Management of Sport and Physical Activity

PREFACE This text is divided into four parts. Part 1 introduces the reader to various aspects of the Harvard case plan of instruction as it might apply to students having a course experience in sport and physical activity management. It includes chapters that serve to introduce students and instructors to one person’s employment of, and “enhancement of”, the “case method” of learning management and human relations. Parts 2 and 3 are collections of actual cases related to the management of sport and physical activity education. The cases in Part 3 include situations strong elements where involving ethical consideration are present. Part 4 summarizes the overall experience for the student prior to a course’s final examination. Under what was termed (historically) the Harvard Case Method, students read, analyzed, and then discussed “real life” administrative problems like those they would have to face in their future careers. The emphasis was on careful analysis and ”digging” for facts. The instructor is very important with this approach, but he/she does not dominate the discussion or seek a predetermined goal. He/she may serve as (1) a resource person, (2) an evaluator of progress, (3) an informed member of the group, (4) a discussion chairperson, and (5) a summarizer. The student will find that no new supply of “knowledge” is included–one that must be learned. Here instead is an approach to the learning of management, however, that the prospective manager of physical activity education and athletics has not yet met to a truly significant degree. This text can be used by itself at either undergraduate or graduate levels of instruction, or it may be used as a laboratory manual in conjunction with a more traditional, knowledge-oriented text. (For example, the author’s Management Theory and Practice in Physical Activity Education (Including Athletics) was published in 2010 with this in mind by Trafford Publishing, Bloomington, IN. ) Down through the years of the twentieth century, the case method of instruction attracted favorable attention steadily and increasingly in business, law, educational administration, and the social sciences. The author is convinced that it should be used much more intensively and much more knowledgeably in sport and physical activity management as well than at present. Many who have managed programs, and who have perhaps taught “the management course” in the professional program, have felt the new for an improved approach to the subject at hand. We have played with the concept of “democratic management”. In our courses we have tried group discussions, committee work, group projects, different types of readings, term papers, and possibly case analysis to a limited extent. Although all of these techniques have been helpful, and have served to break away from the traditional, monotonous, unilateral type of teaching (the lecture!), student reaction has not been such as to provide evidence that these courses have been most worthwhile. The author learned early on in his career as a teacher of this subject that so-called traditional teaching methods were inadequate. He felt that there had to be a better way, As a result of a great deal of reading, conversation, and experimentation, he came to believe that serious consideration should be given to the Harvard case method of teaching management and human relations in our field. The author soon thereafter found it to be the ideal method in a democratic country. Through the case method of teaching, students apply their understanding and imagination to management problem that actually have been faced by professionals on the job. For the first time the student takes part actively in the search for a rational course of action based on the relevant facts available. He or she will develop attitudes and learn to analyze the problems critically. Ultimately we hope that the prospective manage will develop the self-reliant judgment necessary for success as a manager of sport and physical activity. Certain questions are included at the end of each case presentation. Ideally, they would not be employed as they tend to be directive. Further, we do not suggest that these are the only ones to be asked, In fact, they may not even be the best ones. They are merely those suggested by the person who submitted the case, and in some instances by the author of the text. Part 1 serves to introduce and orient the student (and may serve as a review for the instructor) to the case method teaching. A course such as this is not a place where secrets are kept from the students. They should know what is going on at all times. First we discuss the general concept of management, emphasizing that there are even today few specific rules in the field. Then the student is presented with an analysis of learning by the case method, as well as an analysis of teaching where it is employed. Since the cases have been selected to include most of the problem areas in the management of sport and physical activity education, the third “selection” of Part 1 offers summary “knowledge statements” defining the main areas. They are offered as “currently useful generalizations” that are generally recognized as being valid at present. (This chapter of “knowledge statements is also included in the more orthodox 2010 text written by the author as mentioned above.) In Part 2 the actual cases for discussion are offered. There are 30 of them of varying length and complexity. Each case is listed under a “management problem heading”. It is important to note, however, that a case is often more than what it may appear to be on the surface. In Part 3, after first including a discussion of use of the case method of analysis when the addition of an ethical dimension to the problem appears to be present, a number of short cases divided into three categories of problems areas is included : environmental, personal, and professional cases that have an ethical orientation. Students who go on to become managers will face all three types of such problems in their lives. In Part 4, the final section, the author “wraps it all up” with a brief, but fairly detailed analysis of the essence of what the case method approach has offered in this text. The goal, or primary objective, of the text was to provide information and experiences that would help the user become a successful manager. Give it a “good try”! You won’t regret it… Earle F. Zeigler