Introduction – 500 words 4
1.0 Position female sport managers 4
2.0 Barriers for women 5
3.0 Characteristics to develop 6
250-300 Chapter 2.0 – conclusions 7
Abstract – 250
The purpose of this study is to focus on the women currently working in the industry and explore their experiences in the work place. A literature research is conducted to see the …
Introduction – 500 words
Compared to a couple of decades ago, women have made a huge rise to the top of management positions. Nowadays, women are not only more educated but they are also breaking into a man working field: the sport industry. However, in the world of Sport management there is still not equity. There are less female managers than male managers. There are various reasons for this difference, some of them are linked to stereotypes, segregation based on job type and the network built up among men, according to previous research (Simmons, 2011). The world of sport management is seen as all the existing sport organizations. A sport manager is someone who manages or is in charge of a sport organization. The managers can control departments or guide people, they often make decisions. BRON
The past years, our society has changed dramatically. A huge amount of women take part in sports. This is visible du e to the fact that the amount between male and female students getting smaller. Also when we look at the Olympics in Rio, 45% of the participants are female. However, looking to the boards of the International Olympic Committee, women are underrepresented, only 22% is female. The amount of females in the IOC has risen from 10 to 22 percent over the past eleven years but women are still under-represented. The under-representation is nowadays a common researched topic. As a sport organization we see any unstructured social entity operating in the sport and physical activity industry (Sartore & Cunningham, G. B., 2007).
To increase the amount of women in the world of sport management, women have to develop themselves. The main question which this paper will answer is: how can the characteristics be described which female have to develop to compete against man in the world of sport management. Before answering this question, the difference in position between male and female sport managers will be described and the main barriers female have to face with while working in the sport industry. Those three questions are researched through literature research. However, it is important to note that the data and situations do not apply for every part of the world. Social conditions and cultural norms can be quite different throughout the world, this can lead to different results in other contexts with different cultural norms or corporations of another size and scale.
1.0 Position female sport managers
The sport industry is often seen as the man working field. In this chapter we will look at the position of female in the sport industry. It is often assumed in sport organizations that women are less likely for top management roles and well-matched for lower level management roles. The discussed question is about the difference in position between male and female in the world of sport management.
Administrative leaders within sport organizations play a huge role in deciding how a sport is structured and who gets to participate. This is an important role in a sport organization with a lot of power. The representors of this role influence and shape the meaning of organized sport. Despite the higher amount of women who participate in sport, women are still underrepresented in high-ranking decision making positions compared to their male counterparts. Men hold 81% of the athletic director positions nationwide and in lower level administrative positions are three times more men working than women (Lovelin, M. & Hanold, M., 2014). When we look further into management in general, we see that nowadays 26% of the managers consist of female. Also here, women are underrepresented BRON. However, the difference between men and women is hereby less significant than it is in the world of sports.
The underrepresentation of women takes place in all facets of leadership at all levels of sports. Two important examples are the professional sports league in the U.S.A. and the amount of females in the International Olympic Committee. In the U.S.A. women hold fewer than 25% of senior leadership positions. Only in the Women’s National Basketball Association, 33% of the general leaders consist of women. The IOC reached their self-imposed threshold for the first time in 2012. At least 20% of their board composed of women members. From all governing bodies at the Olympics, 85,3% of the country’s had a full male leadership team. There was one country with a team which has an all-female leadership team (Senne, 2016).
Based on those data the organizational demography of leaders in the world of sports is highly dominated by man. This underrepresentation exists in all managers function but in the world of sport it is clearly visible.
2.0 Barriers for women
The sport market is an expanding industry and abound with opportunities for administrative and leadership positions. Despite all those opportunities and the fact that women are getting more management functions, they are still underrepresented in leadership positions within sport organizations. This chapter will answer the question: what are barriers for women to work in the sport management working field?
The first barrier for women is the lack of strategic network opportunities. Man have a lot of benefits from their well-established social network, which is lacking by women. A second barrier that prevent women from establishing in the top is the stereotype about women that still exists. In a recent study from Burton whereby the hypothetical vignettes (a method in which research participant respond revealing their perceptions values, social norms and impressions of events) had been used. The study showed that participant predicted the male candidate to be selected as the new director of athletics. Although whether the choice between a male or female candidate was not relevant. For other positions whereby you need less power or which are viewed as being more likely for female such as life style coordinator, participants find women more likely than male. This research showed that sex role perceptions have a lot to do with choosing male or female for higher-ranking leadership positions instead of skills and competencies (Lovelin, M. & Hanold, M., 2014). Glass ceiling is a similar phenomenon which happens mostly within large companies, when women want a management function. This is a transparent barrier which prevent women from top functions, at a certain point they cannot move up on the corporate ladder. The moment this happens varies a lot, it has to do with gender bias that occur frequently in the world of sport management (Oakley, 2000).
If we look at the big picture, there are two categories which causes the lack of women in senior management positions. The first one is the hardest one to change, this has to do with the explained cultural and behavioural causes. There is a stereotype picture about women arisen. The second category is easier to change and has to do with gender imbalance. Recruitment, retention and promotion often tend to favour males over females, especially in the world of Sports (Oakley, 2000).
There still exists a view that women are less capable of dealing with management functions. Women are nog aggressive, they are good at organizing but they are not big picture thinkers. Women are also seen as domestically oriented instead of career minded. Compared with men, women are not assertive enough and not psychologically suited for leadership positions. Due to this view a lot of people assume that women lack of skills that are necessary to compete with men in the positions of leadership in the world of Sports (Shaw & Frisby, W. , 2006).
The fact that women are underrepresented in the world of sport management is a result of different reasons. Some of the barriers for women are hard to change but they can certainly learn something in the field of management. When women develop some of their management skills it could be easier to compete with men in the top of the management functions.
3.0 Characteristics to develop
Female as sport managers is still not as common as male sport managers. This difference in equity can be explained by a lack of some combination of skills, relationships and experiences. Female have to develop themselves if they want to compete with their male counter-part. The last main question is about the characteristics of women. The question is: How can the characteristics be described that female have to develop to compete with the position of men in the sport management working field?
First of all, women need to assert themselves. Women need to contribute and make sense if they want to compete against men (Ackerman, 2016). Female are described as too uncertain, not analytical enough and emotionally unstable. This are some characteristics which women can develop so they can better compete with their male counterpart. Learn to be more self-confident, improve analytical skills, learn how to be emotionally strong and be more consistent (Simmons, 2011).
Another important characteristic for a manager is the way of communication. The less aggressive and assertive forms of communication from women is not acceptable in most corporations. Women can develop their style of communication to improve themselves as managers.
and the less aggressive and assertive forms of communication associated with females may be particularly unacceptable ways to communicate in the upper echelons of most corporations
4.0 Conclusion
The purpose of this research was to research which skills women have to develop as a manager to make the gap between the amount of male sport managers and female sport managers smaller. First we have divined the position of females in the men sports working field. We can conclude that women are underrepresented in the sport working field. In all facets of sports the amount of female managers is much smaller than the amount of male managers. In recent years, the gap has narrowed but is still clearly visible. There are different barriers women face when working as a manager in the sport industry. The barriers have to do with the still existing image that male are better managers than female but there are also some characteristics that women have to develop in general to compete with men in the management functions.
First of all women have to be more confident if they want to work as a manager. Some other characteristics they have to develop is that they have to develop their