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An introduction to articles published within the issue is presented, including one on the environmental characteristics of shared leadership in a sport-for-development (SFD) organization, another on the influence of servant leadership on work-related needs of followers within a SFD and peace setting, and one on leadership development in professional sport organizations.

This paper presents the outcomes of an 18-month developmental action research study to enhance the governance capability of a national sport organization. Bowls Australia, the national governing body for lawn bowls in Australia, includes nine independent state and territory member-associations. An intervention was designed and implemented with the Bowls Australia Board. The purpose of the intervention was to enact collaborative governance to overcome a perceived cultural malaise in the governance of the sport. This study is one of the first to examine collaborative governance in a federal sport structure. Results demonstrate the utility of collaborative governance to overcome adversarial national, member-state relations for the purpose of establishing a common and unifying vision for bowls, while also enhancing governance capability. This study identified the importance of collective board leadership in governance decision-making throughout the sport. It also highlights future research directions in relation to collective board leadership in federal governance structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is positioned within the nonprofit sport context and builds on an emerging body of work in sport governance to investigate how nonprofit sport organizations can develop their governing capability. A rich data set derived from a 2-year action research study in an Australian state sport organization revealed a lack of stakeholder engagement underpinned by confusion about stakeholder-governing responsibility as the central issues in developing governance capability. The lessons drawn from the Squash Vic experience integrated with sport governance literature and stakeholder theory show the need to embed the notion of stakeholder salience or primacy to explain and clarify the dilemma of multiple stakeholders and the lack of stakeholder engagement in the governing process. We introduce Fassin's (2012) notion of "stakeowner" and associated ideas of reciprocity and responsibility as a helpful characterization of the legal members in the stakeholder governance relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To learn more about the governance of sport organizations, this study explored what meaning board members of national sport organizations (NSOs) attach to the concept of "strategic capability". In so doing, the inquiry also identified factors considered to constrain or enable board strategic function. This paper draws on a body of knowledge developed over 38 years on board strategic function, primarily from the commercial setting but also from the emerging body of work in the nonprofit and sport governance setting. Located within the interpretive research paradigm this study engaged a range of different qualitative methods including cognitive mapping and visual imagery. Working across two NSOs in New Zealand, four elements were generated that served as reference points in mapping out the meaning of a strategically able board. These were categorized as the need to have capable people, a frame of reference, facilitative board processes, and facilitative regional relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how boards of national sport organizations might enhance their strategic capability. Utilizing an action research method and focusing on the case of New Zealand Football (soccer), findings established that greater board involvement in strategy advanced the board's ability to perform its strategic function. Further findings determined the importance of shared leadership between the board and the CEO, the complex interplay in balancing this relationship and the need to integrate strategy into board processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is to share thinking about networks in action research (AR) and to consider their role, purpose, and how networks’ outcomes and impacts might be evaluated. Networks are often a by-product of AR projects, yet research focused on the network itself as part of a project is rare. The paper is one of several associated with the Evaluative Study of Action Research (ESAR) in which we wish to understand how projected outcomes and impacts are realised and why certain approaches are chosen and seen to be effective. Description is provided of the development and function of networks and their connection to, and within, AR. We then explore the first of a series of networks in the ESAR, the core team network, and undertake a formative evaluation of the functioning of this network. The paper concludes with a look ahead to the evaluation of each of the various levels of networks anticipated within the ESAR. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this study is to explore leadership within nonprofit sport governance. As an outcome, the authors present a preliminary working model of leadership in nonprofit sport governance based on existing literature and our new empirical evidence. Leadership in nonprofit sport governance has received limited attention to date in scholarly discourse. The authors adopt a case study approach involving three organizations and 16 participant interviews from board members and Chief Executive Officers within the golf network in Australia to uncover key leadership issues in this domain. Interviews were analyzed using an interpretive process, and a thematic structure relating to leadership in the nonprofit sport governance context was developed. Leadership ambiguity, distribution of leadership, leadership skills and development, and leadership and volunteerism emerged as the key themes in the research. These themes, combined with existing literature, are integrated into a preliminary working model of leadership in nonprofit sport governance that helps to shape the issues and challenges embedded within this emerging area of inquiry. The authors offer a number of suggestions for future research to refine, test, critique, and elaborate on our proposed working model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health professionals require support and recognition to help manage the well-known impact of critical or sentinel events relating to patient care. The potential distress can be magnified or mitigated by the response of the organization and colleagues. However, strategies that are accessible, relevant, and effective in the aftermath of a poor outcome are not well established. Using an action research methodology, a support tool was collaboratively designed, developed, and evaluated in a maternity service of one organization and adapted to the mental health and addiction service in another. Four principles that are intrinsic to the establishment of support tools became apparent across the two settings. Through applying these criteria to the customization of the support tool, it became relevant within the new service setting, and an implementation guide for other organizations was created. Although undertaken pre-pandemic, insights derived from this study may benefit post-pandemic situations where the need for health professional support is even greater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hibbert et al.'s relationally reflexive practice framework guided the authors to develop a new sport leadership generative partnership model emphasizing privileging practice and the sport sector as it relates to researching, teaching, and practicing sport leadership. The 2019 North American Society for Sport Management symposium on sport leadership, titled "The Changing Face of Leadership Within Sport: What Does the Future Hold?" acted as a springboard for deep, reflexive conversations among the authors. Through the development of our model, we purposely highlight the process of a relationally reflexive journey making sense of our lived experiences, engaging with learnings from the symposium, and arguing that sport leadership and followership research and teaching ultimately should be about improving the sport sector within specific cultural contexts. We offer critically conscious considerations for privileging and embedding practice as part of sport management teaching, research, and service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses a gap in board director research by investigating how individual personal values influence board strategic engagement. The nature of board directors' strategic engagement was examined qualitatively, using 65 in-depth interviews, content analysis, board meeting observations and board workshops. Using an interpretative lens, four differing individual personal characteristics were identified and labeled: 'mission-driven', 'commanding', 'shape-shifting', and 'community-minded'. These concepts coincided with theory of personal value theory, used in previous studies linking managers (but not board directors) to behaviors. Practical implications provide insights into attracting, retaining and developing an appropriate mix of directors to enhance nonprofit board strategic engagement, boosting performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is to share thinking about meta-level evaluation of action research (AR), and to introduce indicator domains for assessing and measuring inputs, outputs and outcomes. Meta-level and multi-site evaluation has been rare in AR beyond project implementation and participant satisfaction. The paper is the first of several associated with the Evaluative Study of Action Research (ESAR) in which we wish to establish the ways that espoused intents articulated in projects are realized and why certain approaches are adopted and seen to be effective. We seek to increase understanding of outcomes and impact of AR. Description is provided of multiple issues of complexity associated with establishing evaluative criteria and indicators categorized according to inputs, process, outputs, outcomes and impact. We explore theory associated with definition and practice of evaluation prior to presentation of the indicators. We think the time is ripe for deeper examination of AR practice and welcome the associated conversation and critique of our proposed indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Conventional approaches to leadership in sport management regard leadership as a leader-centric phenomenon. Recent advances in the generic leadership literature have highlighted the way that people construct their own understanding of leadership and shown that these influence their assessment and responses to people they regard as leaders. This observer-centric perspective is collectively known as the social construction of leadership. In this conceptual paper, we demonstrate how this emerging theoretical approach can reframe and invigorate our understanding of leadership in sport management.We explore the research implications of this new approach, reflect on what this might mean for teaching and discuss the practical ramifications for leadership in sport management that might flow from the adoption of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a three-sector, national research project that investigated the integration aspect of work-integrated learning (WIL). The context for this study is three sectors of New Zealand higher education: business and management, sport, and science and engineering, and a cohort of higher educational institutions that offer WIL/cooperative education in variety of ways. The aims of this study were to investigate the pedagogical approaches in WIL programs that are currently used by WIL practitioners in terms of learning, and the integration of academic-workplace learning. The research constituted a series of collective case studies, and there were two main data sources -- interviews with three stakeholder groups (namely employers, students, and co-op practitioners), and analyses of relevant documentation (e.g., course/paper outlines, assignments on reflective practice, portfolio of learning, etc.). The research findings suggest that there is no consistent mechanism by which placement coordinators, off-campus supervisors, or mentors seek to employ or develop pedagogies to foster learning and the integration of knowledge. Learning, it seems, occurs by means of legitimate peripheral participation with off-campus learning occurring as a result of students working alongside professionals in their area via an apprenticeship model of learning. There is no evidence of explicit attempts to integrate on- and off-campus learning, although all parties felt this would and should occur. However, integration is implicitly or indirectly fostered by a variety of means such as the use of reflective journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]