which group members are energised to contribute. Third, we discuss how, through embodying prototypical (ideal) representations of a group, leaders can achieve power (and success) through the collective strengths of a group or organisation.

In Chapter 3, leadership development and succession management in the context of professional sport organisations are examined. In this chapter, the concept of leadership development is introduced, exploring the research that has been undertaken from both sport and non-sport perspectives. The work on experience-based leadership by McCall (2010) is cited as a useful framework to be applied by professional sport organisations in order to maximise leadership and management potential across all workforce levels. Finally, the importance of leadership development for professional sport organisations in the context of succession management is explored in detail.

In Chapter 4, the concept of cross-border leadership is introduced, and we propose a new and inclusive working definition. The specific traits and competencies of cross-border leaders are debated in the chapter. In addition, a discussion takes place on the specific challenges and future opportunities of cross-border leadership. Finally, the chapter illustrates how cross-border leadership can be applied in a sport context through a case study of the Pacific Islands nation of Fiji.

In Chapter 5, the role of leadership in the context of sport mega-events is examined in detail. The chapter explores two levels of mega-event leadership: (1) the urban development perspective on delivering civic outcomes and (2) the organising committee agenda when attempting to deliver a successful event. The analysis of these two levels draws upon multiple theoretical approaches, including work that is focussed on theories of event management and event legacy perspectives.

In Chapter 6, we explore leadership practices that support diversity and inclusion across the spectrum of sport delivery. The chapter outlines why the sport literature has been lacking with regard to understanding leadership from a diversity and inclusion perspective. A number of theoretical approaches that might support the creation of more socially just and diverse sport organisations are debated.

In Chapter 7, the leadership-specific aspects of sport for development are outlined and discussed. The chapter examines the most relevant leadership theory for this space and how it connects with recent sport for development research. In order to demonstrate practical implications, a detailed case study is presented that explores the leadership challenges for sport organisations in the Pacific Island nation of Samoa.

In Chapter 8, we investigate leadership in the context of high performance sport. The chapter starts by outlining what actually constitutes high performance sport. It then discusses high performance sport policy and leadership at the various levels of elite sport. The role of both coaches and athletes as leaders is explored as are the relevant factors that shape and influence success.

In Chapter 9, with the assistance of Tessa McLachlan, we explore the concept of failed leadership. While it is the hope of every leader and organisation to provide positive and successful leadership, the reality is that often things go amiss, leaders fail, and individuals and stakeholders are impacted negatively. This chapter therefore explores the consequences for professional sport organisations of failed leadership, using one of the biggest-ever scandals to impact Australian sport: an event referred to as #Sandpapergate. In Chapter 10, the final chapter, we discuss the future opportunities and possibilities for sport leadership research and practice.

Defining leadership

While the concept of leadership is one of the most researched areas in the field of management studies, it has been viewed from both wide and narrow standpoints. Due to this confusion about how leadership should be viewed, multiple definitions have come to light over the past half-century (Egan, Sarros, & Santora, 1995). Given this it has been suggested that rather than trying to find the perfect single definition, leadership scholars should accept the value of diversity and encourage various definitions (Yukl, 1989). One way of doing so is presenting leadership as three interconnected levels: meta, macro, and micro (Frawley, Favaloro, & Schulenkorf, 2018; Nicholls 1987). The ‘meta’ level of leadership can be described as people exerting influence by creating a vision that attracts engaged followers (e.g. Google). The ‘macro’ level of leadership refers to executives building successful organisations via the creation of strong identities and culture. The ‘micro’ level relates to the performance of particular actions that require different responses depending on the situation. According to Nicholls (1987), when we examine leadership from this three-level perspective it is focussed on top-down and bottom-up approaches, demonstrating that leadership success is a dynamic construct.

Another point of confusion in the leadership literature is the distinction that is often made between leaders and managers. Soucie (1994) argues that leadership and management are interdependent concepts that, while overlapping, also have definitional differences. Similarly, Kotter (1990) has stated that managing is about seeking stability and order, while leading is about being adaptive and constructive to change. Another more common view is that management is doing things right, while leadership is doing the right things (Yukl, 1989). From this viewpoint, leading can be both formal and informal in nature, while managing is more performance-related and takes into account formal managerial positioning. Leadership action therefore enables groups of people to work together in positive and meaningful ways, while management processes are more institutionally specific, i.e. less focussed on people and more focussed on specific tasks and activities (Day, 2000).

Over the recent history of leadership scholarship, a number of different perspectives have emerged that should be noted and briefly overviewed as background for the remaining chapters in the book. While not exhaustive, some of the foundational approaches to leadership studies include the following: situational leadership, authentic leadership, ethical leadership, transformational leadership, charismatic leadership, responsible leadership, and relational leadership. Each of these theoretical perspectives is explored in the following.

Situational leadership

Situational leadership can be described as the “interplay between the leader’s guidance, direction and socio-emotional support, and the readiness … that followers exhibit on a particular task” (Avery & Ryan, 2002, p. 243). Larsson and Vinberg (2010) also suggest that situational leadership can be explored via three elements: change orientation, structure orientation, and relation orientation. From this approach relation orientation is regarded as the foundation of successful leadership, while change orientation and structure orientation leadership are adopted differently depending on the specific situation.

Authentic leadership

According to Avolio and Gardner (2005) authentic leadership is considered “as all forms of positive leadership and its development” (p. 316). Authentic leadership is therefore considered as a continual learning process where leaders and followers attempt to gain self-awareness through open and trusting relationships. Avolio and Gardner (2005) further argue that authentic leadership can be generated through not only increasing one’s self-awareness but also “self-regulation, and positive role modelling” (p. 317).

Ethical leadership

A little over a decade ago, Brown and Trevino (2006) suggested that the construct of ethical leadership remained largely undeveloped. They stated that ethical leaders are “honest, caring and principled individuals who make fair and balanced decisions”, and establish clear ethical standards for all of their followers (p. 597). Given the seemingly never-ending reporting of ethical scandals in business, politics, and sport the value of the ethical dimension has never been greater. Providing for all individuals and groups, including men and women, from all backgrounds is another issue that needs ethical assessment. Business, politics, and sport are all domains that to this day are still dominated by men in senior leadership positions: to what extent in our modern world is this ethical? Issues of power, gender, and diversity provide both constraints to and possibilities for leaders forming relationships and delivering ethically to their institutions and communities (Sinclair, 2009).

Transactional and transformational leadership

Transformational leadership is possibly the most researched construct in the leadership literature (Parry, 1998). It is argued that this particular approach became popular partly due to the holistic perspective of the transactional-transformational leadership paradigm (Bass, 1997). This holistic paradigm is applied across various levels of leadership, including individual, group, organisational, and societal levels (Ryan, 2018). Bass (1999) also refers to these levels as micro, macro, and meta. According to Bass (1985, p. 26)

the transformational leader is one who motivates followers to do more than they would normally be expected to do. As a result, the followers’ original levels of confidence in reaching desired and designated outcomes as a result of performance are transformed.

While transformational leadership considers the group, we argue in Chapter 2 that social identity theorising of leadership has moved beyond transformational and transactional approaches because it provides a framework that explains how effective leadership results from creating groups that are meaningful to leaders and followers alike. As outlined by a recent study deploying social identity theory conducted by Smith, Haslam, and Neilsen (2018), leadership emerges “through interactions, processes and practices” that are perceived by members of a group or organisation “to develop and advance shared goals and shared identity” (p. 1425).

Charismatic leadership

Charismatic leadership is closely connected to transformational leadership (Conger, 1999). Charismatic leaders are said to “inspire in their followers unquestioning loyalty and devotion without regard for the followers’ own self-interest” (Parry, 1994, p. 85). The idea of transformational leadership was developed as a way of overcoming the negative connotations of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of tables
• 1 Global sport leadership: setting the scene
• 2 A social identity approach to sport leadership
• 3 Developing leaders and planning succession in sport organisations
• 4 Cross-border leadership and the management of sport
• 5 Leadership and mega-events
• 6 Leadership practices from a diversity and inclusion perspective
• 7 Leadership and sport-for-development (SFD)
• 8 Leading high performance sport
• 9 Failed leadership and professional sport: the case of #Sandpapergate
• 10 Global sport leadership: critical issues and future research
• Index