Research seminar: Co-operative Enquiry: Advancing Sport Governance Theory and Practice

Co-operative Enquiry: Advancing Sport Governance Theory and Practice

By David Shilbury from Deakin University

Co-operative enquiry is an approach to working with others who have related interests and real-world concerns pertaining to common issues of concern. The aim, in a research setting, is to understand a part of the world common to those impacted and make sense of the issues with a view to developing new and creative ways at either looking at, or interpreting issues and to learn how to act to change things and in general to find ways to do things better. This research workshop aims to share a journey of co-operative enquiry through participatory action research during which representatives from several national and state sport organisations in Australia and New Zealand shared common concerns with the research team about the governance of these organisation. The aim was to concurrently advance sport governance practice and inform sport governance theory. The aspiration of the research team was to contribute to the way sport is organised, managed and led, and the team considered there was no better way to do this than to work with those who govern and, by definition, lead. The team also saw the development of theory focused on the board’s strategic role as an important building block in this aspiration, especially in the context of nonprofit sport organisations operating with volunteer non-executive directors in a leisure environment where fun, passion, and a lack of structure (in governance terms) characterise the landscaped compared to the rigours of established governance systems and processes in the for-profit sector. This interactive research workshop will share the story of working towards sport governance theory development. It will, drawing on action research approaches, invite participants to engage with the various approaches to action research and identify potential research problems central to or related to the storyline developed during the workshop via the quest to understand the sport board’s strategic role in advancing and informing sport governance theory. 
 

David Shilbury bio

Professor David Shilbury PhD is the Foundation Chair of Sport Management and a former Head of the School of Management and Marketing (2002-2007) in the Faculty of Business and Law at Deakin University. He is also the Director of the Deakin Sport Network. Dr Shilbury was appointed as Australia’s first Professor of Sport Management in 2000 having commenced at Deakin in 1990. Dr Shilbury is a former Editor-in-Chief of the A-ranked Journal of Sport Management and Sport Management Review, and he has over 120 publications worldwide. His research expertise is in sport governance, strategy, and sport delivery systems. In 2011, David was the recipient of the prestigious North American Society for Sport Management Dr Earle F. Zeigler award for his contributions to sport management scholarship and the field generally. In 2009, he was the inaugural winner of the Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand Distinguished Service Award, and in 2000, David won the Eunice Gill Award for Sport Management presented by the Victorian Sports Federation. He was a member of the Australian Football League Tribunal from 1992-2003 and the Foundation President of the Sport Management Association of Australia & New Zealand from 1995 to 2001. He was also a Director of Peninsula Leisure from 2013-18, a member of the Netball Australia Nominations Committee (2019-21) and he is the current President of Golf Victoria. He is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors course (2013).