Youth Sports/Athletic Programs--Local or National Control?

The author (1) explains a system analysis approach developed by the Sports Institute for Research through Change Agent Research (SIR/CAR) for working with government, business, and service organizations in sport-related areas; (2) examines the distinction between professional athletics and amateur sport; (3) discusses conflict resolution by authority from above (in professional athletics) and below (in amateur/school sports); and (4) illustrates the use of SIR/CAR in two case studies. The institutional goals and programs of the SIR are discussed and the emphasis on Change Agent Research as a bridge between pure research and practice is described. The approaches of professional and amateur sports to organizational/administrative growth and development and conflict management are analyzed. Identification, delineation, evaluation, and action for controlling conflict and change (especially in voluntary organizations are examined in a framework based upon a contrasting of traditional, monocratic-bureaucratic concepts (developed by Max Weber) and emerging pluralistic-collegial concepts. Effectiveness of the two approaches under various circumstances are contrasted, and theories of conflict management and change strategies are recommended for the professional and amateur athletic sectors. Applications of SIR/CAR to Little League Baseball and to Ontario Province/Canadian government programs to reorganize secondary school interscholastic sports are described. (MJB)