Understanding Sport Organizations

The classic groundbreaking text for understanding organizational theory in the sport industry is back in an extensively revised new edition. With an added emphasis on organizational behavior and practical applications of the theory, Understanding Sport Organizations: Applications for Sport Managers, Third Edition, provides a logical progression to understanding the many components of and processes in sport organizations. Readers will gain a strong theoretical foundation while learning how it applies within the context of the ever-changing field of sport management.

In this third edition, new chapters incorporate critical concepts that sport managers in the current era must be familiar with:

• Different policy types and the responses of sport organizations to policy
• Perspectives of marketing of sport and marketing through sport
• Control in sport organizations
• Sex and gender in sport organizations
• Volunteer management in sport
• Dimensions and assessment of governance in sport organizations
• Mental health difficulties and management strategies within sport environments
• Applying statistical analysis to support analytic decision making in sport
• Corporate social responsibility
• Procurement and sport organizations

To facilitate comprehension and application, each chapter opens with a list of key concepts and a real-world, contemporary scenario to demonstrate the relevance of theory and behavior in the sport industry. Time Out sidebars offer accounts from actual sport organization situations or from research findings to further illustrate issues being discussed. Chapter summaries and review questions are provided to stimulate discussion about the central issues from each chapter. Key Issues for Sport Managers boxes highlight how chapter content is applied at the level of sport manager, and closing Case for Analysis examples allow readers to directly apply information from each chapter.

Real-world examples throughout the text provide opportunities for additional exploration and application of relevant concepts. Every chapter references key articles that build on the foundational framework presented and includes suggestions for further reading within general management and sport management literature. This thorough presentation of subject matter will guide readers to a greater and more practical understanding of core issues.

Synthesizing modern conceptual and empirical research from many fields of management into a practical, engaging look at the sport management field, Understanding Sport Organizations: Applications for Sport Managers, Third Edition, is an invaluable resource for students and current practitioners alike.

Trevor Slack, PhD, was the Canada research chair of the International Institute for the Study of Sport Management at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He was widely published in major sport and organization journals and was a keynote speaker at conferences on sport organizations around the world. He was editor of the Journal of Sport Management and the European Journal of Sport Management, and he served on the editorial board of several journals related to sport management. Slack was awarded numerous grants for social science and humanities research projects. In 1995, he presented the Zeigler Lecture, the leading lecture in sport management, and in 2001, he was awarded a Canada research chair for his work in sport management. Trevor Slack passed away in January 2016.

Terri Byers, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. She was previously a principal lecturer at Coventry University, and she has taught in higher education in the United Kingdom for almost 20 years. She is widely published in journals, books, and online forums. She is currently working on projects related to managing innovation in sport organizations, using innovation (virtual reality) to create positive legacy from Paralympic Games, and managing diversity in sport organizations. Byers has collaborated with colleagues from around the globe and has been granted research funding from the European Union and Canada for her research in sport management. She takes an innovative and creative approach to projects and believes that students of sport management should always challenge existing practices to constantly improve the sport environment for diverse populations.

Alex Thurston, PhD, completed his PhD in analysis of sport policy implementation and is currently teaching several modules across the sport management degrees at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. He leads the Introduction to Sport Management module and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation project students. In 2019, Loughborough was ranked number one in the QS World University Rankings for sports-related subjects for the third consecutive year, receiving a 5-star rating. Thurston has a growing list of publications and has presented at conferences all around the world. He also delivered Trevor Slack’s final two keynote speeches: one at the EASM conference in Coventry, England (2014), and the other at the NASSM conference in Ottawa, Canada (2015). Outside of academia, Thurston has more than 10 years of swimming coaching experience. He completed a two-way English Channel relay swim, became a double European champion in 2016, and holds an age-group world record.