SATSport model: An applied and adaptive approach to grassroot sport organisation’ governance arrangements

In local contexts and at an international level (especially European), sport organisations have reached a high level of visibility and interest among a range of stakeholder groups and in sectors and subsectors not directly related to sport. Sport is now at the centre of an ecosystem of social innovation that is characterised by wider and more diversified interests and multiplies opportunities which inevitably brings the efficacy and ethics of organisational and governance models under scrutiny. Following on from the emergence of political and corporate governance in the late eighties and early nineties the notion of sound governance in sports organisations has been a relatively recent development, especially at grassroots levels. Firstly, it has become increasingly important in the face of some notable top down financial, legal and commercial challenges and innovations confronting the sector at a European level. Secondly, a change in the bottom up demand of services that the citizens (and the authorities) have directed toward the sport sector is profoundly influencing the organisational structure and, consequently, the governance procedures that sport organisation put in place. Finally, the European Union, as a consequence of the new role of “social innovation drivers” that the main actors of the sport sector are required to take, is today urging sport organisations to operate in compliance with a set of criteria (accountability, democratic process, transparency) that are considered an essential part in current governance arrangements (European Commission, 2013). In this light, the European Commission in 2013 funded an action research study called: “Good Governance in Grassroots Sport – (GGGS)”. The project was intended to reconnect with and build on a range of key principles of good governance highlighted by the European Commission in the White Paper on Sport (2007) and the Communication on Sport (2011). It had a key objective of working in collaboration with a target population of selected academic, policy and practitioner partners from the grassroots sport community in Europe. The project methodology included an extensive literature review, questionnaires linked to focus group discussion and finally case study pilot testing and reflection. The findings of the study included a typology of the sport governance landscape and the emergence of an applied and adaptive framework – SATSport – to steer and shape sport organisation governance. A number of implications for the definition and practice of leadership in the sport governance domain were also identified along with possible applications of the model and future research priorities.