Vrije Universiteit Brussel Interorganisational Conflict
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel Interorganisational conflict between national and provincial sport organisations within China's elite sport system Zheng, Jinming; Lau, Patrick Wing Chung; Chen, Shushu; De Bosscher, Veerle; Peng, Qi; Dickson, Geoff Published in: Sport Management Review DOI: 10.1016/j.smr.2018.10.002 Publication date: 2019 Document Version: Accepted author manuscript Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Zheng, J., Lau, P. W. C., Chen, S., De Bosscher, V., Peng, Q., & Dickson, G. (2019). Interorganisational conflict between national and provincial sport organisations within China's elite sport system: Perspectives from national organisations. Sport Management Review, 22(5), 667-681. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2018.10.002 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 24. Sep. 2021 1 Interorganisational Conflict between National and Provincial Sport Organisations within China’s Elite Sport System: Perspectives from National Organisations Zheng, J., Lau, P.W.C., Chen, S., Dickson, G., De Bosscher, V., Peng, Q. Reference: Zheng, J., Lau, P.W.C., Chen, S., Dickson, G., De Bosscher, V., Peng, Q. (2018, online published) Interorganizational conflict between national and provincial sport organizations within China’s elite sport system. Sport Management Review. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S144135231830278X. SCI Impact Factor: 3.516 Institutional address: Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy Prof. Dr. Veerle De Bosscher Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium Corresponding author : [email protected] 2 Interorganisational Conflict between National and Provincial Sport Organisations within China’s Elite Sport System: Perspectives from National Organisations Abstract This article examines interorganisational conflict between provincial and national sport organisations in China. The study is underpinned by the literature on interorganisational relationships particularly on interorganisational conflict. The three case studies are artistic gymnastics, swimming, and cycling. The primary data was generated via eleven semi-structured interviews with staff from the relevant national-level sport organisations. Secondary data was sourced from official publications, websites, and influential domestic media. The key finding is that, whilst famed for its top-down bureaucratic system, there is considerable interorganisational conflict within the Chinese sport system. The extent and characteristics of the national-provincial conflict vary between sports. But there is also some consistency regarding the causes of the conflict and the measures adopted to mitigate the tension. Interorganisational conflict provides a useful heuristic for articulating and understanding the interorganisational relationships within the Chinese elite sport system and hence advance elite sport management research. Keywords: conflict, elite sport, interorganisational relationships, Olympic Games, policy implementation, power 3 Interorganisational Conflict between National and Provincial Sport Organisations within China’s Elite Sport System: Perspectives from National Organisations 1. Introduction Burgeoning government interest in elite sport is one of the dominant characteristics of contemporary sport development. As Houlihan (2011, p. 367) argued, elite sport success is for many nations an “irresistible priority”. Against this backdrop, many researchers (e.g., Bernard & Busse, 2004; De Bosscher, Shibli, Westerbeek & Van Bottenburg, 2015; Green & Houlihan, 2005; Rathke & Woitek, 2008) have examined the contributions of how elite sport policies are governed. No matter the country, no single organisation has total control of the national sport system and there are often multiple organisations involved in sport policy delivery. A national sport system is an aggregation of interdependent people, interests and organisations. The more coordinated the relationships, the more “integrated” and “efficient” becomes the elite sport system (De Bosscher et al., 2015, p. 360) and this is manifested in the performance of its athletes. Both “horizontal co- ordination at the national level” (De Bosscher et al., 2015, p. 139) and “vertical co-ordination between the national policy level and regions” (De Bosscher et al., 2015, p. 142) are critical success factors of national elite sport policies. A lack of national-regional coordination may result in inconsistent and ineffective delivery of elite sport policy. For example, Australia’s relatively poor medal performance at the 2008 Summer Olympics was at least partially attributed to inadequate vertical coordination (Independent Sport Panel of Australian Government, 2009, p. 60). Vertical co-ordination is also an issue for other nations (e.g., France, Canada and Japan) (De Bosscher et al., 2015; Green & Houlihan, 2005; Yamamoto, 2008). This vertical co-ordination, in many nations, includes the interorganisational relation and interaction between different levels of government organisations. 4 There remains a dearth of empirical research specifically focusing on the interorganisational dynamics within a nation’s elite sport system affecting a nation’s elite sport success. The research on the interplay between national sport organisations and regional level (i.e., vertical relation) is extremely sparse. This gap may limit the understanding of the policy factors affecting elite sport development and success in the elite sport management literature. This study investigates interorganisational relationships (IORs) with certain vertical features, including possible interorganisational conflict, between national sport organisations and their provincial counterparts. Specifically, the study is contextualised within the national- provincial organisations for three sports/disciplines in a major yet largely distinctive elite sport nation, namely China – artistic gymnastics, swimming, and cycling. Beneath the “simplified” (Tan & Green, 2008, p. 318) veneer of China’s national elite sport organisational structure, there are many provincial sport organisations. Provincial sports organisations play a crucial role in contributing to China’s elite sport achievements (GAS, 2008), but there is limited research exploring how the national and provincial sports organisations interact and the impact of this national-provincial IOR on China’s elite sport development. The four research questions investigated in this paper are: 1) Is there any evidence of conflict between national and provincial sports organisations and if any, what are the characteristics of this national-provincial conflict? 2) What are the contributory factors to the cooperation or conflict between the national and provincial sports organisations? 3) What are the initiatives taken to reduce the conflict, if conflict is evident? 4) How does national-provincial relationship impact the nation’s elite sport performance? 5 These research questions were identified according to existing literature, most notably Lumineau, Eckerd and Handley (2015). More specifically, Lumineau et al. (2015) comprehensively summarised existing literature on interorganisational conflict and structured existing literature in this field into several specific aspects including specific features and forms, antecedents, management and moderating factors, and consequences of interorganisational conflict. 2. Research Context: The Elite Sport System in China China’s success at the Summer Olympic Games is fundamentally underpinned by Juguo Tizhi (translated as “whole country support for elite sport system”), the various aspects of which have been investigated by a number of researchers (e.g., Hong, 2008; Liang, Bao, & Zhang, 2006; Tan & Green, 2008; Yang, 2012). A dominant characteristic of Juguo Tizhi is its system, illustrated by a stratified pyramid with three levels (see Figure 1): (child) extra-curricular sports schools at the first level, sports schools at both city and provincial levels at the second level, and specialised provincial and national teams at the third level. Within this pyramid, provincial-level teams play a very crucial role, which is described by the General Administration of Sport (GAS) (2008, p. 151) as the “backbone and core”. [Figure 1 near here] In China’s one-party political system, the Communist government’s influence is pervasive. As a relic of the planned economy, elite sport in China is a highly politicised policy area dominated by the government, most notably GAS, which is directly accountable to the State Council, and national sports management centres (Hong, 2008; Liang et al., 2006). National Sports Associations are effectively governed, and often shadowed by their respective national management centres (Zheng, 2015). The relationship between the Chinese national