Culture and the Study of Sport Management

Abstract

This paper addresses the under-explored culture–sport management nexus and answers the question “why does it matter?”. After reviewing the current culture debates, seven main aspects of culture and related underlying processes, which provide both the focus of and the milieu within which sport management operates, are identified, including (i) normative, (ii) innovative, (iii) nomos, (iv) singular and plural, (v) dialectic of system and practice, (vi) determined by production and (vii) political. The implications of these aspects for studying sport management are then examined, and research and practical recommendations are put forward. It is argued that by focusing on culture the field of study of sport management changes. The researcher is no longer interested only in what makes people participate in sport, watch a game or how organizational structures are designed; rather, s/he is seeking to understand the underlying cultural processes that drive and facilitate people's and organizations' behaviours in sport. Sport management is interpreted both as a representation of the symbolic cultural system within which it operates and as a means of actively shaping this system. Sport managers are seen as mediators of meaning; sport organizations as institutions for socialization, acculturation and control. A call is issued for scholars working in this field to promote greater cultural sensitivity.

Notes

1. Ranked 2^nd impact factor in management in 2009 by the Journal Citation Report—for those who insist on the importance of impact journals.