Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Sport clubs provide a unique middle ground between varsity athletics and intramurals, offering opportunities for growth, community building, and continued athletic engagement. This study explores how clubs’ structural features influence club athletes’ experiences. Drawing on semistructured interviews with club administrators and athletes across multiple universities, findings reveal that clubs operate with simple, flexible structures characterized by centralized decision-making, limited complexity, and informal coordination mechanisms. While these dynamics foster autonomy and adaptability, they challenge leadership sustainability. This study advances prior research by incorporating new dimensions of structural analysis, highlighting the interplay between formalized university oversight and informal club governance. Practical implications suggest that administrators can enhance athletes’ experiences by providing targeted leadership training, supporting role transitions, and fostering equitable decision-making processes. These findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of sport clubs’ organizational structures and their impact on student engagement, offering actionable insights for administrators to optimize club environments and outcomes.

Keywords

organizational structure student experience club governance student organizations club sports

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aquinas

P. G.

(2008). Organizational structure and design: Applications & challenges. Excel Books.

Babiak

Heinze

Thibault

(2019). Management concepts and practice in sport organizations. In Pederson

P. M.

Thibault

(Eds.), Contemporary sport management (6th ed., pp. 70–93). Human Kinetics.

Brubacher

J. S.

Rudy

(1997). Higher education in transition: A history of American colleges and universities (4th ed.). Transaction Publishers.

Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. (n.d.). About Carnegie classification. American Council on Education. https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/lookup/lookup.php

Creswell

J. W.

Poth

C. N.

(2018). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.

Czekanski

W. A.

Lower

(2019). Collegiate sport club structure and function. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(2), 231–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2018.1433711

Daft

R. L.

(2016). Organization theory and design (12th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Dugan

J. P.

Truman

N. T.

Torrez

M. A.

(2015). When recreation is more than just sport: Advancing leadership development of students in intramurals and club sports. Recreational Sports Journal, 39(1), 37–48. https://doi.org/10.1123/rsj.2015-0008

Flosdorf

M. L.

Carr

B. H.

Carr

J. W.

Pate

J. R.

(2016). An exploration of the sport club president’s experience. Recreational Sports Journal, 40(2), 106–119. https://doi.org/10.1123/rsj.2016-0007

10.

Hage

Aiken

(1970). Social change in complex organizations. Random House.

11.

Haines

D. J.

Fortman

(2008). The college recreational sports learning environment. Recreational Sports Journal, 32(1), 52–61. https://doi.org/10.1123/rsj.32.1.52

12.

Hall-Yannessa

S. L.

Forrester

(2004). Differences in leadership development of club sport officers. Recreational Sports Journal, 28(1), 7–18. https://doi.org/10.1123/rsj.28.1.7

13.

Hall

S. L.

Scott

Borsz

(2008). A constructivist case study examining the leadership development of undergraduate students in campus recreational sports. Journal of College Student Development, 49(2), 125–140. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2008.0010

14.

Hunter

McCallum

Howes

(2019). Defining exploratory-descriptive qualitative (EDQ) research and considering its application to healthcare. Journal of Nursing and Health Care, 4(1), 1–7.

15.

Hyatt

R. W.

(1977). Intramural sports: Organization and administration. Mosby.

16.

Lincoln

Guba

(1985). Naturalistic inquiry. SAGE Publications, Inc.

17.

Lower-Hoppe

L. M.

Beattie

M. A.

Wray

D. E.

Bailey

R. L.

Newman

T. J.

Farrell

(2020a). The relationships between sport club activities and university and member attachment. Recreational Sports Journal, 44(1), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558866120904037

18.

Lower-Hoppe

L. M.

Czekanski

W. A.

Marsh

P. J.

Petersen

J. C.

Brgoch

S. M.

(2021). The collegiate sport club model: Development of a conceptual framework. International Journal of Sport Management, 22(3), 241–271.

19.

Lower-Hoppe

L. M.

Peterson

J. C.

Hutton

T. A.

(2020b). Collegiate varsity versus club sport: Comparison of student outcomes. Journal for the Study of Sports and Athletes in Education, 14(1), 41–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/19357397.2020.1736486

20.

Mintzberg

(1980). Structure in 5’s: A synthesis of the research on organization design. Management Science, 26(3), 322–341. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.26.3.322

21.

Mull

R. F.

Forrester

S. A.

Barnes

M. L.

(2019). Recreational sport management (6th ed.). Sagamore Publishing.

22.

Springer

Lower-Hoppe

L. M.

Dixon

M. A.

(2024). Deconstructing the structure of collegiate sport club programs. Managing Sport and Leisure. Advanced Online Publication, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2024.2314579

23.

Stewart

R. E.

(1992). A brief history of the intramural movement. Recreational Sports Journal, 17(1), 12–14. https://doi.org/10.1123/nirsa.17.1.12

24.

Warner

Dixon

M. A.

(2013). Sports and community on campus: Constructing a sports experience that matters. Journal of College Student Development, 54(3), 283–298. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2013.0044

25.

Warner

Dixon

M. A.

Chalip

(2012). The impact of formal versus informal sport: Mapping the differences in sense of community. Journal of Community Psychology, 40(8), 983–1003. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21506

Deconstructing the Structure of Collegiate Sport Clubs

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References