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What international competencies do sport managers need?

This is an excerpt from International Sport Management-3rd Edition by Eric W. MacIntosh,Gonzalo A. Bravo,Carrie W. LeCrom.

By Eric W. MacIntosh, Gonzalo A. Bravo, Carrie W. LeCrom

Development of International Competencies for Sport Man­ag­ers

The modern sports world requires sport man­ag­ers to be knowledgeable and aware of the importance of their own and other’s cultural preferences. Sport man­ag­ers must be competent in several skill sets if they wish to work within the modern sporting landscape. Emerging sport man­ag­ers ­will learn as much from ­these experiences as they would from studying theoretical skill sets. The skill sets include personal reflexivity, sensitivity to cultural differences, and flexible expertise.

Personal Reflexivity

First, sport man­ag­ers need to be reflexive about themselves, their actions, and their worldviews. Reflexivity describes the state of being self-­critical or analytical. It encompasses personal reflection on attitudes or actions to understand why they came about and what outcomes they produced. Why should a person examine the self when the goal is to understand ­others? Primarily, a person needs to be able to gauge where they stand on issues and what knowledge is known versus inferred. As social beings, ­humans are a balance of self and other, (co)constructing life each day. In other words, we are individuals within communities of other individuals who interact and share ideas to create understandings of the world around us. As George Mead (1934), the ­father of modern sociology, noted,

No individual has a mind which operates simply in itself, in isolation from the social life ­process in which it has arisen or out of which it has emerged and in which the pattern of ­organized social be­hav­ior has consequently been basically impressed upon it. (p. 222)

Further, nothing in this world is absolute, isolated, or permanent ­because we are all linked together in some way, especially with our natu­ral environment (Pfahl, 2002; Plamintr, 1994).

When we take the time to learn more about ourselves, we can learn about our relations to and with ­others and even about other ­people in deep and meaningful ways. In terms of sport, you might be a person who cheers for the underdog at a sporting event and considers such an action a part of who you are or something you value. But this be­hav­ior is associated with cultural values from the community in which you ­were raised. Learning this lesson about yourself helps you gather information from ­others (e.g., dialogue, observation) and begin to understand how they view the world or, in this case, a sport league, team, or event. Of course, new experiences and lessons mean that changes can occur in existing beliefs or value structures, but this change is only natu­ral (and prob­ably useful for sport man­ag­ers working within international sports). The self is social and socially constructed, yet each person takes their own journey, one-­on-­one with the environment. Understanding yourself then teaches you how to understand ­others. Strategies for improving your personal reflexivity might include the following:

• ­Journaling ­every day with prompts that allow you to self-­assess and improve self-­awareness
• ­Asking for feedback from peers or ­family members
• ­Conducting some type of ethnography or unpacking of your cultural values and ways in which you ­were raised to better understand why you believe what you believe
• ­Volunteering in an environment dif­fer­ent from your own, then reflecting on what might have been challenging for you during that time

Sensitivity to Cultural Differences

Second, sport man­ag­ers need to be receptive and sensitive to cultural differences (Harris & Moran, 1991). Most ­people are aware of the legislation against discriminatory hiring or promotion practices as well as the more severe laws against racially or ethnically motivated hate crimes. Sport man­ag­ers face a more subtle challenge in relation to cultural sensitivity, one that usually places one set of cultural values at odds with another. For example, an NBA team’s use of the Spanish language on jerseys can be seen as a sincere outreach gesture to an excited but underserved fan community. But the action might be insulting to ­others who view it as appropriating Hispanic culture just to sell tickets.

Another example comes from the 2010 World Cup and the infamous vuvuzela horn. The vuvuzela is a descendant of a traditional cultural musical instrument found across Africa. Many observers in the media and football fans called for the horns to be banned, mostly ­because of the high levels of noise they produce, which could endanger a person’s hearing with prolonged exposure and interfere with broadcast commentary. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter squashed all notions of banning the instrument, saying the following:

I have always said that Africa has a dif­fer­ent rhythm, a dif­fer­ent sound. . . . ​I ­don’t see banning the ­music traditions of fans in their own country. Would you want to see a ban on the fan traditions in your country? (Baxter, 2010, p. 2)

Blatter’s decision lay at the intersection of cultural traditions in one community and standards of be­hav­ior in another (most negative complaints and comments came from Western or Caucasian corners). If Blatter banned the horns, he risked having the move viewed as racially motivated or, at the very least, culturally insensitive, especially ­because the event was the first World Cup held in Africa (and one that he championed). Yet his comments, however positive, can be interpreted in another way ­because he praises the differences of Africa, a continent with numerous cultures. This account illustrates the complexity of culture in international sport.

Another example emerged out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar in the ­Middle East. The Muslim country host is extremely conservative and tightly regulates alcohol consumption. Leading up to the World Cup, allowing alcohol at matches was a much-­discussed issue, and a determination was made that alcohol would be sold at matches to ticketed fans. However, two days before the World Cup kicked off, FIFA announced that no alcohol would be sold in the stadiums themselves but would be available at fan zones outside the stadiums (Mngqosini & Eldergill, 2022). This last-­minute change had numerous trickle-­down impacts. Many fans ­were outraged, especially ­those coming from ­Europe and other Western countries who consider alcohol consumption a part of the sporting experience. Sponsors, namely Budweiser, who had paid around $75 million for its sponsorship with FIFA, ­were caught off guard and worried about their drop in sales in stadiums. However, FIFA stood by the decision as the right one related to re­spect for the local culture. The aftereffects of this are still being felt as ­future host countries consider local customs and regulations and the impact they may or may not have on the experiences of fans coming in from across the world.

Culture, broadly discussed in this chapter, might mean the traditional conceptualizations of cultures (e.g., nations, regions), might be used to explain what it is like to work within an ­organization (i.e., ­organizational culture), or might mean cultures within cultures (e.g., surf culture). In any case, sport man­ag­ers must balance the notions of difference and similarity; homogeneity and heterogeneity; and local, regional, national, and international aspects. Sport man­ag­ers need to appreciate that culture strongly influences how a person perceives the world and acts and reacts when dealing with ­others. Strategies for improving one’s sensitivity to cultural differences might include

• ­consuming media from sources outside your home country to better understand what is relevant and impor­tant in other places in the world,
• ­examining the methods that sporting events and teams around the world use to engage fans and to market themselves within dif­fer­ent cultures, or
• ­having a meal with someone who grew up in a dif­fer­ent culture than you, inquiring about it, and similarly sharing your own experiences.

Flexible Expertise

Third, a sport man­ag­er requires flexible expertise. Understanding oneself and ­others and then communicating with them involves a fundamental worldview that values flexibility and adaptation. Opening oneself up to other cultures, influences, and knowledge requires a person to challenge personal (and perhaps deeply held) beliefs or practices, find information that runs ­counter to belief systems, or learn something not previously known. Sport man­ag­ers who maintain flexible and adaptable be­hav­iors and practices ­will be better placed to seize opportunities, create them where they have yet to be capitalized on, and manage challenges to operations.

Sport man­ag­ers, then, must develop operational expertise, communication expertise, and systems and critical analy­sis expertise that is grounded in technical, ­human relations, and conceptual skills and the princi­ples of learning ­organizations (Katz & Kahn, 1978; Senge, 1994), although they differ slightly in size and scope. Operational expertise involves knowledge of marketing, sales, finance, accounting, economics, and personnel management—­the foundations of business practices. Combining ­these foundations with integrated strategic thinking (i.e., systems and critical analy­sis expertise) is the ultimate expression of operational expertise. Remember, however, that ­these skills are gained through both education and experience. Effective sport man­ag­ers must possess communication expertise to be able to disseminate thoughts, ideas, and concepts from around the world or from their own backyard. Fi­nally, international sport man­ag­ers need well-­developed systems and critical analy­sis expertise to discern the interrelationships among vari­ous ­organizational and market variables as well as the ability to balance macro and micro perspectives within a given issue.

The first component of flexible expertise is operational expertise. To some extent in a market system, operational expertise is understandable and translatable across cultures. But some nuances must be addressed. Examples include accounting and financial regulations that differ across countries or regions (e.g., the EU), approaches to sales and marketing that vary along a continuum of relationships, and perhaps most difficult, the challenges of working for or managing ­people from other countries or cultures where dif­fer­ent regulations or laws govern work.

A second form of expertise concerns communication. Expert communication involves the knowledge of oneself and how to communicate vari­ous messages ­because the world is (co)constructed between individuals within communities (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996). Communication expertise can be thought of as communication competence, or the ability to “effectively exchange meaning through a common system of symbols, signs, or be­hav­iors” (Bourhis et al., 2004, p. 28). Communication competence is difficult to achieve ­because ­others have dif­fer­ent perspectives, sensemaking pro­cesses, and goals. Understanding and developing strong communication skills allow sport man­ag­ers to interact with ­others to make sense of the world and communicate with ­others in their ­organization to achieve goals and effect change. Cultural and international differences such as distance, language differences, and cultural practices (e.g., silence, relationship development) create noise, which affects the ability to communicate with ­others. A sport man­ag­er can develop communication skills to deal with ­these issues by using a systems approach—­one that si­mul­ta­neously tries to understand the person, their culture, and the ­organizational context. For example, the NFL has several international websites (Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and NFLLatino​.­com). To overcome distance issues (and time, too, ­because NFL games are shown in the ­middle of the night or early in the morning in some of ­these countries), each site is complete with videos, broadcast schedules, local news and information, and community content (e.g., user-­generated content) to keep the game alive within each community. The Chinese and ­Japanese websites are created using a template that accounts for the stylistic needs of the characters in each language. Creating websites in this manner shows that the personnel in the NFL understand the importance of integrating cultural practices into their marketing and information efforts while attempting to build an international business. Although they cannot overcome all barriers, cultural and other­wise (e.g., time), this example demonstrates the importance of cultural sensitivity in sport business practices.

Strategies for improving one’s flexible expertise might include the following:

• Assess the areas addressed in this section that you think you need to work on (operations, communications, ­etc.) and find some resources that could help you with your education (LinkedIn Learning, books, professors).
• Put yourself in new situations in which you can better understand the ­things you are already good at and ­those that you need to improve.
• Practice your flexibility in low-­risk settings (in the classroom, with friends, ­etc.). Assess your skills.

In conclusion, developing all three areas of expertise is a never-­ending ­process. The journey is the key to the development of a sport man­ag­er. Throughout this journey, sport man­ag­ers have numerous opportunities to use such expertise in relation to the issues explored in this chapter and throughout the book.

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