Organising Sport at the Olympic Games: the Case of Sydney 2000
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Organising Sport at the Olympic Games: THe Case Study of Sydney Author Frawley, Stephen Michael Published 2011 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School Griffith Business School DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/34 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366310 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au Organising Sport at the Olympic Games: the Case of Sydney 2000 Stephen Michael Frawley B. Leisure Studies (UNSW) M.A. (UNSW) Department of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel and Sport Management Griffith Business School Griffith University Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2010 i ABSTRACT Organising the Olympic Games is a highly complex management task that involves many individuals and stakeholder groups. In 2000, Australia’s largest city, Sydney, staged the Summer Olympic Games. The agency given primary responsibility for the staging of these Games was the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG). Two additional organisations also played a significant role in the organisation of the Sydney Games. These two organisations were the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) and the New South Wales (NSW) Government. This doctoral research investigated the part played by the AOC, as the host national Olympic committee (NOC), in the organisation of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The study examined the AOC’s involvement in the establishment of an independent Olympic agency that was called the SOCOG Sports Commission (SSC). The research explored the impact of the SSC on the organisation and management of the SOCOG Sport Program at the Sydney Games, which was managed by a SOCOG functional area known as the SOCOG Sport Program. The study investigated how the organisational power relations maintained by the AOC, through the formation of the SSC, influenced and shaped the management of the SOCOG Sport Program, and whether as a result of this involvement the organisation of sport received a high priority within SOCOG. The analysis of organisational power relations is a central feature of this research. The interdependent and fluid organisational network, involving SOCOG, the AOC, and the NSW Government as the financial underwriter of the Games, and the resultant formation of the SSC, is analysed using Elias’s concept of human figurations. Rather than considering organisational situations and developments in static terms, Eliasian process sociology argues that the place of organisations cannot be separated from the broader social and historical contexts in which they operate (Elias, 1994; Newton & Smith, 2002). ii From an Eliasian perspective, the organisation of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games was the result not only of recent developments but also of countless social and organisational figurations that developed over many years prior to Sydney winning the bid to stage the Games in 2000. In this regard, the organisation of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games was the result of both planned and the unplanned consequences of Olympic organising over which no one individual had total control. In attempting to address the specific research questions, a multi- methodological approach was employed. This approach involved collecting and analysing data from three main sources. The analysis was informed by organisational practices that were observed by the researcher, as a SOCOG Sport Program employee, from October 1998 to December 2000. Data were also collected from both internal SOCOG documents and related external documents. In addition, 35 interviews were conducted with former SOCOG officials and managers, who had responsibility for organising and managing the SOCOG Sport Program. The findings from this research suggest that the AOC played an important role in the organisation of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The involvement of the AOC in the organisation of the SOCOG Sport Program was shaped by two key dimensions: firstly, the organisational knowledge and networks of the AOC; and secondly, the organisational power of the AOC. The sport experience and Olympic networks of the AOC influenced the SOCOG strategy of organising the ‘athletes’ Games’. The organisational power relations maintained by the AOC throughout the Olympic planning process placed it in a position where it was able to establish an autonomous decision- making authority within SOCOG known as the SSC, which had carriage of all sport-related and sport-specific decisions for the Sydney Games. However, even with the considerable power the AOC maintained within SOCOG, it was still interdependent on key Olympic stakeholders, such as the NSW Government, in order to deliver the ‘athletes’ Games’. iii In conclusion, the researcher conducted a study that will make a strong contribution to the sport management body of knowledge, specifically as it relates to the body of knowledge for staging mega-sport events, such as the Olympic Games. The research has management implications for the IOC and for future host NOCs, particularly in relation to OCOG organisational design and governance. In the past, only a small amount of research has been conducted on the role of the host NOC in the staging of the Olympic Games. This research has started to fill this gap. iv STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I declare that this work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. …………………………. ………………………….. Stephen Michael Frawley Date v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................................. II STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ..................................................................................................... V TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................................................... VI LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................................. VIII LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... IX ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................. X PUBLICATIONS ................................................................................................................................... XI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................ XII DEDICATION .................................................................................................................................... XIV CHAPTER ONE: THESIS AIMS, PURPOSE AND CONTEXT ..................................................... 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 AIMS .................................................................................................................................................. 4 1.3 PURPOSE ............................................................................................................................................ 5 1.4 THE STUDY ........................................................................................................................................ 7 1.5 RESEARCH CONTEXT ......................................................................................................................... 8 1.6 THESIS OUTLINE .............................................................................................................................. 19 1.7 LIMITATIONS ................................................................................................................................... 23 1.8 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................... 26 2.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 27 2.2 DEFINING MEGA-SPORT EVENTS .................................................................................................... 28 2.3 THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES .......................................................................... 31 2.4 THE CONSEQUENCES OF HOSTING MEGA-SPORT EVENTS .............................................................. 38 2.5 MEGA-SPORT EVENTS AND ORGANISATIONAL STAKEHOLDERS .................................................... 46 2.6 MEGA-SPORT EVENTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONAL RESEARCH ........................................... 50 2.7 CONCLUSION AND SYNTHESIS ......................................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER THREE: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................. 65 3.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 66 3.2 THE THEORETICAL