‘Stuck in structure’: How young leaders experienced the institutional frames at the Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck,2012

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore how young leaders within the Innsbruck Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee experienced the degree of freedom within the institutionalized structure of the International Olympic Committee. Employing a theoretical framework of new institutionalism, a qualitative case study including observations and interviews was conducted. The concept of translation provides a framework for analysing institutional change in organizations, where new ideas are combined with existing institutional practices and translated into new practices to varying degrees. The Innsbruck Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee consisted of young people with experiences from the event industry. This resulted in greater pressure to introduce new institutional solutions to the field. Despite being constrained by coercive pressure from the International Olympic Committee, new innovative elements were translated by the young leaders in the Innsbruck Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee into the International Olympic Committee event. However, the innovations were restricted to areas that the International Olympic Committee defined as less important such as sustainability projects as opposed to important areas like marketing.