Organizational Culture and Identity : Sport, Symbols and Success

This book is for readers who want to destroy the tyranny of tradition that keeps organizations in the managerial dark-ages, and transform clubs, associations, agencies and businesses into something of greater value. It reveals how to create cultures delivering strong attachments and high performance. However, our task is not as simple as it appears, since culture and its mirror image identity, present slippery concepts. Securing an early agreement on exactly what constitutes culture, and how it works, remains essential before we proceed any further. In short, organizational culture and identity comprise the shared values, beliefs and assumptions that influence the attitudes, habits, customs and behavior of an organization's members.

Aaron C.T. Smith is Professor and Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor in the College of Business at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Melbourne, Australia. He was previously Director of Sport and Leisure Management and held the Chair of Sport Management at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Aaron has research interests in the management of psychological, organizational and policy change in business, and sport and health; and has authored or co-authored 13 books, which examine these issues. Aaron also possesses an extensive background in organizational consulting. He worked in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America and the Middle East within a diverse range of sectors and industries; including multi-national corporations, professional sporting clubs, national and state sport associations, media companies, sport and entertainment facilities, as well as government and not-for-profit organizations. Bob Stewart is Associate Professor in Sport Studies in the School of Sport and Exercise Science at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. Associate Professor Stewart's areas of expertise are sport regulation and the cultural drivers of sport practice. He is currently researching drug-use cultures in sport and sub-cultural practices in gyms and fitness centres. Professor Stewart has a special interest in player regulation within professional team sports, and the ways in which hyper-commercialism and neoliberalism shape their structure and conduct. He is the editor of The Games are Not the Same: The Political Economy of Football in Australia, Melbourne University Publishing, 2007; and lead author of Australian Sport: Better by Design? The Evolution of Sport Policy in Australia, Routledge, 2004. Dr. Gervase Haimes lives in Perth, Western Australia and works for Coffey Projects (Australia) Pty Ltd., a professional project management consultancy organization with offices throughout the Asia Pacific region, Africa and the Middle East. He heads up pm Excellence, Coffey's internal division responsible for developing the skills and competencies of their people to provide excellence in project delivery and professional certification. Dr. Gervase has a wide and varied background in project management from extensive practical experience with client organizations, consultants and contractors through to an internal and external educator's role. He holds appointments as an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Project Management in the Engineering Faculty at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and as a casual lecturer in project and construction management at Curtin University.