An assessment of quality management practices in high performance sport at two selected South African universities

Abstract

This study is motivated by the growing need for South African sport competitions (such as the Olympic Games and various other sport-specific world championships) to be transformed into quality and profitable events, noting that they need to be managed professionally, with well organised and sophisticated athlete preparation with excellent management systems. New pressures have emerged from within South Africa from key stakeholders that require sport organisations to become more performance orientated, and to build their capacity in order to improve or better manage their organisational performance. The primary focus of the research, therefore, is on quality management practices in high performance sport at a programme management level while the research also reviews substantial literature concerning the study in order to explain the dynamics surrounding the high performance management practices of Swimming Centres of Excellence at the two selected universities in South Africa. The study is qualitative and unpacks two theoretical frameworks namely, Total Quality Management practices and a conceptual framework of high performance management structures and processes. The overarching findings and recommendations are that the implementation of the Quality Management Practices (QMPs) require that the principles and philosophy of excellence are shared and understood by all stakeholders. To implement QMPs successfully, there is a need to radically transform conventional practices to achieve radical and pervasive change. The research shows evidence that QMPs involve the redesign of organisational structures, the re-design of work and the re-definition of management style. The swimming high performance environment must be willing to take this into consideration for successful implementation of QMPs at the Centres of Excellence to ensure its future performance