Agency in institutionalized sport organizations: examining how institutions suppress agency

ABSTRACT

Research question

This study was designed to better understand how institutionalized work practices in sport organizations influence employee agency. We fill a gap in the literature by reaffirming the roles of institutional structures and the agents themselves when examining how institutions suppress agency and resist change from within.

Research methods

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 full-time sport employees working in the U.S. collegiate sport industry, which is a highly institutionalized sport environment. Thematic analysis was employed to gain insight into agency experiences in institutionalized sport organizations.

Results and findings

Two themes were identified that detailed how institutionalized sport organizations impacted agency. Influential workplace prioritization norms and a bureaucracy effected participants’ agency to enact change. Participants enabled these conditions as they preserved their standing within the institution despite its constraining effect on their agency.

Implications

From a theoretical standpoint, the results offer a nuanced understanding of embedded agency in sport by demonstrating how sport institutional maintenance work occurs through the ‘silent work’ of institutionalized routines and practices. Further, this study relied on agents’ perspectives of institutional constraints, which aids the understanding of micro perspectives of embedded agency in sport. From a practical perspective, the results indicate that the status quo of institutionalized sport organizations may not be sustainable and could be difficult to modify and improve. This calls into question the viability of current work arrangements in sport.

KEYWORDS:

• Embedded agency
• sport employees
• institutional theory
• bureaucracy
• work arrangements

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).