Modernisation and governance in UK national governing bodies of sport: how modernisation influences the way board members perceive and enact their roles

Modernisation has been a key objective of many national governments for at least the last two decades. A significant element of the modernisation agenda has been the focus on improving the governance of public sector and, more recently, voluntary sector organisations. In the UK voluntary sport sector, this has involved policy statements, governance monitoring systems linked to public funding and a number of ‘good governance’ guides, aimed primarily at the boards of national governing bodies of sport (NGBs). Previous research has critically analysed modernisation and explored its effects, most often at a macro level. Very little research, to date, however, has looked at the influence of modernisation on the boards of NGBs. This article seeks to do just that, drawing on the first national survey of board-level governance in the UK and an in-depth, longitudinal case study of one UK-based NGB. It empirically examines which board roles NGBs consider most important and statistically compares large and small NGBs. It then draws on direct observation of board and committee meetings, in-depth interviews and analysis of key organisational documents to examine how modernisation influences the way board members perceive and enact their roles. In so doing, this article draws together the political science research on modernisation and the sport governance research on board roles and seeks to promote closer integration between these complementary streams of research

From the boardroom to tee: understanding golf club volunteers during an era of change

This paper examines volunteers in English golf clubs and considers how they interpret their roles. Hitherto, typologies of sports club volunteering have coalesced around organisational context or the time commitment of volunteers. However, these typologies are limited in capturing intra-organisational complexity, recognising the diverse activities that volunteers perform and reflecting changes in the operating and public policy environments. A grounded theory study was therefore undertaken to explore how sports club volunteers interpret their roles. Golf club volunteering was chosen as the substantive case since golf is a globally significant sport that is facing participation and sustainability challenges. Data was collected and analysed from documents and twenty-one semi-structured interviews. The study found that golf club volunteers tend to interpret their roles in two main ways: with a business management approach that is orientated towards business-like management, customer satisfaction and competing in the contemporary marketplace; and, with a sporting perspective that is orientated towards organising play. Some volunteers combined both aspects, although such hybridity presented significant challenges. The study concludes with a discussion of how the influence of sport policy may be limited by volunteers’ subjective interpretations of their role and club context

Plotting the motivation of student volunteers in sports-based outreach work in the North East of England

This paper examines the evolution of student volunteers’ motivation during their participation in a sports-based outreach project and how their experiences during the programme serve to influence their commitment and retention to it. The Sport Universities North East England (SUNEE) project is a university-led community outreach initiative that provides the region's student volunteers with vast opportunities to gain both experience and qualifications as sports coaches, mentors and leaders by working with a range of hard-to-reach groups. This work draws on qualitative data generated from semi-structured interviews (n = 40) and describes a sequence of motivational transitions undergone by student volunteers over the course of their involvement in the project. In order to illustrate this, the paper applies the socio-psychological framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to not only index the type of motivations that compel students to volunteer on the SUNEE project, but to also track motivational adaptation and reveal the features occurring within the project, which serve to either facilitate volunteer motivation or retention (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000). By using the example of the SUNEE project, this research demonstrates how students’ motivation to volunteer changes from the extrinsic (i.e., instrumental reasons such as enhancing one's employability profile) to the intrinsic (i.e., enjoying the experience) motivations the longer the person has taken part in the project. The findings demonstrate the utility of the SDT as a framework with which to understand student motivation to volunteer within a university-led sports-based community outreach setting. The theoretical contributions of the study to the literature on student volunteering are outlined, and implications are drawn for practice and future research

Emerging school sport development policy, practice and governance in England: Big Society, autonomy and decentralisation

International interest in developing mass sports participation through systems of school and community sports development has become a growing field of public leisure policy interest. This research paper considers the policy change from School Sport Partnerships to the new 2012 School Games model of networked partnerships to establish characteristics of the changes in governance modes and implications from practice in England. The research project is based on a regional case study drawing upon indepth,face-to-face interviews with key public policy stakeholders to inform an analysis of change. Initial findings indicate that the emergent networks are characterised by more networked-based mode of governance than previous hierarchical models present under UK New Labour. The study also shows the fragility of a reliance on partnership structures and the potential implications for incongruence in delivering policy outcomes and improving access to physical activity and school sport opportunities

Understanding the growth in outdoor recreation participation: an opportunity for sport development in the United Kingdom

© 2018, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper examines the growth in importance and scale of the outdoor recreation sector in the United Kingdom. It establishes a five-component model to help understand the growth in this sub-sector of the wider sport and physical activity industry. The paper is based on a narrative literature review of the importance of outdoor recreation and also sets the position of the sector in terms of sport policy in the UK. From determining the factors that are underpinning the growing importance of the sector the article goes on to establish implications for policy and practice in sport policy and development in the UK and beyond. It seeks to establish lesson learning between industry and academia that has underpinned the evolution of outdoor recreation policy development in recent years. Furthermore, it establishes future research agendas and directions for those working in outdoor recreation and physical activity spaces and places