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Strategic Change in Response to an Environmental Jolt: Rugby and the Olympic Games Author Corbett, Benjamin Dawes Published 2016 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School Griffith Business School DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/928 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365659 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au Griffith Business School Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Benjamin Dawes Corbett May 2015 i Strategic Change in Response to an Environmental Jolt: Rugby and the Olympic Games Benjamin Dawes Corbett B.S. (Brigham Young University) M.B.A. (Arizona State University) Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management Griffith Business School Griffith University Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 ii ABSTRACT The sport management field is relatively new, but there are now over one thousand sport management programs in universities around the world. This ubiquity spawned Chalip’s (2006) call for sport management to become a distinct and legitimate academic discipline. Sport management has borrowed theory and models from a range of disciplines including health sciences, psychology, management, economics, and communications. Rightly, those are well-established, highly credible disciplines. However, a prominent way to advance any academic discipline is through theory development. This thesis introduces a new model, the Integrated Change Model (ICM), which collaborates and extends sport management research in organisational design, organisational change, and institutional theory as a contribution to the theoretical base of sport management. To further develop and evolve the ICM past a conceptual framework, the present research set forth to explore organisational change in response to an environmental jolt. The context chosen was the Olympic Games’ inclusion of rugby, specifically rugby’s abbreviated version of “Sevens,” to begin at the 2016 Games. The need for the ICM created three aims for the present study: 1) what; 2) how; and, 3) why changes occur in organisations (in this case, rugby national governing bodies) due to an environmental jolt (i.e. Olympic inclusion). It was of particular interest to understand the different responses among organisations in the same sector (i.e. international rugby competition). The research question was developed to satisfy those three aims, and therefore inform the new model: To what extent do organisations within the same sector vary in their response to the same environmental jolt? The review of literature provided three major underpinnings for the study’s conceptual framework, examining the ‘what,’ ‘how,’ and ‘why’ of changes within sporting organisations. First, design archetype mapping of Canadian national sport organisations, as developed by the research of Greenwood, Hinings, Slack, Kikulis, Thibault, and Amis from 1992-2004 added to understanding ‘what’ may have changed in the rugby NGBs. Second, Laughlin’s (1991) model of organisational responses to environmental disturbances was employed to show ‘how’ the changes occurred, including rebuttal, reorientation, colonisation, or evolution. Skinner, Stewart, and Edwards (1999) demonstrated that Laughlin’s model can assist in exploring ‘how’ sport organisations change; however, this approach needs to be extended to explore ‘why’ those organisations change in the differential manner that they do. Therefore, third, O’Brien and Slack’s (2003) work on institutional field-level characteristics informed the examination of ‘why’ changes in sport organisations may occur based on changes in four field- level characteristics: 1) number and nature of actors; 2) exchange processes; 3) regulatory structures; and, 4) legitimate capital. This research followed Pettigrew's (1990) case study method. Planned opportunism resulted in the selection of four case studies: Australia, United States, South Africa, and Kenya. Data were collected remotely and onsite from online archive records (302 items), iii organisational documents (88), survey responses (53), public addresses (12), and semi- structured interviews (45). Data were coded and analysed with the assistance of NVivo software. Rugby’s inclusion in the Olympic Games, and the ensuing dynamic change environment this caused, provided an interesting and colourful context from which to evolve the ICM from its theoretical underpinnings. It was discovered that organisations in the same sector do vary in their responses to an environmental jolt. The most substantial change to rugby NGBs was to the Sevens high performance system. Significant changes to the way teams train and prepare for competition were occurring across all rugby NGBs, and were observed in all four case studies. Four high performance systems, or design archetypes for high performance, emerged from the data: 1) Airport Meet and Greet Model; 2) Training Camps Model; 3) Central Residency Model; and, 4) Hub and Spoke Model. Despite significant variations in the ‘why’ (i.e. field-level pressures and individual NGB inertia), each case study progressed to relatively the same ‘what’ (i.e. Central Residency high performance design archetype). It was the variations in field-level characteristics that pressured dissimilarities in the ‘how’ (i.e. process of change). Moreover, as the process of change and field-level pressures showed variation, isomorphic mechanisms institutionalised the NGBs, resulting in quite similar design archetypes on the macro level. It was the deeper investigation of intra-design archetypes on the micro level that identified distinctions and enabled comparison within and across cases. The rise of women’s rugby was another change identified and explored. The emerging focus on women’s rugby will likely be a more important, long-term change than the high performance system changes. However, the change was too embryonic to determine the lasting effects on world rugby in this thesis. The gender theme did enable a deeper discussion into the intra-design archetypes of the NGBs, with a comparison of men’s and women’s Sevens programs. iv STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the dissertation contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. Benjamin Dawes Corbett v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................. x ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................... xii PUBLICATIONS ............................................................................................................. xiii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. xiv DEDICATION .................................................................................................................. xv CHAPTER 1: Dissertation Introduction ............................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Problem ................................................................................................ 1 1.3 The Research Objective ....................................................................................... 4 1.4 The Research Aims .............................................................................................. 4 1.5 The Research Questions ....................................................................................... 5 1.6 Justification for the Research ............................................................................... 5 1.7 Limitations of the Research ................................................................................. 6 1.8 Research Context - Sport of Rugby Union .......................................................... 6 1.9 Research Design and Methods ............................................................................. 7 1.10 Structure of the Dissertation .............................................................................. 8 1.11 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................ 9 2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Organisational Design.......................................................................................... 9 2.3 Organisational Environments ...........................................................................