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Journal of Sport Management, 1992, 6, 1 14-132

Understanding Change in National Sport Organizations: An Integration of

Theoretical Perspectives

r Slack and Bob Hini e University ofAlberta

Increased interest in organizational change (i.e., shifts in an organization's structure, strategy, and processes) has led to considerable diversity in the theoretical approaches used to explain the phenomenon. This theoretical diversity has caused some scholars to suggest that a more complete understanding of organizational phenomena such as change is obtained when different theoretical perspectives are used in conjunction with one another. This paper examines a process of change that has been occurring in Canadian national sport organizations. Utilizing the theoretical approaches found in work on resource dependence theory, institutional theory, organizational culture, and the role of transformational leaders in managing change, the paper shows how these approaches explain different aspects of the change process. It also shows how a more complete understanding of change may be gained by using more than one theoretical perspective.

Significant changes have taken place in the structural complexity of national sport organizations (NSOs) in Canada over the period of the last 5 or 6 years. Much of the impetus for this change has come from a government-initiated process commonly referred to as the Quadrennial Planning Program (QPP; cf. Hinings & Slack, 1987; Macintosh & Whitson, 1990). The initial developments in the creation of a planning process for NSOs occurred in 1983. Sport Canada, a directorate of the federal Ministry of State for Fitness and Amateur Sport, indicated that they would provide funds to winter sports to help them prepare for the 1988 Olympic Games. The funds, however, were tied to the production of a plan outlining changes that the organization would make in order to maximize the performance of its athletes at the Games. The program was expanded in 1984 to include summer sports and has, subsequently, been extended to cover the 1988-1992 quadrennial.

The literature that has examined changes in sport organizations in Canada has stressed the impact of the dual and complementary processes of professional-

T. Slack is with the Department of Physical Education and Sport Studies, and B. Hinings is with the Department of Organizational Analysis, at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2H9.

Understanding Change 115

ization and bureaucratization that have been emerging since the early 1970s (Frisby, 1982; Hinings & Slack, 1987; Kidd, 1980; Slack, 1985). Over this period, there was a gradual increase in the number of paid staff working in NSOs, and, as management theory would predict, this was accompanied by the introduction of bureaucratic organizational systems. In addition to what might be conceptual- ized as a natural process of structural evolution for these organizations, formalized planning has, in recent years, become an increasingly important factor in their development.

A central aim of the QPP has been to speed up the processes of professionalization and bureaucratization. The resultant organizational form, the professional bureaucracy (Mintzberg, 1979), was seen by Sport Canada as the type of structure most conducive to the production of elite athletes. This change was to be achieved by increasing the number of professional staff in these organizations, reducing volunteer involvement to the setting of policy, developing systems and structures to improve coordination and control, and changing the authority structure to take the day-to-day control of operations away from volunteers and put it in the hands of professional staff. Because these organizations have traditionally been operated by volunteers who have worked with relatively simple structures and systems, the change being called for was what Miller and Friesen (1984) termed quantum and Tushman, Newman, and Romanelli (1986) described as frame breaking. That is to say, is was change that involved "simultaneous and sharp shifts in strategy, power, structure, and controls" (Tushman et al., 1986, p. 31).

The institutional setting of these organizations has then, in large measure, been defined by the processes of professionalization and bureaucratization (cf. Macintosh & Whitson, 1990; Slack & Hinings, 1987). In recent years, an externally directed planning program has been introduced to increase the rate of change in these processes. One interesting organizational issue raised by the introduction of the planning program concerns the nature of the change process that this program has produced. Understanding this process of change is the central focus of this paper. To do this we address the following questions:

1. Why did NSOs get involved in a change process designed to bring about what was for them a major reorientation-a shift from a volunteer-controlled organization with relatively simple structures and systems to a more complex, professionally operated body?

2. Was the change process in the prescribed direction, that is, to a more professional, bureaucratic organizational design?

3. What were the sources of commitment and resistance to the change process, and how was it managed?

Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Organizational Change

Traditionally, models of change tended to be generic in nature because of management theorists' need to build up a corpus of generalizations about the change process. The predominant theories were, in the terms of Chin and Benne (1961), "normative re-educative" in character. Change was seen as a process emphasizing a sequence of steps: (a) diagnosing problems and solutions, (b) identifying resistance to change, (c) developing a strategy of implementation

116 Slack and Hinings

that allocated responsibility and dealt with resistance, and (d) monitoring and reviewing the planned change.

More recently, the political and economic fluctuations of the 1970s and 1980s have increased interest in organizational change (cf. Hinings & Greenwood, 1988; Johnson, 1987; Pettigrew, 1987), and it has been theorized from a number of alternative perspectives.' The most dominant of these has focus3d on the adaptive nature of organizations (Singh, House, & Tucker, 1986; Slack & Kikulis, 1989). From this perspective, key individuals and dominant coalitions within an organization scan the environment and respond to threats and opportunities by making appropriate strategic changes to ensure the optimal performance of the organization. Several variations of the organizational adaptation perspective exist in the literature. We now provide a brief description of those we use in this study.

Resource-dependence theorists (Aldrich & Pfeffer, 1976; Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978) have suggested that organizations are unable to generate the variety and amount of resources they need for survival. Consequently, because they are unable to perform all the required activities necessary to make themselves self-sustaining, they become dependent on their environment for resources. This dependence on external resources creates uncertainty for organizations, and they attempt to control this through interlocking directorates, joint ventures, and controlling executive succession. Therefore, from this perspective, organizations change either by adapting to changes in the resource environment or by acting to change the environment.

Institutional theorists (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Meyer & Rowan, 1977; Meyer & Scott, 1983; Zucker, 1983, 1987) have argued that change occurs because organizations adapt their structures to confrom with commonly held expectations, within the institutional environment, about what is an appropriate organizational design. For example, Wolfe, Ulrich, and Parker (1987) suggested that corporations often adopt employee health and fitness programs not because of the efficacy of such practices but because prevailing societal expectations regard this as something a modem, rational organization does for its employees (cf. Meyer & Rowan, 1977, for other examples). By changing to conform with the expectations "in the institutional environment, an organization demonstrates that it is acting on collectively valued purposes in a proper and adequate manner" (Meyer & Rowan, 1977, p. 349). Thus the organization is seen as legitimate, and this legitimacy helps to ensure its long-term effectiveness.

Although adaptive theories of organizational change do not ignore the role of organizational members in the change process, preeminence is given to the environment as the primary determinant of change. Standing somewhat in contrast to these views, and partly in reaction to the deterministic nature of the adaptive approaches, some theorists have focused more on the organization's internal structure and the role of key individuals in the change process. One popular approach (cf. Meek, 1988) has emphasized organizational culture as a source of

'We focus here only on those current theoretical approaches to change employed in this study. We do acknowledge the relevance of other approaches to explaining change. The most useful and frequently used of these are population ecology (e.g., Carroll & Delacroix, 1982; Carroll & Hannan, 1989) and the evoluation/revolution perspective (e.g., Miller & Friesen, 1980; Tushman, Virany, & Romanelli, 1985).


commitment and resistance to change (Kanter, 1983; Schein, 1985). Culture refers to the shared values and operating norms, the symbols, language, ideology, beliefs, and myths, that shape the structure of an organization and the actions of its members (Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Pettigrew, 1979).

In any transition process, there is what Kanter (1984) referred to as culture change. That is, changes must occur in the norms and values, the patterns of behaviors, the rituals, the myths, and the other elements that collectively represent an organization's culture. These changes do not just occur in the formal structure of the organization; they require the commitment of all employees and integration into the fabric of an organization. Because an organization's culture is often pervasive, changing it can be difficult. Nevertheless, for any change process there are elements of culture that need to be eliminated and maintained, and it is these elements that need to be managed.

In addition to emphasizing the importance of organizational culture in the change process, the,emerging literature has taken up the ideas of Selznick (1957) and emphasized the institutional aspects of an organizational leadership role. Several researchers have stressed the importance of understanding the role of the transformational (or charismatic) leader in the change process (Conger & Kanungo, 1987; Tichy & Devanna, 1986; Tichy & Ulrich, 1984; Ulrich, 1987). Transformational leaders create and communicate a need for change within their organization; they overcome technical, political, and cultural resistance to change; they make personal commitments and sacrifices for change; and they articulate visions that provide a sense of direction and principles for the change process. Once this is done, transformational leaders generate commitment and institutionalize the vision so that it becomes ingrained in organizational processes (Ulrich, 1987).

Contemporary research, then, has produced considerable variation among theoretical perspectives on change. Each perspective has been valuable in increasing our understanding about this process. Nevertheless, as several management theorists have recently argued, the theoretical perspectives that guide our work produce distinctive but partial views of organizations. Hence, more adequate explanations can often be obtained by using more than one perspective (cf. Morgan, 1986; Tolbert, 1985; Ulrich & Barney, 1984). Tolbert (1985, p. 12), for example, suggested that

organizational phenomena are much too complex to be described adequately by any single theoretical approach. Current research on organizations could benefit greatly if researchers were to pay closer attention to specifying the points of intersection of different theoretical perspectives and to combining these perspectives to provide more complete explanations of the behaviors they study.

Olafson (1990) has made similar arguments for the field of sport management, and he has suggested the integration of approaches to enhance the quality and explanatory potential of our work. In this paper we take up this challenge. Using data from an ongoing study of Canadian NSOs, we seek to answer the questions outlined earlier about the change process in these organizations. Concurrently, we show how using different theoretical approaches can inform our understanding of different aspects of the change process so that we can obtain a more comprehensive picture of this phenomenon.

teers. However, all employ their operations, and many employ more. The major responsibility of these organizations lies in operating programs to improve both the quality and quantity of participants in their sport. To this end, they are involved in such areas as athlete identification, selection, training, and testing; the preparation of teams for international-level competition; the development of coaches and officials; and the provision of all administrative support systems required to complete these tasks.

Data Sources

The data were obtained from several sources. In the first part of the QPP, each national sport organization (NSO) was required to prepare an organizational position statement, known as a high-performance status report. The report provided an extremely detailed description of the NSO at the start of the QPP. Included were details such as the number and type of programs operated, board and committee structures, number and role of professional staff, systematization of operating procedures, and details of decision-making mechanisms (cf. Govern- ment of Canada, 1984; Macintosh & Whitson, 1990). The report was produced by the organization's staff and volunteers, who were assisted by professional planning consultants contracted by the federal government. The preparation of a report followed clearly defined stages, involving meetings of the NSO staff and volunteers. Each report took approximately a year to complete, and all were very comprehensive, most being around 100 pages in length. Data on the structural and contextual situations of the NSOs prior to the start of the planning process were gathered by analyzing these reports. Confirmation of these data and missing


data were obtained, where necessary, through interviews with senior members of the NSOs or their Sport Canada consultants. Approximately 20 interviews were conducted at this stage of the study.

In order to determine the types of changes being made in the NSOs, a series of interviews were conducted approximately 2 years after the preparation of the high-performance reports and also following the 1988 Winter and Summer Olympics. At each time period, interviews were conducted with the NSOs' chief executive officers (CEOs) and, where it was necessary to obtain further information, with their Sport Canada consultants. In total, just over 100 interviews were conducted at this stage of the study. The interviews elicited data on planned and unplanned changes that had occurred in the organizations' structural and contextual arrangements since the start of the planning process. Data are still being collected at set times through 1992.

Data collected from the planning reports and the interviews concerned three analytical categories of structure-specialization, standardization, and centralization-that were operationalized across a number of organizational subsystems. Data were also collected on the contexts in which these organizations operated. Especially relevant for this paper were the NSOs' environments and resources. These dimensions have been theoretically and empirically established in the literature on organizations (cf. Miller & Droge, 1986; Pugh, Hickson, & Hinings, 1969; Pugh, Hickson, Hinings, & Turner, 1968). They have also been shown to be applicable to the analysis of amateur sport organizations (cf. Frisby, 1985; Slack & Hinings, 1987). A short description of how each concept was operationalized and measured is now presented.

Specialization refers to the extent to which organizational tasks are broken down and allocated to different organizational segments (Slack & Hinings, 1987). It was measured by examining the bases of differentiation across and within both operational and support activities. For example, within the task area of coaching, there can be differentiation of coaches by age group, by athletes' gender, or by discipline (e.g., Alpine skiing, slalom, giant slalom). In the task area of administration, specialization can be on the more usual basis of functional tasks such as accounting, marketing, and program coordinating. Because of the NSOs' emphasis on volunteer roles, it was also necessary to examine volunteer specialization. This occurred in two ways: (a) through volunteer functional and operational specialization (e.g., volunteers have specialized roles such as vice president for finance, for technical development, for marketing, for officiating), or (b) through organizational committees.

An indication of the extent to which each NSO was specialized was obtained by counting the number of differentiated roles or units. For example, specialization of professional staff was obtained by counting the number of roles (executive director, technical director, etc.) that these individuals occupied within the organization. Similarly, a measure of technical specialization was obtained by counting the number of different teams each NSO operated (men's, women's, junior, senior, etc.), the extent to which the sport was differentiated by discipline (single sculls, coxed pairs), and so on.

Standardization refers to the extent to which rules, policies, and procedures, often in written form, cover the operations and circumstances that apply to organizations (Pugh et al., 1968). Thus, by using simple rating scales to measure the extent to which an organization had such documents as job descriptions for

120 Slack and Hinings - '

volunteers and professionals, work plans, policies and procedures, and terms of reference for committees, we obtained an indication of the extent to which its administrative system was standardized. The existence of clearly defined policies, procedures, and guidelines for the operation of training camps, talent identification systems, and planned competition schedules was used as an indicator of the extent to which the system for athlete development was standardized. Other organizational systems were assessed in a similar manner.

Centralization refers to the level in the organizational hierarchy where final decisions are made (Pugh et a]., 1968). Central to the functioning of the sport organizations we studied were several specific decision areas, including the selection and evaluation of athletes, coaches, officials, training programs, and administrative systems. These decision areas have been identified as those most common to NSOs. In addition, they are representative of policy decisions about the allocation of human, material, and/or financial resources (cf. Kikulis,Slack, - -- -- -- -nings, & Zimmermann, P 9 8 9 ) ~ e s ~ d e ~ s ~ ~ ~ e ~ m ~ a s u r e d in three ways. First, a simple organizational hierarchy was established from each NSO's organizational chart. The degree of centralization was measured by determining the level in the hierarchy where final decisions were made. For example, a decision made at the board level is more centralized thair one made at the vice presidential level and, therefore, would be given a higher score. The traditionally volunteer nature of these organizations meant that it was also important to consider the number of decisions where volunteers had final authority and the number of hierarchical levels involved in making each decision. These scores were simply counted.

The environment of a NSO is essentially made up of other organizations with which it interacts (Slack & Hinings, 1987). This was measured by the number and extent of these linkages.

All organizations need resources to operate, whether financial, human, or physical. To determine the type of resources available to each NSO, we collected data about such areas as sources of income, number of members, facility availability, and so on.

To understand further the dynamics of the change process, two interviews were conducted in each NSO during the implementation of the QPP. These interviews, 72 in total, were with the individuals responsible for implementing the quadrennial plan and managing the planned changes. Interview data were collected about areas such as shifts in the domain and mode of operation, the power structure, the existence of conflict, and organizational capacity (the presence of qualified leaders and other experts). These areas were chosen because they have been theoretically and empirically established as important in the dynamics of the change process (Hinings & Greenwood, 1988).

Understanding the Change Process

In order to understand the change process, we now focus on the three questions mentioned earlier in the paper. In answering these questions, we employ the different theoretical perspectives that we described earlier to help interpret our data. Thus, we show how the use of these perspectives can provide a more complete picture of the change phenomenon. To answer the first question, we use the tenets of resource-dependence theory and our data on the contextual


situation of the NSOs. We show why these organizations are involved in a change process that will lead to a reduction in power for the volunteers who have traditionally operated them. In answering the second question, we use institutional theory and the data we collected on the structural arrangements of these organizations at three points in the change process to show the direction of change. Finally, we use recent work on the role of organizational culture and transformational leadership in the change process, along with data from our interviews about plan implementation, to answer the question about the dynamics of the change process.

Why Are NSOs Involved in a Change Process That Requires a Major Organizational Reorientation?

Like all organizations, NSOs engage in exchanges and transactions with other organizations and exhibit a level of interdependence with these organizations. Interdependence essentially refers to a situation where an outcome depends on more than a single causal agent (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978). The desired outcome that initiated the QPP was the optimal performance of Canada's athletes in the 1988 Summer and Winter Olympics. The exchange relationship has essentially been one in which the federal government (Sport Canada) has provided monetary resources and, in turn, NSOs have directed the bulk of their operations to producing high-level athletic performances at the Olympics. In order to examine why NSOs were participating in what could amount to a total organizational reorientation, it was necessary to examine their degree of resource dependence on the federal government. Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) have suggested three factors critical in determining the dependence of one organization on another: the importance of the resource, or the extent to which the organization requires it for continued operation and survival; the extent to which the interest group has discretion over the resource allocation and use; and the extent to which there are alternative sources.

Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) suggested two dimensions of resource importance-the magnitude of the resource exchanged and its criticality. Magni- tude is determined by assessing the proportion of total inputs accounted for in the exchange. The data concerning the NSOs' contextual situations showed that the magnitude of the resource input from the federal government was large. All but 2 of the 36 organizations received over 60% of their funding from the federal government, with some receiving as much as 95%. On average, 74% of the NSOs' funds were obtained from government sources. The criticality of the resource is obvious; with programs to operate, teams to fund, and staff to pay, NSOs would not survive without this resource.

The extent to which the interest group, Sport Canada, has discretion over the resource allocation can be seen predominantly in its ability to make rules about the use of the resource and to regulate its possession and allocation. The money provided to NSOs by the federal government was contingent upon the submission of a plan. On the basis of this plan, Sport Canada approved funding for certain programs and positions while disapproving of others by not providing funding. As a result, the discretion that Sport Canada exercised over the financial resources they allocated was substantive.

The final factor relating to resource dependence is the extent to which there are alternative sources. For the majority of NSOs, these alternatives were simply

Structural Scales

Scale Standardized alpha

Specialization Of professional personnel Of support personnel Of volunteers Number of committees Technical specialization

Standardization Of administrative systems Of athlete programs Of support systems to athletes Of decision making Of evaluation procedures

Centralization Of decision making Number of hierarchical levels involved in decision making Extent of volunteer involvement in decision making

Note. NA = not applicable.


With the exception of the number of committees, each scale was made up of multiple items. For example, standardization of athlete development programs consisted of 10 items covering such areas as the existence of performance criteria, planned training camps, systematized competition schedules, and the maintenance of personal performance files. Further information on the items in each scale is available upon request. Reliability coefficients (standardized alphas), which are measures of the extent to which the scales are free from error and thus yield consistent results (Bohrnstedt, 1970; Kerlinger, 1986), were computed for each scale. These reliability coefficients are reported in Table 1. In 11 of the 12 multi- item scales, the reliability coefficients were greater than .60 and thus were considered adequate measures of the constructs. The scale for specialization of volunteers was below the .60 level; however, we followed the suggestion of Kikulis et al. (1989) that, because of the importance of volunteers to amateur sport organizations, the items in the scale be treated as a collection of volunteer roles and retained in the analysis as a summed scale. Hage and Aitken (1967) have also supported this approach.

The mean scores of the 13 scales represent the structural characteristics of the NSOs at particular points in time. By examining the changes over time in the mean scores, it is possible to determine the direction of the change process. If NSOs have moved to a more professionally and bureaucratically structured organization, we should see an increase in the means for specialization in professional, technical, and managerial roles. We should also see means increase in all aspects of standardization. In contrast, means for volunteer specialization should decrease. Also, the centralization score should go down, indicating that decision making has been decentralized to the professional levels. In addition, as a result of reduced volunteer involvement, there should be a decrease in both the number of levels involved in decision making and the extent of volunteer involvement (cf. Hinings & Slack, 1987; Kikulis et al., 1989). If we look at Table 2, which shows the mean scores for the 13 scales at the start of the planning process (1984), 2 years into the process (1986), and following the 1988 Olympic Games, we find some strong indications of these changes.

First, using a t test, we found statistically significant changes Cp<.Ol) between 1984 and 1988 in all aspects of specialization except those involving volunteers (i.e., volunteer specialization and the number of committees). We also found that all areas of standardization had changed significantly. In contrast, none of the areas involving decision making had changed -to this extent. The changes that have taken place suggest that NSOs have in fact moved toward the more professional, bureaucratic type of structure advocated by Sport Canada.

The reasons why this structural change has occurred are best explained by reference to the work of institutional theorists. Ideas that were promoted by Sport Canada concerning the appropriateness of the professional bureaucracy became institutionalized in the environment of NSOs. Institutionalization refers to a process through which components of the structural design of an organization become widely accepted as both appropriate and necessary. In simple terms, a way to organize becomes the way to organize. Adoption of structural elements such as those we have demonstrated serve to legitimate an organization.

Institutional environments are created in organizational networks where the control of resources and authority is centralized in a small number of powerful organizations (Zucker, 1987)-in this case, one organization, Sport Canada.

The institutionalization of a structural element is very much dependent on its legitimation by the powerful organization. Once legitimated by the higher-level organization, through legal mandate or some other formal means, the dependent organizations generally respond by rapidly incorporating the element into their formal structure (Tolbert & Zucker, 1983). By demonstrating conformity to the institutional environment, a dependent organization demonstrates that it is acting on a collectively valued purpose in a proper manner, and by doing so it is able to increase its chances of being positively evaluated and ensure a continued flow of necessary resources (Hinings & Greenwood, 1988).

DiMaggio and Powell (1983) have suggested three mechanisms through which ideas about appropriate organizational form are disseminated in institutional environments: coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures. Through these mechanisms we can see how changes toward a more professional, bureaucratic form of organization were brought about in NSOs. Coercive pressures are both formal and informal and are "exerted on organizations by other organizations upon which they are dependent" (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983, p. 150). These pressures often come about as a response to changes in government mandates. As Macintosh, Bedecki, and Franks (1987) pointed out, the federal government's mandate in regard to NSOs gradually changed over the years from a relatively broad concern with the promotion and development of all levels of sport to a specific focus on the production of elite athletes. The QPP was designed to heighten this focus and speed up the process of change. This resulted in increasing pressures on NSOs to adopt the organizational design seen as most appropriate


for this task, the professional bureaucracy. The most overt pressures were in the form of funding incentives to fill certain professional roles, to operate specific programs, and to conform to planning requirements.

In addition to these prescribed practices, certain organizational elements and practices were actually proscribed as unacceptable for NSOs to engage in. These included frequent volunteer meetings, financial support of senior-level recreational programs, and volunteer involvement in operational decision making. By adopting the organizational design that is both prescribed and proscribed within the institutional environment, a NSO is able to demonstrate to Sport Canada that it is performing its task in a proper and adequate manner. As Meyer and Rowan (1977, p. 349) noted, the incorporation of institutionalized elements and practices "provides an account of its activities that protects an organization from having its conduct questioned." In a word, the organization becomes legitimate. This legitimacy can then be used as a source of status with the government agency, and, in this way, a NSO ensures it receives the support and resources it needs to operate.

Not all NSO changes can be attributed to coercive pressures. The uncertainty created by the conditions surrounding the planning process brought about some degree of mimetic behavior. That is to say, these organizations tended to model themselves after similar organizations that they perceived to be more legitimate or successful (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983, p. 152). For example, if NSOs see other NSOs that they perceive to be more successful hiring increased numbers of professional staff and systematizing their administrative systems, they will tend to do likewise. This modeling may be diffused unintentionally through employee transfer, which is fairly frequent in sport organizations, or explicitly through organizations utilizing the same consulting firm or similar forms of assistance.

The QPP was actually structured by Sport Canada to ensure that such consulting help was available. Two consultants were specifically hired to assist NSOs in preparing their plans. They developed clear guidelines, formally documented in planning manuals, as to how NSOs should plan and how they should structure themselves. These guidelines were clearly based on examples of what were perceived to be the more successful NSOs but were applied universally to all these organizations. The proximity of the NSO offices in the Canadian Sport and Fitness Administration Centre and the fact that larger financial contributions from Sport Canada were directed to the "better" organizations tended to increase the likelihood of mimetic behavior.

A third type of pressure that has relevance for the type of changes we found is referred to as normative. Much of this pressure stems from professionalization. Two aspects of professionalization contribute to normative pressures for change. The first is concerned with the formal education that professionals, such as those working in NSOs, receive. DiMaggio and Powell (1983, p. 152) suggested that the training of professionals creates "a pool of almost interchangeable individuals who occupy similar positions across a range of organizations and possess a similarity of orientation." In NSOs, professional staff do in fact occupy similar positions. In addition, as Macintosh and Beamish (1987) have shown, they have similar class backgrounds and undergo similar academic training. Further, this background and training is similar to that of individuals who work for Sport Canada. Consequently, these people frequently exhibit similar ideological posi-


tions about the function of sport, and common values and beliefs about how NSOs should be structured (Slack & Thibault, 1988). These values and beliefs become more entrenched as a result of the internal labor market that exists in NSOs, the federal government, and the attendant agencies concerned with sport. That is to say, a relatively high rate of lateral mobility is exhibited by professionals in these organizations. This mobility serves to further unify values and beliefs about the appropriate manner for structuring NSOs (Slack & Thibault, 1988).

Another method by which normative pressures work is by what is referred to as the filtering of personnel. DiMaggio and Powell (1983, p. 152-153) pointed out that "many professional career tracks are so closely guarded, both at the entry level and throughout the career progression, that individuals who make it to the top are virtually indistinguishable." Slack and Thibault (1988) have noted that in NSOs, the career tracks of senior managers are guarded by Sport Canada. When individuals are hired for senior positions with NSOs, one member of Sport Canada's staff and often one member of the government-funded Coaching Association of Canada sit as members of the selection committee. This ensures that only people who "view problems in a similar fashion, see the same policies, procedures and structures as normatively sanctioned and legitimated, and approach decisions in much the same way" (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983, p. 153) are hired.

We found that the direction of change in NSOs was to a more professional, bureaucratic type of organizational structure. However, despite strong institutional pressures to reduce the role of volunteers in NSOs and to transfer responsibility for decision making to professional staff, changes of this nature have been resisted. As Table 2 shows, there were not any significant changes in these areas. The resource-dependent nature of NSOs and the institutionalization of their environment are external features that help us to understand the reason for and form of the changes they have undergone. In order to more fully understand the change process and why certain institutionally prescribed changes occurred and others, such as those concerned with volunteer specialization and decision making, did not, it is necessary to examine the internal dynamics of change.

What Were the Sources of Commitment and Resistance ' to the Change Process, and How Was it Managed?

As we have seen, there was both a commitment and a resistance to the changes promoted through the QPP. There was commitment to the use of professional staff and to the standardization and systematization of the organization's operations. There was, nevertheless, resistance to any changes that challenged the traditional role of volunteers in these organizations. In order to understand the nature of this dynamic, we used data from our interviews about the implementation of the plans. We focused specifically on the cultural changes brought about by the QPP. Our view of culture is not, however, the one used by researchers who have emphasized the homogeneity of culture and its cohesive function (Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Peters & Waterman, 1982; Schein, 1985). Rather, our approach parallels that taken by Gregory (19833, Meyerson and Martin (1987), and Van Maanen and Barley (1984), who viewed organizations as multicultural, and culture as both cohesive and divisive.


In the past, the culture of NSOs emphasized volunteer control, with the officers of the organization being elected to senior positions by the membership. The role of volunteers was seen as indispensable, a factor frequently stressed in government documents. NSOs also enjoyed relatively high levels of autonomy, and there has been a belief in operating relatively informally. Specialization was low, operating systems were not formalized, and decision making was generally ad hoc, with authority in the hands of the volunteer board. To change to a more professional, bureaucratic form of organization, we were told, challenged these cultural norms. The move to a more professionally operated structure meant more professional involvement in decision making and, subsequently, a change in the authority structure of the NSOs. Also, the indispensable role of the volunteer was challenged as the major task of the organization increasingly became the production of high-performance athletes. This was seen as a job for paid professional coaches, assisted by sport physiologists and psychologists.

Respondents saw volunteers being displaced into what were perceived as the less important, less prestigious tasks of "grass roots" sport development. They also saw the traditional autonomy of the NSO being diminished. As the government exerted more financial control, it demanded input into such areas as the hiring of staff, contractual agreements with athletes, competition schedules, coaching responsibilities, and the general management of the NSO. As more professionals entered NSOs, they increased the levels of specialization, brought with them requirements for increased formalization, and sought involvement in the decision-making processes (Thibault, Slack, & Hinings, 1991). Thus, the traditional informal modes of operation were being replaced by more structured and formal methods.

The professionals in the NSOs were, for the most part, committed to the changes. The shift in authority structure, modes of operating, behavior patterns, and organization norms were ideologically acceptable to these people and worked to enhanced their status in the organization. As we have noted, the similarity of class and educational backgrounds of NSO professionals and Sport Canada officials, the proliferation of government literature extolling the benefits of the professional bureaucracy, and the nature of the internal labor market in sport all served to enhance the acceptability of the changes to the professionals.

Volunteers, in contrast, showed both commitment and resistance to the proposed changes. Their commitment came from a realization that increased professional staff would mean an increase in the quality and quantity of programs each NSO was able to operate. There was also a commitment to increased systematization because most saw this as being beneficial to the development of sport. Their resistance stemmed from the fact that many volunteers saw the changes as eroding the traditional NSO values and as reducing their control over their organizations. In particular, volunteer involvement in the operational aspects of the organization was seen as being reduced, and control of decision making was seen as being shifted to professionals.

In order to manage these cultural changes, some NSOs made fairly radical changes in their management structure. They appointed paid staff members to be presidents, a position traditionally held by volunteers. Others appointed paid staff (in several cases, a person from the business world) to the senior operating position and gave these individuals a relative degree of autonomy in leading the organizations through the transformation.


Understanding the role of leadership in the management of transitions has recently been revived by scholars such as Bennis and Nanus j1985), Tichy and Devanna (1986), Tichy and Ulrich (1984), and Ulrich (1987). These writers have suggested that in major organizational transitions, a type of leadership is needed that is different from the leadership required for periods of relatively incremental change. This type of leadership is referred to as transformational or charismatic leadership. As Bass (1985) pointed out, charismatic leaders are important when organizations are in transitions where traditional values and beliefs are being challenged. Although our data for this part of the study are only preliminary (the leaders were appointed at various times in the planning process, and their influence takes time to overtly manifest itself), we would suggest that an explanation of the role these leaders play can be found in theoretical approaches that stress the importance of transformational/charismatic leaders in managing transitions.

Transformational leaders provide "an organization with a vision of a desired future state" (Tichy & Ulrich, 1984, p. 246). The data we collected in our implementation interviews suggest that this has begun to happen in some NSOs. Comments like "he knows where the organization is going" or "he's given them something to go after" are reflective of a vision. Macintosh and Whitson (1990), in their study of the changing nature of Canada's sport system, also supported the existence of transformational leadership. They documented how, in an organization they studied, changes were working because the professional leader had created a vision that stressed "a strong commitment to the continuing importance of the volunteer in the sport" (Macintosh & Whitson, 1990, p. 35). This was something that most organizations were not as committed to, and, consequently, as we have shown, changes involving volunteers were resisted.

As well as creating a vision, transformational leaders must mobilize commitment to change. The creation of management teams, the setting of goals, and volunteer involvement through committees (Macintosh & Whitson, 1990) were all indications of steps transformational leaders were taking in NSOs to generate commitment to change. After generating commitment to the vision and the type of changes it entails, transformational leaders have to work to institutionalize the vision within the organization itself. That is to say, over time, the vision and the changes it necessitates must become part of everyday life in the organization. As Ulrich (1987, p. 219) noted, "In the short run, it is difficult to determine whether a vision has been institutionalized." It appears that in some NSOs, transformational leaders have begun to move toward this situation.

Summary and Conclusions

As we stated earlier, our purpose in this paper was to answer questions about the way change has been taking place in a set of NSOs. At the same time, we wanted to show how different theoretical approaches can inform our understanding of different aspects of the change process. To these ends, we have shown how the resource-dependent nature of NSOs in Canada created a situation in which they were required to engage in a major organizational reorientation. The direction of this change has been toward a more professional and bureaucratically structured organizational design. Movement in this direction has been facilitated by values


and beliefs about the appropriateness of this particular organizational form, which has become institutionalized within the environment of NSOs. Because such a change challenged the traditional volunteer-based culture of these organizations, there has been both commitment and resistance to the change. In some NSOs, transformational leaders have been used to help manage the change process.

Using different theoretical perspectives allowed us to explain different aspects of the change process and to produce a more complete picture of the phenomenon. As Morgan (1986) has suggested, using only one approach to explain an organizational phenomenon tends to limit our understanding of the phenomenon, and aspects other than the one under study are pushed into the background. By using different theoretical approaches, we come to understand organizations in a more complete manner; thus, we are able to do a better job of managing them.

A word of caution is, however, in order. Using different theoretical approaches should not be construed as an argument for some type of theoretical absolutism, that is to say, a single theory that will explain all organizational phenomena. Nor should we be piecing together ideas from incompatible theories to try to produce a sort of coherent whole (Hargreaves, 1990). The development of any area of study is dependent upon ongoing competition and debate among alternative theoretical perspectives. We must ensure that such debate does not obscure the usefulness of integrating theoretical perspectives, for, as we have shown in this paper, such integration can often produce a more complete picture.

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