Examining the impact of organizational and management variables on sport service delivery in Ethiopia

Abstract

There is an observed general low performance of Ethiopian Sport Governing Bodies (SGBs) in service delivery. Evidence shows that the trend can be corrected with proper understanding and insight into the process of organizational and management factors of these SGBs. This study aimed to investigate the contribution of organizational and management factors as determinants in effective service delivery in SGBs. For this study, a cross-sectional research design was employed. Purposive sampling was used to choose 350 samples from 154 internal and 196 external stakeholders. The instruments used for the study were the key informant interview and the questionnaire. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and multiple regression were used to analyze the data at the 0.05 significant level while qualitative data were content analyzed. The findings confirmed that organizational and management factor variables had a significant positive relationship with sport service delivery (organizational structure (r=0.515), organizational capabilities (r=0.701), communication (r=0.549), management practice (r=0.571), materials & resources (r=0.527) and stakeholders satisfaction (r=0.742). Management factors jointly predicted effective sport service delivery (F (3, 329)= 165.868, R2= 0.612); organizational factors had a joint significant contribution to effective sport service delivery (F(3, 329) = 148.743, R2= 0.576). Further, organizational and management factor variables had a joint relative significant influence on effective sport service delivery in Ethiopian SGBs (F (6, 326) =130.81, R2= 0.707). Interviews revealed that there are weak relations with stakeholders, an unaligned structure of regional sport bodies with federal bodies, and managers with improper experience and knowledge in sport which influences effective sport service delivery in Ethiopian SGBs. Therefore, working together with stakeholders, structural advancement, designing rules and regulations that can serve a longer time, taking correction based on feedback from stakeholders, networked structures and collaborations with local sports organizations as means of improving service delivery employing shared burden and coordinated effort are recommended. Keywords: Management, Organization, Service delivery, Sport governing bodies