Journal article
With Crisis Comes Opportunity: Redesigning Performance Departments of Elite Sports Clubs for Life After a Global Pandemic
Frontiers in Psychology, Vol.11, pp.1-16
2021
PMCID: PMC7855175
PMID: 33551908
Appears in COVID-19 Research
Abstract
The suspension of major sporting competitions due to the global COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial negative impact on the sporting industry. As such, a successful and sustainable return to sport will require extensive modifications to the current operations of sporting organizations. In this article we argue that methods from the realm of sociotechnical systems (STS) theory are highly suited for this purpose. The aim of the study was to use such methods to develop a model of an Australian Football League (AFL) club’s football department. The intention was to identify potential modifications to the club’s operations to support a return to competition following the COVID-19 crisis. Subject Matter Experts from an AFL club participated in three online workshops to develop Work Domain Analysis and Social Organization and Cooperation Analysis models. The results demonstrated the inherent complexity of an AFL football department via numerous interacting values, functions and processes influencing the goals of the system. Conflicts within the system were captured via the modeling and included pursing goals that may not fully reflect the state of the system, a lack of formal assessment of core values, overlapping functions and objects, and an overemphasis on specialized roles. The current analysis has highlighted potential areas for modification in the football department, and sports performance departments in general.
Details
- Title
- With Crisis Comes Opportunity: Redesigning Performance Departments of Elite Sports Clubs for Life After a Global Pandemic
- Authors
- Scott McLean (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Human Factors and Systems ScienceDavid Rath (Author) - St Kilda Football Club, St KildaSimon Lethlean (Author) - St Kilda Football Club, St KildaMatt Hornsby (Author) - St Kilda Football Club, St KildaJames Gallagher (Author) - St Kilda Football Club, St KildaDean Anderson (Author) - St Kilda Football Club, St KildaPaul M Salmon (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science
- Publication details
- Frontiers in Psychology, Vol.11, pp.1-16
- Publisher
- Frontiers Research Foundation
- Date published
- 2021
- DOI
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.588959
- ISSN
- 1664-1078
- PMID
- 33551908; PMC7855175
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2021 McLean, Rath, Lethlean, Hornsby, Gallagher, Anderson and Salmon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
- Organisation Unit
- Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99510608402621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Web Of Science research areas
- Psychology, Multidisciplinary