An attempt was made to analyze the psychological impact of sports organizations on sports practitioners, and to develop a new theory of sports organizations on the basis of this concept. The study was based on the Japanese Football Association (JFA) and Japanese football players, and investigated whether those who were not registered with the JFA suffered from unease or anxiety as a result (i.e. pressure from the professional social structure).
Most football players in Japan play football either as an extracurricular activity at an educational institution or at regional sports clubs. However, a number of grass roots football players are subject to anxiety because they do not belong to any such institutions. To examine the JFA's role in helping such players dispel their anxiety, it is not effective to apply organizational theories that have been developed for use in the business world, even though these been used for previous studies of sports organizations. Such traditional organizational theories have handled sports organizations as corporate bodies, without considering the unique circumstances of sports.
For the present study, therefore, a new viewpoint of sports organizations was developed based on the institutional theory of H.H. Garth and C.W. Mills, which contends that the character (psychological) structure of an individual is moulded by social (institutional) structure, being especially influenced by the “Head” of the institution. Here, evidence is presented to show that the JFA, as the “Head” of football institutions in Japan, exerts an especially strong influence on the psychology of football players. Moreover, it appears that football players who are not registered with the JFA and do not play under the auspices of educational or sports institutions suffer anxiety in situations such as being defeated in competitions, becoming lax with regard to educational matters, or when the JFA is perceived to lose prestige.
Finally, based on this new theory of sports organizations, an attempt is made to show how anxiety is generated in non-registered football players by analyzing the historical relationship between the character structure and social structure of football players classified into nine groups.
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