Collegiate sport club structure and function

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the goals and missions of collegiate sport clubs and study how the clubs’ organisational structure and operations helped in their achievement through qualitative enquiry. Using current collegiate sport club executive board members and professional staff at a large, public post-secondary institution in the Midwest region of the United States, 38 sport club officers representing 13 distinct sport clubs were interviewed in focus groups and two professional staff interviewed separately. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed four distinct themes in regards to the missions and goals of sport clubs (i.e. administrative goals, winning competitions, building social networks and social responsibility). The interviews further revealed sport clubs organise themselves in a simple structure (i.e. low degree specialisation, informal operations and centralised structure) and communicate primarily through informal means to aid the obtainment of their stated missions and goals. Furthermore, finances were found to play a major role in the ability of clubs to achieve their desired outcomes. Thus, professional staff should continuously develop strategies to work with the simple organisational structure and aid sport clubs where needed (e.g. finances) so they might succeed in obtaining their goals.

Keywords:

• College
• sport clubs
• organisational structure
• organisational goals
• organisational mission