Male Athletic and Managerial Masculinities: Congruencies in Discursive Practices?

Abstract

The popularity and influence of sport in Western society have been steadily increasing. The most visible of such sports continue to be men's professional sports that dominate media coverage. Consumers of the sport media see primarily men in action. Similarly, management continues to be numerically dominated by men, especially in the senior ranks. Although professional/media sport and management continue to be two areas where cultures associated with men predominate and where masculinities are created and reproduced, little research has been done that explores connections between the two areas. In this article we use the literature about management and about sport to explore ways in which discourses about (white) managerial masculinities may be supported by and/or congruent with discourses about athletic masculinities and to provide possible directions for future research in this area.

Keywords:

• Masculinities
• managers
• sport
• discourse

Notes

 The use of a feminist post-structural perspective includes an analysis of the ways in which symbolization and representation are used individually and collectively to exercise and resist power. It includes deconstruction of definitions and discourses to explore how they reinforce and challenge inequalities (Weedon, 1991).