Similarities and Differences in Modes of Integration and Strategies Among French and Quebec Sports Executives

Yerles, Magdeleine

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/68688 Copy

Description

Title

Similarities and Differences in Modes of Integration and Strategies Among French and Quebec Sports Executives

Author(s)

Yerles, Magdeleine

Issue Date

1980

Department of Study

Physical Education

Discipline

Physical Education

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Education, Physical

Language

eng

Abstract

• For a structural analysis, a sample of 40 French sports executives involved in tennis and volleyball federations were interviewed as informants about modes of integration and strategies in amateur sport governing bodies. A similar sample of 33 Quebec sports executives also involved in tennis and volleyball federations were interviewed for purposes of comparison. Following the interviewing phase, typed transcripts were content-analyzed for indications of integration and strategies.
• The theoretical framework for the study was based on Crozier's model of strategic analysis of complex organizations and action systems. The aim of the study was to explore the applicability of the model to voluntary organizations such as amateur sport federations as well as to explore the cultural specificity or the universality of the findings.
• Data on the three measures of integration used in this study show an overall picture of sports officials being unambiguously enthusiastic about their role but rather lukewarm about the current policies and the performance of their federation.
• From a comparative perspective, major cleavages on measures of integration appear between officials at different levels of action, between incumbents of various roles, between sports federations and between countries. National sports executives rate high on the three measures, whereas local sports officials strongly disagree with current policies and the overall performance of their federation. Coaches are strongly opposed to policies and very critical of overall policy outcomes, whereas appointed personnel agree with current policies and are fairly satisfied with performance; volunteers' attitudes vary by hierarchical level of action. Tennis sports executives show a higher degree of satisfaction than their volleyball counterparts; these results hold true within and between countries. In both countries, top executives working at the national level show a very high degree of satisfaction on the three measures of integration; in both countries coaches rate much lower than either volunteers or appointed staff on agreement with current policies and satisfaction with performance; French regional executives show the greatest variability on the three measures of integration.
• Given the variability in satisfaction, it is contended that integration is occurring through negotiated order rather than consensus. Several ideal-types of strategies are described, each ideal-type corresponding to a category of actors. The main features of French sports officials' strategies are corroborated by previous findings. These features concern a generalized conception of authority as absolute authority, the stratification of individual actors by rank or function, an isolation of each stratum, a struggle between strata for the protection of their privileges. The main features of Quebec sports officials' strategies are corroborated by studies in North American organizations as well. These features concern numerous conflicts issued from the existence of multiple competing centers of decision, grouping of individuals into informal cliques for the purpose of protection or promotion of a given policy and active lobbying as an accepted mean of action. In both countries, higher levels and lower levels of action share similarities in their strategies. Top executives refuse conflict as a mean of action and seek organizational members' integration through assimilation, whereas local officials conflict as a mean of action and participation. In both countries, adopted strategies reinforce the dysfunctions of the sports system.

Graduation Semester

1980

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/68688

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