New Article: Introducing public management and global sporting mega-events: public value, ecosystems, learning and temporality

We have authored (with Prof Michael Macaulay) a brand new article which serves as the introduction to a forthcoming special issue of the prestigious journal, Public Management Review. Read it here.

The issue will collect authors and studies from around the world; qualitative and quantitative, current, historic, and longitudinal. Each paper contributes to the understanding of public management in the context of global sporting mega-events, and vice versa. 

We will post about the full special issue when it is published later this year.

New Paper Published in 'Public Management Review'

We are very pleased to announce a new journal article published in 'Public Management Review'.

The article is about the FIFA World Cup USA 1994 - specifically the hosting of the tournament locally in the San Francisco Bay Area at Stanford University Stadium.

Academically it explores aspects of project management, institutional complexity, hybridity, social entrepreneurship, and philanthropy.

The article can be viewed by clicking here

New Article Alert: Sport and Project Management

Greetings!

We are pleased to announce a new book chapter that we have authored has been published.

The paper entitled "Sport and project management: a window into the development of temporary organizations" is included as a chapter within the Handbook of Research on Management and Organizational History, published by Edward Elgar Publications as part of their 'Research Handbooks on Business & Management' Series. 

Abstract:

The historical study of project-based industries allows largely unexploited opportunities for empirical, methodological and theoretical contributions to the field of management history. McDowell (2015) and Scranton (2014) demonstrate that the study of projects can enable an understanding of temporary and virtual organizations that link together multiple agencies each contributing to an overall value or ‘legacy’ comprising outputs and outcomes. This chapter proposes that researching global or continental scale sport mega-event projects can capture these attributes, for example the delivery and associated long-term legacy of the Olympic Games or FIFA World Cup. Project management history therefore offers a window into the delivery of a project as well as a broader opportunity to study the ways that organizations and individuals within them cooperate to deliver outcomes allowing management historians to contribute to debates around the usefulness of such events to society, as well as the institutional context within which they are nested.



The reference details are as follows:

The Chapter:

Gillett, A.G. and Tennent, K.D., 2020. Sport and project management: a window into the development of temporary organizations. In Handbook of Research on Management and Organizational History. Edward Elgar Publishing. 

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788118491.00016

About the book:

Emerging from what was a somewhat staid sub-discipline, there is currently a battle for the soul of Management and Organizational History (MOH), at the centre of which is a widespread concern that much recent work has been more about how one should or might do history rather than actually doing historical work. If ever there was a time for a new volume on MOH, this is certainly it.

The Handbook, which is edited by Kyle Bruce, comprises many interesting and useful chapter clustered into three sections. Part 1 is concerned with 'Classic Foundations', Part 2 gives a platform to 'Alternative Voices' and Part 3 is 'About History'.

Our Chapter is located within Part 2.

Published:

1 April 2020

ISBN:

9781788118484

eISBN:

9781788118491

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788118491

Pages:

 320

Frontiers of Management History Book Series launched in conjunction with Emerald!

Soccer-Mad Boffins sign the contract at Emerald HQ

Frontiers of Management History is a new book series that will be published globally by Emerald Publishing.  

The series aims to provide an outlet for forward-thinking management and business historians, whose work addresses new perspectives, theories, frameworks, critiques, and applications for practice. By doing so, Frontiers of Management History will create a new space in which to champion the craft of the historian together with the method of the social scientist, two approaches which in today’s interdisciplinary environment are increasingly ‘speaking’ to each other.

Niall Kennedy (Emerald) with Kevin and Alex

The series will include edited collections as well as authored volumes of management history, and the series editors welcome theoretical, empirical and historiographical contributions concerned with organisations from various sectors. 

For more information or to propose an idea for a book, please email:

frontiersofmanagementhistory@gmail.com

Photo credit: Mick from Emerald

Latest Published Article - Dynamic Sublimes, Changing Plans, and the Legacy of a Megaproject: The Case of the 1966 Soccer World Cup

We are immensely proud to announce the publication of our latest research paper in Project Management Journal, official journal of the Project Management Institute.

The abstract is as follows:

Global sporting events such as the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) World Cup have been described as megaprojects. The motives of decision makers for undertaking megaprojects are summarized by Flyvbjerg’s (2012, 2014) “four sublimes,” which lack a temporal dimension. We utilize a case study of the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England, applying the three levels of project management identified by Morris and Geraldi (2011), refined through Flyvbjerg’s four sublimes, to analyze the shifting nature of stakeholders’ motives. We evidence that Flyvbjerg’s sublimes are dynamic in response to change during the project timeline, creating new insights into project development and opportunities for research into historic projects.

Kevin and Alex signing their author's agreements with PMJ

The paper will appear in the December 2017/January 2018 Special Issue on Megaprojects and is available to read and download for free by clicking on the following link:

http://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/pmj/early-edition/dec-jan-2017/j20171293.pdf

Merry Christmas from the Soccer-Mad Boffins...we hope you enjoy this present!






Whilst on the subject of Christmas, we have also been busy organizing a Christmas party for our students at The York Management School, University of York.  Here is a photo of the fantastic spread that was provided.  It also gave us a chance to talk about our research to the students.  We had some great conversations about World Cups past, present and future.  Roll on 2018...

Soccer Mad Boffins Appear at University of Hull

On Thursday 30th November we travelled through the snow across Yorkshire, to Hull and back.

The occasion was a research lecture hosted by the Marketing and Business Strategy subject group of Hull Business School, all about our work on the FIFA World Cups of 1966 and 1994.

Entitled 'Opportunities for All the Team: The 1966 and 1994 FIFA World Cups' the lecture was based on a working paper which we are developing for publication in a forthcoming special issue of a well known sports history journal.

We thoroughly enjoyed presenting our work to our friends at Hull, and hope to be back soon.

Alex and Kevin with lecture slides

Foundations of Managing Sporting Events - Organizing the 1966 FIFA World Cup

Soccer Mad Boffins are very pleased to announce that our new book 'Foundations of Managing Sporting Events - Organizing the 1966 FIFA World Cup' will be published this summer by Routledge as part of their International Studies in Business History series.

The table of contents will be:

1. What, Why, and How?
2. Origins and Background: A Brief History of English Football and the FIFA World Cup
3. Political Capital and International Diplomacy: North Korea and Beyond
4. The FA, FIFA, and the 1966 FIFA World Cup
5. The World Cup as a Temporary Show?
6. The World Cup, Minister?
7. The World Cup and the Provinces: A Tourism Boom that Never Came
8. Legacy and Impact of the Tournament
9. Discussion and Conclusions 

In addition to all that there will also be a forword by the Prof Jim Walvin. 

More info at: https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138645202