Threshold Transformations in Organizational Leadership in Nonprofit Community Sport

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to develop a deeper understanding of organizational leadership development in nonprofit community sport organizations by exploring threshold leadership transformations. While there is growing awareness of the value of collaborative leadership practices in sport organizations (e.g., Damon et al., 2022; Ferkins et al., 2024; Kang & Svensson, 2023b), limited attention has been given to how relational and collective leadership approaches are developed in community sport settings. Yet by building collaborative leadership capacity, organizations can strengthen their ability to guide change, develop resiliency, enhance accountability, and deepen relationships within the organization and across their community (Barasa et al., 2018; Block, 2018; Day & Harrison, 2007; McCauley et al., 2010). Challenges exist for community sport organizations looking to grow this leadership capacity, including inconsistent views of how a collaborative leadership practice is developed (Eva et al., 2021), and organizational cultures that reinforce leadership as individualistic, leader-centric, role-based authority (Billsberry et al., 2018; Ferkins et al., 2018). These development issues are magnified in community sport settings where factors such as resource constraints, volunteer turnover, and conflicting organizational interests necessitate prioritizing operational tasks to ensure their primary sport mandate is met. This leaves little opportunity to engage in broader organizational development activities. And yet, interdependent leadership processes are of particular significance in community sport where organizations must both collaborate and compete with other clubs, benefit from strong interorganizational relationships, and are expected to contribute to broader health, community, and social outcomes (Babiak et al., 2018; Dowling et al., 2021; Welty Peachey et al., 2015). Perhaps the most significant challenge to building collaborative leadership capacity is that developing intrapersonal and interpersonal leader competences might not be enough (Block, 2018; Day, 2000; Day & Harrison, 2007; Warner & Colton, 2016). It is one thing to have knowledge of the behaviours and skills required for collaborative leadership. It is something more to value and enact collaborative processes. Sport management leadership studies often explore a specific leadership model or framework, which can inform development activities focused on the cognitive and behavioural attributes of sport leaders (whether constructed as individuals or a collective). Yet there is an opportunity for a holistic development approach, one that considers the complexity of human development (Day et al., 2014). Drawing on leadership development studies, transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1991), and Meyer and Land’s (2006) threshold concepts framework, this study aimed to examine the “ways of knowing that underlie skills and knowledge” (Timmermans, 2014, pp. 306-307, emphasis in original). Informed by Timmermans and Meyer’s (2019) framework to integrate threshold knowledges into practice, this exploratory qualitative study investigated practitioners’ transformative ideas about community sport leadership, key learning experiences that supported their development, and how the community sport context impacts development. Data from workshop interviews with volunteers and staff from local community sport organizations and small group interviews with upper year sport management students with work or volunteer experience in community sport were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019). Participants’ leadership development occurred through practice rather than formal leader training initiatives. Their pathways to their roles in the organization were significant in their development, particularly their own experiences as athletes, and were highly relational, often facilitated through connections with family and friends, and both formal and informal invitations. Participants identified several ways the community sport context contributed to or hindered leadership development, such as resource constraints, organizational stability, and the club’s direction. Of particular importance was having a supported practice. Participants’ transformative ideas about community sport leadership suggested there is no one, best approach to leadership and that a flexible, adaptive, and authentic practice is needed. These transformations also related to where leadership resides, changes in their perspectives on volunteer contributions, and opening up their frames of reference. Underlying their practice were core beliefs related to holistic development, community, belonging, and joy. The findings indicate developing a collaborative leadership practice involves transformations in ways of being, ways of knowing, and ways of practicing. These transformations are described in three threshold concepts in community sport organizational leadership development, specifically: “Leadership Isn’t in the Title”; “They’ve got my Back”; and “Collective Responsibility for Supported Practice”. The findings and the proposed threshold concepts can inform community sport leadership capacity building activities in several ways, which are outlined through a proposed organizational leadership development model for community sport organizations. This study also has implications for the design and implementation of sport management curriculum, particularly around key concepts, learning experiences, and the teaching and learning context.