This study aimed to clarify the process of generational change of club managers for the sustainable management of community sport clubs. Specifically, we attempted to visualize the process of “why” and “how” the generational change of club managers take place in community sport clubs using a sensemaking framework, which is a continuous process for individuals and organizations to find meaning in events and situations, understand them, and act accordingly. Data were collected through interviews with predecessor and successor managers from three clubs, which served as case studies. As a result, we clarified the sensemaking regarding predecessor and successor managers of each club, and by contrasting them, we visualized the organizing process of generational change of club managers. The analytical perspective of focusing on individual differences in sensemaking more clearly explains how the various actions that are ultimately organized transcend individual interpretations and disagreements. The results suggest that the following two points contribute to the promotion of generational change of club managers: 1) Club managers should intentionally foster their successors’ growth by providing opportunities for experiential learning and development; and 2) Club managers should not exercise leadership alone, but rather, should build an emergent management team in which leadership is shared among members. The functional differentiation of management and operational leadership in club management has created a “chief executive stage” in the growth stage of club managers, suggesting a structure in which the generational change of club managers and succession of club management develop on different levels. Future research should clarify how clubs that have completed the generational change of club managers move toward the generational change of chief executives (succession of community sport clubs), and what processes and steps are required for successor managers to grow into chief executives.

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In professional sport clubs, where uncertainty is high, ability to perform flexible operations is an important issue. However, in research on the management of professional sport, the question of how professional sport clubs demonstrate flexibility has not been fully considered. In the field of service research, “operational flexibility” refers to the capability of an organization to effectively respond to uncertainty in business operations. In this context, empirical verification of operational flexibility that takes into account the nature of the service business, while integrating the results of previous research, is an important research issue. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a concept for capturing operational flexibility in professional sport clubs using the Gioia methodology, a systematic and inductive qualitative research method.
The survey was conducted through semi-structured interviews with a total of six people, including executive, administrative staff, and employees, of Fagiano Okayama Sports Club (a J-League club). The collected interview data were analyzed using the three-step coding process of the Gioia methodology.
The analysis revealed that operational flexibility of a professional sport club is related to its organizational capability to respond to uncertainty that occurs in the “provider sphere”, “joint sphere”, and “customer sphere” of the service value-creating process. The club’s operational flexibility is composed of the aggregate dimensions of “organizational flexibility”, “interaction flexibility”, and “flexibility in use”. The results of this analysis were derived with respect to the marketing theory of “service logic” of the Nordic school of service marketing. Organizational flexibility included the second order themes of “input flexibility”, “procedural flexibility”, “front office staff flexibility”, and “facility flexibility”. Interaction flexibility included the second order themes of “competition management flexibility”, “service space flexibility”, and “customer relationship flexibility”. Flexibility in use included the second order theme of “flexible information provision”. In addition, this study confirmed that flexibility is demonstrated when uncertainty moves among the three spheres of the service value-creating process. Future research topics include theoretical and empirical investigations of the issue of power in interaction flexibility.

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This study aimed to clarify partner selection in collaborative alliances between schools and local sports organizations from three perspectives: the process leading up to the decision to partner, the conditions for partner selection, and the content of coordination with potential partners. A qualitative data analysis was conducted through semi-structured interviews with teachers, staff of local sports organizations (the central actors in the collaborative alliances) and school board officials. Interview questions and analytical framework were based on the “Four Phases of Strategic Alliance Development” of Bailey and Koney (2000), which describe the phases of interorganizational relationships in nonprofit human service organizations. The following conclusions were drawn from the analysis. First, the partner selection process was diverse, regardless of the classification or purpose. Second, when the school board was the main actor, the primary condition for partner selection was that the organization could manage and administer the club activities of all schools in the city. When the schools were the main actors, partners were organizations with a track record of relationships with schools or those that could be entrusted with managing sports club activities. Third, the coordination details with potential partners differed between cases in which a potential partner was selected and cases in which no potential partner was selected, based on conclusions of our analysis. In cases where a potential partner was selected, there was a sense of urgency, shared goals, and division of roles. In contrast, in cases where no potential partner was identified, coordination became an activity to evaluate and select partners.

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