Skating to Legitimacy: Institutional Work Practices within Collegiate Club Hockey

ABSTRACT

This study explores how serious leisure pursuits, in the form of sport clubs within the American collegiate setting, can realise sustainability through maintaining their legitimacy in a setting that includes a multitude of opportunities to experience leisure. Collegiate sport clubs often compete with similar programmes that have superior resources and infrastructure for participants and other stakeholders, threatening clubs’ organisational viability. The study used a case study methodology to explore how stakeholders perceive the institutional processes of a collegiate club hockey programme within a serious leisure framework. Stakeholders from a collegiate club hockey programme were asked about their perceptions of the collegiate club hockey programme in relation to the programme’s activities to remain relevant among more well-funded hockey programmes. Based on the findings, partnering with the community and the professionalism of the programme helped the collegiate club hockey programme maintain their legitimacy as a serious leisure option. The programme gained a sense of trust within the community through mutual exchanges between the club and their fans. Additionally, the programme’s game-day procedures and organisational success contributed to the community’s perceived professionalism of the club. The study identifies legitimisation tactics that sport club organisations can use to demonstrate a commitment to serious leisure.

KEYWORDS:

• serious leisure
• amateur sport
• sport clubs
• case study
• institutional theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

No internal or external funding is associated with this research

Notes on contributors

Alicia B. Romano

Alicia B. Romano (Ph.D.), Assistant Professor, Sport Management, Human Performance and Sport Studies, Idaho State University. Dr. Romano’s research interests include institutional processes, consumer behavior, and revenue generation among sport organizations.

Logan Schuetz

Logan Schuetz (Ph.D.), Assistant Professor, International Sport Management, Department of Health & Human Performance, Texas A&M University-Commerce. Dr. Schuetz’s research centers on employee growth, organizational performance, and employer-employee relations in the sport industry.

Brent D. Oja

Brent D. Oja (Ph.D.), Assistant Professor, Sport Management, School of Sport Sciences, West Virginia University. Dr. Oja’s research is intended to develop innovative management resources and strategies that are designed to stimulate professional growth among employees to improve organizations’ performance thereby enabling enhanced experiences of stakeholders.

Leeann M. Lower-Hoppe

Leeann Lower-Hoppe (Ph.D.), Assistant Professor, Kinesiology - Sport Management, Department of Human Sciences, The Ohio State University. Dr. Lower-Hoppe’s systematic line of research focuses on effectively designing and delivering evidence-based sport programs to promote health and human development through sport, especially for those from vulnerable populations.