Multilevel policy implementation: exploring organisational coordination – the case of the German Swimming Federation’s national training framework implementation

ABSTRACT

National governing bodies of sport depend on the collaboration of their member organisations. However, regional entities and local sports clubs possess high degrees of autonomy, and their goals may differ from the national objectives. This paper examines the nature of multilevel policy implementation, aiming to foster an understanding of the underlying coordination mechanisms across organisational levels. For this purpose, a conceptual framework based on Willke’s distinction of regulative media (i.e. power, money, knowledge) is introduced. The paper investigates multilevel policy implementation by using a single case study, comprising data from organisational documents and semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that not only local sports clubs, but also regional governing bodies, play a crucial role as intermediaries in the implementation context. The paper shows that pressure (i.e. authority without power), although a common code of practice, does not foster policy implementation. Lack of congruence between the numerous decentralised funding authorities’ objectives handicaps the multilevel synchronisation of implementation efforts. Moreover, the absence of binding communication channels across organisational levels is identified as prejudicial for a knowledge-based regulation of multilevel policy implementation. Furthermore, the analysis uncovers the complexity of policy implementation, identifying manifold interrelations of the regulative media.

KEYWORDS:

• Governance
• sport federation
• sports organisation
• high-performance sport
• regulation

Acknowledgements

A first version of this manuscript was presented at the 20th Conference of the German Association of Sport Economics and Sport Management in Tübingen. We would like to thank the conference participants for their valuable comments. Moreover, we are grateful to two anonymous referees for their thorough reviews and insightful suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Given complex multilevel structures, authority and resources to accomplish organisational objectives are split up on territorially differentiated (centralised and decentralised) entities. Therefore, based upon specific mechanisms of interaction and coordination, policy implementation takes place between the respective levels (i.e. the territorial entities).

2. The German Swimming Federation’s common abbreviation in international sport is ‘DSV’. It is therefore used in this paper, even though it does not directly match the English term.

3. Being attractive to sponsors depends on international success and a large public audience for the sport, corporations can identify with. At present, neither condition is realised in swimming in Germany. Therefore, corresponding funding options are limited.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marcel Fahrner

Marcel Fahrner is a senior lecturer at the Institute of Sports Science, University of Tübingen, Germany. His research focuses on governance, organisational development and policy implementation of sports organisations.

Christoffer Klenk

Christoffer Klenk is a post-doc researcher at the Institute of Sports Science, University of Bern, Switzerland. His research focus is on professionalisation, volunteer management and decision-making in sports organisations.