Organizational Culture in Selected Western Australian Sport Organizations

Abstract

This study of organizational culture in selected sport associations in Western Australia introduced a quantitative methodology to explore organizational culture to show its usefulness to complement the more qualitative methods traditionally applied to the study of organizational culture. The study used the competing values approach to develop cultural profiles for three sport organizations, which were compared with the sport association members' anecdotal, subjective views of their respective organizations. While the findings reveal evidence of the tensions between volunteers and employees that suggest the existence of subcultures, this study just touches the tip of the organizational culture “iceberg” in sport management. The conclusions indicate some benefits of using the competing values model in conjunction with more qualitative methods to probe sport organizational culture.