Nomination Committees and National Sport Organizations: Designing the Way to Democracy?

Abstract

The director selection processes of nonprofit national sport organizations underpin board composition and hence board and organizational performance. In the New Zealand context, this study verifies the emergence of nomination committees (NCs) and critically examines, from a democratic theory perspective, the extent to which democratic legitimacy is promoted within the NC structures of national sport organizations’ director selection processes. An analysis of national sport organization (NSO) constitutions affirms the NC emergence as a governance phenomenon and results in the development of an NC (constitutional powers-based) classification system. This NC classification contributes to a largely unexamined area of nonprofit sport governance by providing a foundational description of NC structural design features then used to reflect on the extent to which the identified design features may serve to protect member voice (community logic) in the face of increasing pressures on NSOs to adopt professionalized governance structures (corporate logic). A holistic system objectives approach to democratic theory is used to better understand how NC structural design may support such member voice. In this way, the article offers both scholars and practitioners an insight into a range of NC strategic design choices and potential implications for democratic legitimacy.

Keywords:

• Governance
• national sport organizations
• director selection
• nomination committees
• board appointment committees

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest has to be reported.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tracy Molloy

Tracy Molloy (LLB, University of Auckland), Senior Lecturer, Sport Leadership and Management Department, School of Sport and Recreation, Auckland University of Technology (AUT). Her research interests include the ethical leadership and governance of nonprofit sport organizations.

Lesley Ferkins

Lesley Ferkins (Ph.D., Deakin University), Professor, Sport Leadership and Management Department, School of Sport and Recreation, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Director, AUT Sport Performance Research Institute of New Zealand. Her research interests include the use of action research interventions to develop the leadership and governance of sport organizations.

Geoff Dickson

Geoff Dickson (Ph.D., Griffith University), Associate Professor, La Trobe University, La Trobe Business School, Department of Management, Sport and Tourism. His research interests include sport management, sport marketing and sport governance.