Kaisa Reetta Ruoranen

Drivers of and Barriers to Professionalization in International Sport Federations

ABSTRACT In a changing and complex environment, international sport federations (IFs) have to face new challenges. These challenges can trigger or hinder IFs’ professionalization processes. While researchers have examined organizational change and professionalization of national sport federations (NFs) and clubs, studies on IFs are rare. Considering professionalization as an important element of IFs’ change processes in recent years, the study attempts to fill this gap. The conceptual framework is based on the concepts and dynamics of organizational change, the influence of isomorphic pressures and the operationalization of a multi-level framework. Data from six case studies was analyzed by means of qualitative content analysis. Findings reveal multiple causes of IFs’ professionalization. Three particular findings are discussed: professionalization as a dynamic process with phases of acceleration that vary depending on IFs’ size; IFs’ becoming increasingly business-like through isomorphic changes; and five causes of particular relevance to IFs’ current professionalization process.

International sport federations’ commercialisation: a qualitative comparative analysis

ABSTRACT Research question: This study examines the conditions and configurations that particularly influence International Federations’ (IFs) commercialisation. Research method: Crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA) is used to determine the conditions that are related to an IFs’ commercialisation. Sixteen interviews were conducted in six Olympic IFs and one international sport umbrella organisation. Results and findings: The findings reveal a variety of high and low commercialisation configurations. Specialisation is a key condition in both high and low commercialisation, and social media engagement is central in high commercialisation. Strategic planning and low accountability have low degrees of overlap with high commercialisation outcomes. With 13 out of 22 IFs achieving high levels of commercialisation, the findings demonstrate that IFs are increasingly developing business-like behaviours. Implications: The findings highlight the importance of specialisation and social media engagement to achieve high commercialisation. However, when IFs assume a monetisation agenda, there are associated risks such as stakeholder legitimacy, mission drift, goal vagueness and adherence to good governance principles.

Types of professionalization: Understanding contemporary organizational designs of Swiss national sport federations

The purpose of this paper is to identify types of professionalization in Swiss national sport federations (NSFs) and analyze organizational characteristics associated with specific types of professionalization. Such types reveal common patterns among the increasingly complex organizational designs of NSFs and thus contribute to the understanding of professionalization in NSFs.,An online survey of all Swiss NSFs was conducted to identify types of professionalization in these organizations using hierarchical cluster analysis, based on a multi-dimensional framework of professionalization.,The analysis revealed four types of professionalization: formalized NSFs managed by paid staff, NSFs managed by volunteers and a few paid staff off the field, NSFs with differing formalization and paid staff on the field, and moderately formalized NSFs managed by volunteers. The types differ in terms of the NSFs’ organizational characteristics, in particular, size, financial resources, Olympic status, and performance.,Applying factor and cluster analysis is a new approach to analyzing professionalization in NSFs that makes uncovering distinctive organizational patterns among a large number of NSFs possible. These results lay the foundation for understanding the professionalization of NSFs, counseling NSFs on their organizational development, and conducting future research on the design types of sport organizations.

Types of professionalisation in Swiss national sport federations

Lang, Grazia1; Schlesinger, Torsten2; Lamprecht, Markus3; Ruoranen, Kaisa1; Klenk, Christoffer1; Bayle, Emmanuel4; Clausen, Josephine4; Giauque, David5; Nagel, Siegfried1 1University of Bern, Institute of Sport Science, Switzerland; 2Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany; 3Swiss Observatory for Sport and Physical Activity, Switzerland; 4University of Lausanne, Institute of Sport Science, Switzerland; 5University of Lausanne, Institute of Political, Historical and International Studies, Switzerland E-mail: grazia.lang@ispw.unibe.ch

Professionalization in Swiss national sport federations - causes and consequences

In this talk, we present causes and consequences of professionalisation derived from a qualitative multiple-case study of seven Swiss national sport federations (SSF). In documents and semi-structured interviews, we analyzed promoting and hindering factors for and consequences of professionalisation on three levels: federation intern, and in its external and internal (member organisations) environment (Nagel et al., 2015). Causes for professionalisation have been widely similar in the seven SSF. Conflicts in board and unclear competences, increased workload and higher expectations, and initiatives of key actors have been prominent causes for, particularly, defined competences, paid staff and organisational differentiation. Extern, sport policy and Swiss Olympic Association require concepts for athlete promotion and auditing, which the SSF, however, implement autonomously. To gain presence and financial resources, meeting expectations of sponsors and media, especially in marketing and communication, is unavoidable. Nevertheless, SSFs’ specific circumstances, e.g. financial and human resources, (media) presence and striving individuals, have influenced continuity of professionalisation. Little professionalisation has been promoted by SSFs’ member organisations. Their expectations were rather a consequence of SSFs’ professionalisation that tends to exceed capacities of member organisations. Consequently, SSF recognise the need for involvement, transparency and club support. Within the SSF, professionalisation has commonly improved federations’ image, structure, event organisation and people’s qualifications. However, new challenges are leadership conflicts, increased costs and workload, and organisational divergence. Furthermore, stakeholders often prescribe the expenditure of resources. Professionalisation seems to reproduce SSFs’ challenges. However, in deliberate, unhurried professionalisation they see a chance to develop their sport and member services. References Nagel, S., Schlesinger, T., Bayle, E., & Giauque, D. (2015). Professionalisation of sport federations – a multi-level framework for analysing forms, causes and consequences. European Sport Management Quarterly, 15, 407–433. doi:10.1080/16184742.2015.1062990

Causes and consequences of professionalization in Swiss national sport federations

Aim of paper International competition and expectations of different stakeholders (state, sponsors, member clubs, media, etc.) have pushed national sport federations (NSF) to adapt their structures, activities, staff and positions, and even organizational culture, resulting in profound organizational changes. Today many NSF rely on, for example, institutionalised management, formalization and standardization of processes, and employment of people with specific qualifications. NSF have been generally observed as professionalizing and transforming from traditionally volunteerdriven and member-orientated federations to increasingly business-like organizations (cf. Ruoranen et al., 2016; Shilbury & Ferkins, 2011). The aim of this paper is to explore causes and hindering factors of professionalization, as well as positive and negative consequences in Swiss NSF. For this purpose we consider professionalization using a broad multifaceted scope (Ruoranen et al., 2016). By understanding relationships between causes and consequences of professionalization, NSF may be better prepared to assess internal and external challenges, optimize their structures and performance, as well as to avoid unintended side effects of professionalization. Theoretical background Research has assessed causes and drivers in terms of environmental influences and internal factors that may trigger or hinder professionalization, as well as consequences of organizational changes (for an overview, Dowling et al., 2014). This has often been undertaken by means of case studies (O’Brien and Slack, 2004). Nagel and colleagues (2015) have summarised current sport management and sport sociological literature and positioned all relevant perspectives into a multilevel framework of forms, causes and consequences of professionalization. This framework differentiates causes and consequences into three levels: 1) external environment, 2) (internal) sport federation, and 3) internal environment. Particular internal and external factors fostering professionalization in NSF are, for example, pressure from government, expectations of sponsors, media and umbrella organisations, strategic capability of the board, and key individuals. Traditional culture, increased workload and scarce financial resources can hinder professionalization (for more details, see Nagel et al., 2015) Methodological design and analysis A qualitative content analysis was applied. We conducted semistructured interviews with key people (mostly CEO, President and employee(s) from the Executive Office) of seven NSF in Switzerland (floorball, gymnastics, ski, volleyball, handball, fencing and a federation for sports for people with disabilities). The interviews, as well as available documents (e.g. annual reports, protocols) were analyzed deductively for causes and consequences of professionalization following the three levels of the framework developed by Nagel and colleagues (2015). Preliminary results and discussion For these seven Swiss NSF, causes for professionalization were mainly found at the external level. The significant dependence on financial subsidies and the expectations of potential suppliers have driven NSF to professionalization. This is also caused by increased international competition in highlevel sports and enhanced interest in and presence of (competitive) sports in the media. To best garner financial support, the NSF primarily endeavour to gain media visibility, which appears to be impossible without professionalization in various ways. In many cases, key actors, particularly board members or (new) CEO, have had considerable influence on (starting) professionalization processes, whereas member clubs and regional federations appear to hinder professionalization efforts. Considerable formalization, e.g. goal setting, strategies and processes, follow from the requirements of the umbrella organization Swiss Olympic. Negative consequences of professionalization were found at the federations’ internal level, for example, overcharging and a loss of autonomy of member clubs and regional federations. Within the NSF, there have been unintended side-effects on volunteer and paid staff relationships, and on balancing the benefits and disadvantages of sponsor and partnerships for the sport. Professionalization has fostered differentiation and shared leadership between executive and operative bodies. Many steps of professionalization appear to be determined by prior decisions that call for subsequent action. This could mean that, at a certain point, a NSF does not have any other option than to continue with professionalization, as long as other NSF are on the same path.

What does professionalisation mean? Perceptions of professionalisation in swiss sport federations

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 transfor-mation 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 and communication tools. Based on findings of both our review of scholar`s perspective as well insights from experts we will provide – in the sense of synthesis – a more clear understanding of what does professionalization mean that can be useful in terms of further studies. References: Dowling, M., Edwards, J. & Washington, M. (2014). Understanding the concept of professionalisation in sport management research. Sport Management Review, 17 (4), 520–529. Shilbury, D., Ferkins, L. & Smythe, L. (2013). Sport governance encounters: Insights from lived experiences. Sport Management Review, 16,349–363. Shilbury, D., & Ferkins, L. (2011). Professionalisation, sport governance and strategic capability. Managing Leisure, 16, 108–127.