Challenges for third sector organisations in cutback management: a sporting case study of the implications of publicness

ABSTRACT

Cutback management is a key theme for public services in an era of austerity, but the responsibilities for implementing public funding cutbacks do not always fall upon managers employed in the public sector. This article focuses on the cutbacks at third sector organisations (TSOs) – three national governing bodies (NGBs) of sport – which were affected by UK Sport’s ‘No Compromise’ policy following the 2012 Olympics. The article introduces the public funding cutback decision hierarchy as a novel framework which is used alongside existing theory to assess the implications of the severity and immediacy of cutback.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport
• cutback
• publicness
• third sector

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James Bostock

Dr James Bostock research has focused on National Governing Bodies of sport and how they have responded to significant reductions in their funding. He has presented several conferences papers around the subject of strategic management within sporting organisations and completed his PhD within this area in 2016.

Richard Breese

Dr Richard Breese achieved his DBA in 2007, with his thesis title being ‘Joining up public services - a critical realist framework for holistic governance’. Richard’s research interests include organisational resilience/turnaround and the translation of management ideas. Richard’s teaching is mainly on strategy and change management at Masters’ level.

Rory Ridley-Duff

Dr Rory Ridley-Duff is Professor of Cooperative Social Entrepreneurship at Sheffield Business School and a research leader in the Department of Management. His research on multi-stakeholder governance in the social economy has been recognised for its real-world impact and informed the creation of a networks of social entrepreneurs who advance co-operative social enterprise.

Philip Crowther

Dr Philip Crowther specialism is in strategy and events, in the sense that events are investments that deliver outcomes and impacts for involved and impacted stakeholders. His PhD was ‘By Publication’ and which brought together eight journal articles and book chapters that he published since becoming an academic in 2006.