week 3-blake lawrie

This week we looked at the organizational structures employed by sporting organisations.  We looked at the 4 types of models that are used, simple structure model that is very basic and obviously has low departmentalization and formalization. This model is used in smaller, non-profit sporting bodies. I am on the board at my local cricket club and we are closest to this structure, we have a president that we all answer too and we each have our own individual roles to carry out.  A more department orientated structure is the bureaucratic structure model which is used by Australian sport commission. Will come back to this. Third model is the matrix organizational structure which groups individuals into departments according to functions and products. This model uses specialist working together in one team and reporting to a higher figure. This structure means there can be multiple boss’s which can be disconcerting at times.  Lastly, the team structure model which is fairly new. This model decentralizes decision making and involved group of teams formed to perform a variety of tasks.  Which structural model an organisation uses depends largely on 4 factors; size, strategy, technology and environmental uncertainty. Back to the Australian sports commission (ASC). They deploy a bureaucratic model which isn’t surprising as they are run under the control of the national government.  The ASC is headed by CEO Simon Hollingsworth with a governing board containing former athletes, business people and journalists; each with extensive, first-hand knowledge of Australia’s sporting landscape. In 2011/2012 the ASC was re-structured into 3 divisions which are then structured into their own bureaucratic structure. The AIS primary responsibility is leading the strategic direction of high performance sport in Australia. The Sports Development is focused on planning, funding, supporting and servicing relationships with national sporting organisations to assist in the implementation of whole-of-sport plans and to develop the sports’ capability and capacity. The role of the Corporate Operations is to provide business capability and services to support all divisions of the ASC to enable it to deliver on its strategic plan.

REFERENCES

Australian sports commission, viewed 27/11/2012, http://www.ausport.gov.au/about/structure