Day One is focused on discussing the concept of sport, its key characteristics, its underlying philosophy, why it is considered unique when compared to other social activities, how the three sectors of the sports industry is organised in Australia, the functional implications of this structure, and how globalization, government policy, increasing professionalism, and advancements in technology impact on your role as a sports manager.
Day Two – Government Ideologies
Day Two focuses heavily on governmental ideologies, what they mean, how they are often not as clear cut as one would assume, and how they impact on your roles as sport managers. We will discuss the government ideologies with respect to formation of the Australian Institute of Sport (Australia’s elite athlete training centre), the underlying ideal of “strong nations’ and ‘the Olympic Movement’, and the way you can legitimising the value of sport.
Day Three – Legitimsations
Day Three focuses heavily on the major area we ran out of time for yesterday – specifically the concept of legitimising sport as an inherently valuable ideal. There are five main legitimisation areas and I need you to know about all of them. This is important knowledge when lobbying for support and for creating change. If you are interested there are also two readings for you on this topic – same author – Chalip (2006) and Chalip (2000).
Day Four – Non-Profit Sport
Day Four will focus on non-profit organisations in general and also the intricacies related to non-profit sporting organisations inherently linked with sport (and these can be anything from small community clubs right through to professional sports teams and leagues). We will discuss their structures, support systems, main roles, and most importantly, their major challenges. There is also a short reading (a media article) that has relevance.
Day Five – Professional Sport
Day Five will focus on professional sport, its intricacies, how to define it, a concept called “circuits of promotion” (the dissolution of once definitive boundaries between sport, media, and advertisers), the media’s pervasive influence and professional sport’s dependence on it, and importantly from your perspective, how all this is managed.
Day Six – Strategy
Day Six will focus on strategy; its principles, distinctions, intricacies within the field of sports management, how to define it, and the underlying process and application behind it all. We will discuss the importance of being unique and generating a clear competitive advantage. However we will also discuss how identifying new opportunities rarely proves easy, requires innovative thinking, and a sound understanding of your organisation’s overarching mission.
Day Seven – Leadership
Day Seven will focus on the concept of leadership; what it is, underlying research and associated theories, how would you define it if asked, what does it actually involve, how does it differ from management, and are there any leadership challenges that are unique to the sporting environment. And just to change up the lecture format a little this week, I will give you a few questions to think about, one of which being do you think you can lead.
Day Eight – Orgnisational Culture
Day Eight will focus on the concept of organisational culture – its origins, definitions, importance, associated processes, change implications, and how it impacts your future work in a sports management context. This time we will not have PowerPoint slides. Instead we will run off my text book notes and scribbles. I will also give you a few questions to think about (which are essentially review questions for this section), and we will also run a group activity conducting a cultural analysis of an organisation that you have been involved with.
Day Nine – Governance
Day Nine will focus on the concept performance management in sport, the intricacies associated with it, and why certain aspects of performance management seem to take on an inhuman nature. We will also focus on a final topic during this lecture – governance in sport – and in particular focus on what it actually means, what is the difference between corporate and non-profit governance, the principles underpinning effective and successful governance, and lastly what are the primary drivers of change for governance.
Day Ten – Exam Revision
Day Ten is focused on a series of review questions that will help you prepare for your final exam. They target everything we covered throughout the course ‘Introduction To Sport Management’, are highly aligned with the information and concepts we took time to clarify on the blackboard in both English and Mandarin, and if you have an understanding of the concepts listed below and can answer the associated questions then you are in a strong position heading into the final exam.
