Power, Resources and Environmental Negotiation in Community Sport Organizations

Abstract

This study sought to examine power, resources and environmental negotiation through an examination of the operations and governance of two Community Sport Organizations (CSOs) located in a mid-sized city in the Midwest region of the United States. This was undertaken by answering three research questions: (1) How does power shape the allocation of resources within CSOs? (2) How do CSOs secure access to resources from their organizational environments? and (3) How do CSOs attempt to manipulate their organizational environment? The dissertation took a case study approach, combining documentary review with in-depth semi-structured interviews to develop a greater understanding of the CSOs under study and of the dynamics of power that animate the organizations’ activities, decisions, and outlook. By using two theories of power, Lukes’ Three Dimensional (3D) approach and Resource Dependence Theory (RDT), the dissertation examined both an institutional and episodic view of power, providing a richer view of power within the organizations under study. In RQ1, the study finds that CSOs are willing to allocate resources to the social construction of their sport; that they are sensitive to threshold effects in resource allocation, meaning they provide resources up to the point that a need is met, and not beyond; and that gender played a role in internal resource allocation. In RQ2, the results indicated that the CSOs under study were able to secure resources from their environments through not valuing their institutional existence, and through working with their multi-level governance structures. RQ3 finds that CSOs used anticipatory compliance with environmental actors and borrowing capacity of means to change their organizational environments. The overall conclusion of the study notes that low organizational capacity in CSOs has considerable benefits to go with the drawbacks previously noted in the CSO and not-for-profit literatures. The study outlines that CSOs are able to use their low capacity status to help ensure their organizational environment remains passive, allowing them to maintain a focus on their members and mission while securing sufficient resources to survive. Further discussion of volunteer leadership being a type of participation in sport and of the challenges of studying CSOs, as well as participant recruitment, are also included.