Ninth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Sport organizations have evolved towards hybrid service organisations and are dealing with an increasing number of heterogeneous stakeholders with ambiguous goals, expectations and interests with regards to creating sporting, cultural and business value. At the same time, club members, fans, governments, NGOs, sponsors and the media are having increasingly high expectations about the contribution of sport clubs in addressing social issues. As a consequence, sport directors and managers are also expected to create public value. Based on extensive empirical research, this paper shows that sport directors and managers struggle to achieve strong public value construction, effective partnerships and sustainable and legitimate services. In practice two ideal types can be distinguished: the Business Club, which is imbued with a critical attitude towards public value creation, and the Open Club, in which the emphasis on creating public value inhibits the creation of sporting, cultural and business values. From an iterative process of constant comparison, analysis and theoretical sensitivity the PhD thesis proposes a new ideal type: the Valued Club. As an organisation, the Valued Club considers sport as a creator of public value (not as a mere product or means) and sport managers and directors steer towards responsibility and reflection. The Valued Club contributes concrete ideas and practices for directors and managers of football organisations and other hybrid organisations by providing three theoretical concepts: facilitating moments of truth, establishing smart partnerships in service networks and organizing from a theory of change stance.