Strategy and Strategising “An examination of sport clubs privatisation strategy in Saudi Arabia” A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sport Management and Economy by Fawaz Khairy Alhakami The Department of Life Science at College of Health and Life Sciences Brunel University 2014 Strategy and Strategising: “An examination of sport clubs privatisation strategy in Saudi Arabia” DEDICATION This work is dedicated to Allah “God” almighty then my family and friends for their guidance and blessing on all aspects of life, including this work, which could have not been accomplished without Allah, then anyone have helped and supported me to complete this work. P a g e | 2 Strategy and Strategising: “An examination of sport clubs privatisation strategy in Saudi Arabia” ABSTRACT For over a decade, the Saudi government has been actively promoting a privatisation strategy for Saudi sport clubs as part of ongoing wider policies aimed at stimulating the national economy through the privatisation of various economic sectors. Other ‘declared’ underlying objectives of the privatisation plan include reducing direct government spending, diversifying sources of income and increasing efficiency through greater involvement of the private sector. However, despite multi-millions of investments and years of political rhetoric, the progress made to-date has been very limited. This study adopts a theoretical framework based on the three key domains of strategising (i.e. the 3Ps) (e.g. Whittington, 2006; Jarzabkowski and Spee, 2009). Strategising differs from conventional strategy in that it regards strategy work as a pattern in a stream of goal- directed activity (Johnson, Melin, & Whittington, 2003; Jarzabkowski, 2005; Whittington, 2006). The deployment of the strategy-as-practice research agenda is recent and limited in sport management research, and empirical type of studies are noticeably scant. Hence, this study addresses part of this existing gap. On a practical level, the study puts forward policy recommendations towards enhanced understanding of strategising dynamics within sport organisations. Through holistic, embedded multiple-case study research design, comprising a sample of eighteen case studies, this study addresses the relationship between strategy and strategising through all phases of the strategy journey. In particular, the study aims to reveal how strategising practices are manifested in the strategising work around the privatisation of Saudi sport clubs and evaluate the various strategising actors’ roles at macro, meso and micro levels. The main findings are reported along two broad levels, firstly in terms of the three domains of strategising, and secondly with regards to the key patterns of strategising. Consistent with the predictions of theoretical framework, overall findings provide strong evidence for the key role played by the 3Ps and their strong interconnectedness within the overall dynamics of the strategising activity system. The second level of findings documents the dominance of the procedural type of strategising, which is mainly enacted through the widespread use of long-established formal administrative practices that came to typify centralised policymaking in Saudi Arabia. These findings are not surprising and are entirely consistent with existing evidence (for example, Jarzabkowski, 2003; Whittington, 2003) when considering the high levels of ‘embeddedness’ and ‘persistence’ of this type of strategising within the wider functioning and organisational culture of these entities. Hence, various facets of this prevailing situation could be seen as a the major obstacle in the face of any attempt to successfully introduce new ways of organising and strategising within the Saudi sport sector in general, and the sport club privatisation policy in particular. Keywords: Saudi Arabia, strategy and strategising, sport, privatisation policy, practitioners, practices, praxis. P a g e | 3 Strategy and Strategising: “An examination of sport clubs privatisation strategy in Saudi Arabia” ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Studying a PhD degree to investigate Sport Management issues has been a pleasing experience for me as it has enlightened my knowledge about the subject, sports and research. I sincerely thank almighty Allah for this guidance and blessing on all aspects of life, including this work, which could have not been accomplished without His will. Thanks to Allah would not be perfect without thanking all those individuals who have helped and supported me throughout this thesis. First of all, thanks for my parents: my father KHIRY and my mother RIMA; for their prayers, encouragement, physical and emotional support throughout my life and during my study. Besides, my thanks go to my beloved wife, SAUDIH for her support, love, tolerance, and physical and emotional help during the conduct of my study. Also, mega thanks go to my first kids FAISAL, RIMA and FIRAS who was born during my writing-up to this thesis. My great thanks go to my supervisors, Dr Vassil Girginov and Dr Laura Hills for their kind help, great guidance, and thorough recommendations which have made this project achievable. I would also like to thank all sport and education school committee and staff members, especially like to thank PGR Programme Administrator Julie Bradshaw for her advice, time, help, and recommendations. Special thanks also go to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Government for sponsoring my study, College of Physical Education and Sport in King Saud University and the Saudi Cultural Bureau in the UK for their continuous support. I would also like to thank all those who helped me in collecting the data needed for this study. Thanks go to the Ministry of High Education in Saudi Arabia, The Supreme Economic Council, Ministry of Economy and Planning, The General Presidency for Youth Welfare and its offices in regions, the Saudi Arabia Olympic Committee and Saudi Sport Federations, and Sports Clubs that participated in this study. I would especially like to thank my students and colleagues from the College of Physical Education and Sport who are working now at the General Presidency for Youth Welfare. My appreciation is also extended to all my friends and colleagues in the School of Sport and Education and the Islamic, Arab and Saudi society at Brunel University and the Saudi club in London for their kindness and friendship throughout my study. Last, but not least, my very special thanks go to my friendly proof-readers Frances and Salim for their help and recommendations. Special thanks also go to all my colleagues in the UK for their support, recommendations, social life and friendship throughout difficult times. P a g e | 4 Strategy and Strategising: “An examination of sport clubs privatisation strategy in Saudi Arabia” TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents FIRST PART - RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND THEORETICAL CONTEXT ...... 14 Chapter 1 : Introduction ....................................................................................................... 14 1.1 Introduction: ............................................................................................................... 14 1.2 Study background, motivation and rationale ............................................................ 15 1.3 Research aims and objectives and questions ............................................................ 20 1.4 Importance of the study ............................................................................................. 21 1.5 Organisation of the study ........................................................................................... 23 Chapter 2 The Political Economy of Sports Clubs Privatisation in Saudi Arabia ............. 26 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 26 2.2 Political economy and social development in the Saudi state .................................. 27 2.2.1 Religion and the State ........................................................................................ 28 2.2.2 Monarchy and the State ...................................................................................... 30 2.2.3 Society and the state ........................................................................................... 33 2.3 National development plans (NDPs) ........................................................................ 39 2.4 Lessons learned from Saudi and international privatisation projects....................... 44 2.5 Background of Saudi sports ...................................................................................... 54 2.5.1 Sport in the Arabian Peninsula and Islam .......................................................... 55 2.5.2 Sport in the Saudi state ....................................................................................... 55 2.5.3 Sport organisations in Saudi development plans ............................................... 60 2.6 National plans for privatisation sport clubs .............................................................. 65 2.7 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 68 Chapter 3 Strategy and Strategising .................................................................................... 71 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 71 3.2 Overview of the strategy and strategising debate ....................................................