Sport Operations Management and Development

An Applied Approach

Mark Piekarz

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Business
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000326840
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

This essential textbook introduces the work of sport management and sport development from the perspective of the day-to-day operational challenges faced by managers and sport development officers. It addresses the practicalities of designing and delivering sport services safely, efficiently and effectively, for profit or in non-profit contexts.

The book covers core topics such as time management, project management, customer care, developing partnerships, fundraising, crisis management and research. It adopts a problem-based learning approach, with a strong, practical focus on putting theory into practice, to illustrate good practice and to help the reader develop sound operational skills, knowledge and decision-making, underpinned by the principles of safety, effectiveness and efficiency. It features a range of diverse international case studies, covering different sports and operational management challenges, including global pandemics and terrorism. Connecting theories, ideas and scientific disciplines, the book helps managers approach operations management more creatively, combining both management and development work to show areas of difference and overlap. It also introduces systems theory and the principals of marginal gains or small wins, to help managers develop working cultures which can be utilised in all areas of management, encouraging a culture of learning, reflection and ethical action. Sport Operations Management and Development is designed for both practitioners and students working in sport management, development, coaching or aspects of sport science.

1 What is sport service operations management and development?

Challenges for managers

• What is involved in working at an operations level in sport?
• How does operation service delivery differ from manufacturing operations?
• What are the similarities and differences between sport management and sport development?
• What theoretical concepts can help analyse operations to create, maintain and improve services?

1.1 Introduction

Just what does a sport manager or a sport development officer (SDO) do in their working day, week or month? For someone unfamiliar with the day-to-day workings of a sport manager or SDO, it can be difficult to envision the sheer variety of job tasks which have to be coordinated and completed: Some can be planned for; some will be a reaction to events and incidents on a day; some may be exciting and be the reason why the person entered into the profession; some may be mundane, dull even, yet still vital to ensure the efficient and safe delivery of services. In this chapter, we introduce the variety of job tasks that a manager or SDO will engage with and how they can be represented and categorised.

This chapter begins by defining what is meant by operations management. It explains the difference between simple sport administration, sport management and sport development. It then moves onto exploring operations management as it relates to sport management and development work. A key part of this discussion will be the representation of an over-arching theoretical operations system model. This model gives the key concepts used in operations management, in any working sector, together with giving the foundation concepts for later chapters.

1.2 What is sport management and development?

It is important to gain an insight into the similarities and differences between sport administration, management and sport development. To begin with, this book is not about sport administration. Although it is a term commonly referred to around the world, it is conservative and dated one. In the past, managers of leisure venues would primarily focus on facility maintenance and administration, which was often reflected in the types of qualifications required, such as having pool maintenance certificate. The idea of a manager having a degree in sport management would have been a highly unusual occurrence. Torkildsen was always critical of this unimaginative approach to management, arguing that it could be wasteful, if not negligent (Torkildsen, 2005, p. 553. Today, although this type of sport administrator can still be found, it is an outdated concept, difficult to sustain in the modern, global sport business world. In this book, our preference therefore is to adopt Watt’s (1998) view of the modern sport manager and SDO, who needs to be dynamic and outward looking, with skills and knowledge of the key management and business functional areas, who takes the initiative in sport service operations.

It is also important to recognise the full diversity of sport, whereby because a service sector has the word ‘sport’ in it, then this somehow makes a single homogenous area of management. It does not. Whilst there can be linking strands, the work and challenges between various sports or sport sectors can be very different. To help explain why this is the case, we therefore adapt Wilson and Piekarz (2015, p. 9) sector model and Torkildsen’s (2005, p. 451) programme classification which identify the many different elements which can shape sport services, presented in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 Sport Services Composition.

Source: Adapting Wilson and Piekarz (2015) and Torkildsen (2005).

The different elements identified in Figure 1.1 help illustrate variations in service delivery, each presenting their own operational challenges, as the following examples illustrate:

• Example 1 – Fitness class: This could take place in an indoor gym; runs for profit (private sector); can be done as pay-as-you go (i.e. you just turn up and pay for the service when you want it); is non-competitive and involves active participation; and designed to achieve health outcomes.
• Example 2 – A children’s community football programme: This can take place outdoors; can be run by a commercial football club, but is run on a non-profit basis, as children pay a minimal fee to cover just operating costs (called a ‘loss-leader’ service); it has a small club subscriptions for a set number of weeks for the coaching sessions; it is primarily focused on amateur, foundation level of active participation, but the club wants to identify future elite talent and even encourage the children and their families to attend football games and develop fandom attachment outcomes.
• Example 3 – A sport event in an arena: This can be done for commercial, profit reasons; it can be indoors; it could also be an example of a more complex, large-scale operation, where hundreds of staff may need to be coordinated and thousands of spectators managed; and it involves the passive watching of professional athletes, to help achieve inspiration outcomes.

One important observation to make is that depending on the combination of elements highlighted in Figure 1.1, this can have profound implications on operational management processes and the risks which need to be managed (e.g. large-scale sport events can carry a higher risk of terrorist attack, or outdoor events can be exposed to weather hazards, which can generate numerous risks, such as extreme weather forcing event closures). These will be elaborated on throughout this book.

Further explanation is needed on the similarities and differences between sport development and sport management jobs. The concept of ‘development’ in sport can describe a type of job in the sport sector, or be understood as a working philosophy in sport. This becomes clearer when the definition of sport development is explored. Whilst there is no single, agreed definition of sport development, Hylton (2013) gives a useful starting point about some of the challenges and key features of sport development, saying:

The use – and, some would argue misuse – of the term ‘sport(s) development’ can be appreciated by a closer look at what each word is describing. Sport has at times been narrowly defined in terms of competitive, rule governed games, involving some degree of physical activity and exercise. Development conjures up ideas of maturation, of education; the gradual consolidation of knowledge; and the teaching of competences and practical skills… Consequently, to develop someone or something suggests a transition through progressive stages where new and improved outcomes are both possible and desirable. But put the two strange words together, each drawing on different vocabularies, such as sport and development, and what do you get? A new hierarchy or range of meanings emerges.

Hylton (2013, p. 4)

Houlihan (2011, p. 5) notes that sport development is a contested term, observing how it ‘starts off apparently simple, but soon becomes mired in ambiguity’. Coalter (2010) also gives an invaluable, critical discussion of how the concept of ‘sport development’ can be a politically contested term, arguing that the use of sport for development has been regularly espoused in public sport policies within westernised societies over the past 20 years. A further illustrative example of this is given in Box 1.1. Exploring these many tensions could be a book in itself, but for now the following key features of development work are focused on here:

• Sport development is about engagement: Sport development can describe work which relates to getting more people active or involved with sport in some manner, which often targets particular communities or groups, such as children and the elderly women. At times this can be criticised, particularly if a ‘missionary’ style of outreach work is adopted, where the sport is ‘forced’ upon a community whether they want it or not.
• Sport development is about nurturing: Sport development can describe the identification and nurturing of sport interest and talent. This is illustrated with the use of the Sport Development Continuum model, which develops the theory that people playing sport go through a pyramid of progression, starting with the foundation level (e.g. getting children to play sport), then moving onto participation (e.g. playing on a regular basis for fun, socialisation or fitness), then performance (e.g. playing on a regular, semi-professional basis) finishing with elite performers (e.g. the small number who perform at the highest competitive level). It is simplistic model, with many limitations, but for now, it offers a basic starting point to explain how people may progress through sport.
• Sport development is not the same as coaching: Sport development, whilst often intimately related to sport coaching, should not be used as a synonym or inter-changeable with the term ‘coaching’. Whilst all coaches will have a development strand to their role, sport development goes beyond coaching into the sphere of management, as it requires planning and management of resources, hence, the reason it is combined with management in this book.
• Sport for development is different from sport development: Coalter (2010) provides a critical discussion of the differences between sport development and sport for development. Simply put, sport development may focus on expanding participation in a sport, whilst the ‘for development’ may focus on achieving some other, non-sporting goals, such as trying to improve health or build character traits, such as honesty, teamwork and leadership (all examples of outputs, explained later). This concept of ‘for d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of case studies
• List of contributors
• Preface
• Chapter 1 What is sport service operations management and development?
• Chapter 2 Organisational purpose and evaluating service operations
• Chapter 3 Job tasks, scheduling and time management
• Chapter 4 Creating sport programmes to meet needs and wants
• Chapter 5 Customer care, quality systems and regulatory compliance
• Chapter 6 Project sport and event management
• Chapter 7 Stakeholders, partnerships and volunteers
• Chapter 8 Fundraising, sponsorship and digital target marketing
• Chapter 9 Crisis management, risk and dynamic risk assessments
• Chapter 10 Researching and consulting communities
• Index