A Ab bs st tr ra ac ct t The article is based on the study ‘A sample analysis of the number and structure of membership in grassroots sports organisations in individual sports disciplines in Slovenia’ (Šugman, 1999). We classified 14 socio-demographic variables that enabled identification of the membership in sports associations and clubs, and made it possible to determine which functions individual members hold on the basis of their activities. As many as 1, 130 survey questionnaires were sent by post and answers from 737 associations covering 51 sports disciplines were received (65.2% response rate). The results reveal a considerable difference in the scope and structure of Slovenian sports clubs. The number of sports clubs’ members varies from 10 to 3,000. Approximately 40% of clubs included cate- gorised athletes as members. The study thoroughly analyses coaches, particularly professional ones and those with amateur skills. In addition, at least one referee was recorded, one organisational and one technical staff member in about 60% of clubs, depending on the number of members and the number of categorised athletes. The aim of the arti- cle is to outline the organizational characteristics of associations and club members, with the emphasis on the number of referees, technical delegates, organisational and technical staff. Key words: organisation of sport, organisational cul- ture of sport, structure of sports organisations, sports disciplines, staff policy. F Fa ac cu ul lt ty y o of f S Sp po or rt t, , U Un ni iv ve er rs si it ty y o of f L Lj ju ub bl lj ja an na a, , S Sl lo ov ve en ni ia a *Corresponding author: Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, Gortanova 22, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia T el.: +386 (0)1 52077 44, fax: +386 (0)1 5207750 E-mail: martina.ferencak@sp.uni-lj.si I Iz zv vl le eč če ek k Podlaga za ta prispevek je študija ‘Vzorčna analiza števila in strukture članstva osnovnih športnih orga- nizacij po posameznih športnih panogah v Sloveniji’ (Šugman, 1999). Število članstva v društvih ter vlogo, ki jo imajo v njih posamezni člani, smo ugotavljali s 14 socialno-demografskimi spre- menljivkami. Po pošti smo poslali 1130 anketnih vprašalnikov, odgovorilo je 737 društev iz 51 šport- nih panog (65.2 %). Rezultati kažejo veliko razliko v obsegu in tudi strukturi članstva slovenskih šport- nih klubov. Število članov v klubih se giblje od 10 do 3000. Približno 40 % klubov je imelo v svojem članstvu tudi kategorizirane športnike. V študiji so predvsem podrobno analizirani profesionalni in amaterski trenerji. V približno 60 % klubov so delo- vali tudi najmanj en sodnik, en organizacijski in en tehnični sodelavec. Namen tega prispevka je prikazati organizacijske značilnosti klubov, s poudarkom na številčnosti sodnikov, tehničnih del- egatov ter organizacijskih in tehničnih delavcev. Ključne besede: organiziranost športa, organizacijs- ka kultura športa, struktura športnih organizacij, športne panoge, kadrovska politika. Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, ISSN 1318-2269 Kinesiologia Slovenica, 9, 1, 62-69 (2003) 6 62 2 A A S SA AM MP PL LE E B BA AS SE ED D M ME EM MB BE ER RS SH HI IP P A AN NA AL LY YS SI IS S O OF F S SP PO OR RT TS S C CL LU UB BS S I IN N S SL LO OV VE EN NI IA A V VZ ZO OR RČ ČN NA A A AN NA AL LI IZ ZA A Č ČL LA AN NS ST TV VA A V V Š ŠP PO OR RT TN NI IH H D DR RU UŠ ŠT TV VI IH H V V S SL LO OV VE EN NI IJ JI I R Ra aj jk ko o Š Šu ug gm ma an n B Bo oj ja an n L Le es sk ko oš še ek k B Bo oj ja an n J Jo oš št t M Ma ar rt ti in na a R Ra au ut te er r* * I IN NT TR RO OD DU UC CT TI IO ON N One of the most widespread and popular activities - sport is today still seen as being based on the classic elements of the English sport: motorics, playfulness, competition and fair play. That is why people undertake sports activity in different organisational structures. Sports clubs and associations functioning as basic entities for further association at a higher level are the most widespread and most important sports organisations. Like any other association sports clubs and associations are considered to be the »fundamental entities of civil society« (Bibič, 1997). A primary goal of associating in the area of sport is to satisfy certain values and needs in terms of sports activity (Mesner Andolšek, 1995). Nowadays, sports activity manifests itself in vari- ous forms and is identified as involving different goals of the individuals who engage in sport. Every sports activity is shaped by the individuals within sports organisations. In addition, the grounds for that represent the broadest definition of sport as a cultural activity. Sports associations’ aims generally cover two fundamental aspects: a) to carry out sports activity with the aim of safeguarding and improving one’s health, promoting the regeneration process and spending leisure time agreeably; and b) to promote and develop competitive sport and top sport. The internal organisational structure of sports associations is usually not predetermined; it depends on the interests of members, programmes, the level of competition, financial resources, the available expert and organisational staff, and many other factors. Sports organ- isations’ objectives always include achieving the best national or even world results in a given sport. The evaluation of these achievements is possible, prudent as well as socially and moral- ly acceptable only through the formation of those variables that are legally supported by the world’s expert public. Certainly, the expert public has a general and special sports character in both competitive and top sport. Both co-operate in sports leadership and are complementary (one cannot exist without the other, since, when speaking of fundamental values and con- cepts, the integrity of the notion of sports culture is indivisible from the international and nation- al points of view). The main element of sports management and leadership in competitive and top sport is set- ting up of a clear, transparent and target-oriented system based on well-defined and objective- ly measured functional criteria, used for measuring successful cultural functioning (and not confusing the notions, which usually leads to a mix-up of the main elements of sport and destroys its development; Šugman, 1999). This definition is also suitable for our research work, in which over 50 national sports federations participated. They are systematically developing competitive and top sport. The success of each special sports discipline is measured on the basis of results of international and national value. This means that each special national sports federation has to develop such an organisational scheme of its member clubs and associations which enables success at the national and global level, so that they are recog- nised as successful by the international sports and general public. It should be noted that each sports discipline has its own specific cultural expression at the manifest visual level, the level of values and the level of a fundamental predisposition for the development of a sports discipline. As an element of human cultural life and as part of society, the principal goal of sport is to satis- fy people’s needs, interests and wishes (Šugman, 1999). The culture of sport is closely linked with the system of values of each individual and connected with the level of both the immediate Membership analysis of sports clubs Kinesiologia Slovenica, 9, 1, 62-69 (2003) 6 63 3 and broader social environments. Regardless of the fact that sports activity is primarily dedi- cated to a human as an individual, it would fail in its fundamental mission unless it established itself as a social activity in which participants build relationships in an organised way. Sports activity is a typically reasonable humanistic activity; objectively and through its target groups it is focused on an individual. The real value of its humanistic element is conditioned by the involvement of the social and organisational components of sport. Studying organisational culture of sport relates to the overall picture of sport, which is created by various factors. These clearly include problems of setting up sports organisations. According to Vila (1994), the process of set-up is described as a creative process of defining an organisation. It requires the determination of all elements and sub-elements of the organisa- tional structure of sports disciplines. Of course, the structure of organising a sports discipline is extremely complex and extensive as far as the number of elements involved and their rela- tions are concerned. In addition, the nature of individuals’ involvement changes within sports organisations. Yet it is beyond the scope of this article to study all the pertaining characteris- tics. We decided to research only a certain aspect of the organisation of grassroots sports enti- ties within different sports disciplines. Furthermore, we aimed to classify in this segment those factors and characteristics of organisation which, in our opinion, play an important role in the ongoing development of (Slovenian) competitive and top sport. The aim of the study was to carry out a sample analysis of the number and structure of selected characteristics of grassroots sports organisations in terms of various sports disciplines. In September 1997, disciplines were classified within the system of athlete categorisation kept by the Olympic Committee of Slovenia - Association of Sports Federations (NOC of Slovenia). Therefore, the research included sports clubs and associations that deal mostly with compet- itive and top sport and were registered with the National Sports Federation. There are several research studies being conducted in the world, including in Slovenia, that study athletes and their coaches in greater detail than other sports staff, and there is almost no or very little research on referees, technical delegates, organisational and technical staff. The latter are dealt with in this article. And what is the essence of research studying the latent structure of trainers and other sports staffč Researchers dealing with this issue can get deeply involved in the human soul and the relationships between sports activity leaders; this is not accepted by either sports experts or staff themselves, nor by sports associations or leading sports managing structures. In 1963 this view was expressed by the French sociologist, G. Magnane, in his book ‘Sociologie du Sport’, where he stated that sports officials in France did not want to provide any information about themselves and their work; in fact even then this was considered a taboo. That is why only a few researches exist in this area and therefore many more studies focus on school sports or physical education teachers. In the latter case state or public activity is researched, whereas in sports organisations private or civil activity is under scrutiny. The key objectives of this research were: a) to identify the membership base participating in sports organisations, expressed in terms of the number of all members and above all the number of registered members; b) to ascertain the membership structure of sports organisations according to the roles played by certain members, namely the number of: categorised and non-categorised athletes, regu- Membership analysis of sports clubs Kinesiologia Slovenica, 9, 1,62-69 (2003) 6 64 4 larly employed trainers with professional qualification, regularly employed trainers with ama- teur qualification, regularly employed trainers without any qualification, active amateur trainers with professional qualification, active amateur trainers with amateur qualification, active ama- teur trainers without any qualification, active referees, active technical delegates, active organ- isational staff, and the number of active technical staff; and c) to discover any differences in the size of sports organisations emerging within selected sports disciplines or between them. M ME ET TH HO OD D P Pa ar rt ti ic ci ip pa an nt ts s We classified 14 socio-demographic variables as the basic variables enabling us to identify the membership in sports associations and clubs and the functions of individual members in view of their activities. The basic information was gathered by a mail survey carried out in the period from 1 February 1998 to 1 March 1999. Altogether, 1130 survey questionnaires were sent. Answers were received from 737 associations in 51 sports disciplines, which represents a response rate of 65.2 percent. The results showed that there were major differences in the scope and structure of Slovenian sports clubs. I In ns st tr ru um me en nt ts s As many as 14 factors were analysed, namely the number of: all members, registered mem- bers, categorised athletes involved in the NOC of Slovenia system, non-categorised athletes regularly involved in the competition system, coaches employed full-time with a vocational qualification, coaches employed full-time with formal, amateur qualification, coaches employed full-time with no formal education, non-professional coaches with vocational qualifi- cation, non-professional coaches with amateur education, non-professional coaches without any education, active referees, active technical delegates, active organisational staff, and the number of active technical staff. Among the basic variables 14 social and demographic variables were classified to establish to the membership base in clubs or associations and the functions of individual members in view of their activities. P Pr ro oc ce ed du ur re e The results were statistically processed at the Computer Department of the Faculty of Sport of the University of Ljubljana. According to our expectations and the goals of research, the fol- lowing parameters were obtained: arithmetic mean, standard deviation, minimum and maxi- mum value, number of replies, number of replies in percentage, percentage of replies in total, Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Membership analysis of sports clubs Kinesiologia Slovenica, 9, 1, 62-69 (2003) 6 65 5 R RE ES SU UL LT TS S Using 14 social-demographic variables the following results were obtained. T Ta ab bl le e 1 1: : D De es sc cr ri ip pt ti iv ve e s st ta at ti is st ti ic cs s o of f v va ar ri ia ab bl le es s i in n t th he e s sa am mp pl le e o of f a al ll l g gr ra as ss sr ro oo ot ts s s sp po or rt ts s o or rg ga an ni is sa at ti io on ns s i in nv vo ol lv ve ed d i in n t th he e r re es se ea ar rc ch h L Le eg ge en nd d: : N number of respondents MIN minimum value MAX maximum value SUM sum value M mean SD standard deviation T able 1 reveals the number of clubs that filled in the questionnaire and the number of clubs that gave non-zero replies to certain variables of the questionnaire. In total, the number of clubs which filled in the questionnaire and the membership base are displayed by the variable S1. That number of clubs in separate variables changes from high (n = 688) to low (n = 22). The results support the claim that there is no standard structure of clubs or associations in Slovenian competitive sport, whereby the functions are proportionally and equally distributed among individual members. Perhaps we can even presume that the role of individuals is very poorly structured, which does not provide any solid grounds for further development of Slovenian competitive and top sport. Much more attention should be devoted to the socialisa- tion of functions, which could bring about thoroughly planned vocational qualification of club members, enabling them to carry out certain tasks and to take over certain expert responsibil- ity for quality functioning of clubs and associations. Clearly, there is much potential in the non- activated membership, that is, for improving the quality development of the organisational cul- ture of sport and its incorporation in everyday life. Membership analysis of sports clubs Kinesiologia Slovenica, 9, 1, 62-69 (2003) 6 66 6 In most cases, the results of basic statistics (see Table 1) may be disputed since the distribu- tion of variables was abnormal. For that reason, the significance of the distribution of certain variables is proved by a frequency distribution. Precisely because there are only few studies and sketchy information on referees, technical delegates as well as technical and organisational staff, those parameters which shed light on the profiles of referees, technical delegates, organisational staff and technical staff (see T able 1, variables 1 1-14) have been selected from the abovementioned researches. The article (see T able 1, variables from 1-10) in fact displays all the parameters, but only for informative purpos- es and better understanding of the problem at hand. Referees participated in 469 associations. The highest number within a single association was 170. In 255 sports organisations there was at least one technical delegate working, while in one particular sports organisation there were up to 20 active technical delegates. Organisational staff took part in 513 sports organisations. In total, they numbered up to 3,828. The highest number of organisational staff recorded in a single sports organisation was 65. On average, there were seven organisational staff in each sports organisation. Their number varies a lot (SD=7.66) between sports organisations. Most sports organisations employed about five organisational staff. A considerable number had from 3 to 10, with the number of clubs employing more than 10 organisational staff falling rapidly. Technical staff took an active part in over one half of sports organisations (n = 429). In one sports organisation, there were as many as 200 technical staff. In total, there were 2475 active staff, about 6 per a sports organisation on average. The distribution of the number of technical staff is normal and asymmetric as the number increases. Most associations disposed with one or two technical staff. A relatively high number of associations had up to five technical staff. The number of associations employing more than five active technical staff rapidly decreased. Analysis of the structured roles of members participating in basic sports organisations revealed that the number of individuals occupying a certain role within sports organisations has been changing significantly. There were mostly associations whose members participat- ed in competition systems (n = 650). Approximately 75% of associations had at least one active amateur trainer (n = 513) and at least one active organisational staff (n = 513). The lowest share (about 3%) accounted for by full-time employed trainers without any formal expert qualification (n = 22). The correlation analysis of variables used is presented in T able 2. Membership analysis of sports clubs Kinesiologia Slovenica, 9, 1, 62-69 (2003) 6 67 7 T Ta ab bl le e 2 2: : P Pe ea ar rs so on n’ ’s s c co oe ef ff fi ic ci ie en nt ts s o of f r re el la at ti io on ns s b be et tw we ee en n s sa am mp pl le e v va ar ri ia ab bl le es s. . L Le eg ge en nd d: : r Pearson’s correlation coefficient p statistical significance N number of respondents * p < 0.05 ** p < 0.01 It is possible to identify a number of high coefficients of correlation on the basis of the above table. Strongest correlations between different variables are: • the number of active technical staff (V14) and the number of non-professional trainers (V10) without any formal expert qualifications (r=.88**); • the number of technical staff (V14) and the number of active referees (V1 1) (r=.67**); • the number of active organisational staff (V13) and the number of active referees (V1 1) (r=.59**); • the number of active technical delegates (V12) and the number of active organisational staff (V13) (r=.47**); Membership analysis of sports clubs Kinesiologia Slovenica, 9, 1, 62-69 (2003) 6 68 8 • the number of registered members (V2) and the number of active referees (V1 1) (r=.37**); and • the number of categorised athletes (V3) and the number of active referees (V1 1) (r=.33**). Note: The coefficients can be calculated on the basis of Table 2 (* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01). Based on the insight into the abovementioned statistically important correlations among the sample variables, we can identify a certain positive mutual regression of correlations between all variables. This somewhat confirms the need to a priori adopt the hypothesis according to which the number of registered members and of individuals performing a certain function grows with the number of members. To put it simply, this means that associations with a stronger membership base more often activate their members to perform certain functions contributing to the quality of the association’s functioning. D DI IS SC CU US SS SI IO ON N Given the obtained results, the following conclusions can be drawn. About 85,000 members were active in those associations which filled in the questionnaire during the research (the low- est number was 10 and the highest 3,000). According to unofficial information this figure (85000) represents approximately 24.3% of all sports association members. There were 49521 registered members in those associations (a minimum of 1, and a maximum of 1075), which accounts for about 43% of all members of clubs included in the sample. The number of all other staff in associations (active referees, active technical delegates, active organi- sational staff and active technical staff) reached 10000 and so, compared to the total of other staff, 1 1 7 regularly employed trainers with professional qualification represent only slightly more than one per- cent. If only that expert staff who have adequate professional qualification (779) are compared with the total number of staff (9957), their share in active experts, i.e. a mere 7 .8%, is somewhat alarming. It is indisputable that many referees, technical staff and organisational staff (who are, besides athletes, most numerous) participate in sports association and clubs. The only categories of the staff who are not members of associations are technical delegates, who generally act inde- pendently. We can conclude that both categories are indispensable for Slovenian sport and that they mostly work on a voluntary basis. R RE EF FE ER RE EN NC CE ES S Bibič, A. (1997). Civilna družba in politični pluralizem [Civil society and political pluralism]. Ljubljana: Faculty of Social Sciences. Magnane, G. (1963). Sociologie du Sport [Sociology of Sport]. Sant-Amand: Gallimart. Mesner Andolšek, D. (1995). Organizacijska kultura [Organisational culture]. Ljubljana: Gospodarski vestnik. Šugman, R., Jošt, B., & Leskošek, B. (1999). Vzorčna analiza števila in strukture članstva osnovnih športnih organi- zacij po posameznih športnih panogah v Sloveniji [A sample based number and structure analysis of basic sports organisations in different sports in Slovenia]. Ljubljana: Faculty of Sport. Šugman, R. (1999). Prelomno obdobje slovenskega športa 1988-1994 [A turning period of Slovenian sport 1988- 1994]. Ljubljana: Faculty of Sport. Vila, A. (1994). Organizacija in organiziranje [Organisation and organising]. Kranj: Faculty of Organisational Sciences. Membership analysis of sports clubs Kinesiologia Slovenica, 9, 1, 62-69 (2003) 6 69 9