MANAGEMENT OF SPORTS ORGANISATION - 2020/1

Module Overview

This modules considers a range of issues in the management of professional sports organisations and, in doing this, draws heavily on a range of management disciplines and activities. The modules focuses primarily on professional football, cricket and rugby clubs and critically examines the role of, for example, marketing, strategy, people management, team dynamics and finance in contributing to the on-field performance of sports organisations.

Module provider

School of Biosciences and Medicine

Module Leader

ADCROFT Andrew (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• The environmental context of sports organisations: political, economic, social and legal issues;

• The organisational characteristics of professional sports organisations;

• Marketing the professional sports organisation;

• Managing talented people in a sporting context;

• Performance and competitive orientations in sports organisations;

• Financing the sports organisation;

• Strategy and the sports organisation.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Students who fail the group assignment will be given a comparable piece of individual work to do.

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate

The assessment tests two things. First, theory. The assignment tests understanding of a range of different theories of management through a critical review. To do well, students will have to understand key management underpinnings and place them into a wider context of sport. The group assignment further tests understanding of theory across all of the main themes of the module. Second, practice. The group assignment tests ability to apply models and theory to an example in order to develop robust conclusions.

The assessment of the module combines a range of activities from the teaching of the module, the guided reading of the module, participation in SurreyLearn activities and independent learning. To do well, students will have to demonstrate a wide understanding of both management and their own learning skills and talents. Feedback on the assignment is deliberately designed around students being proactive in developing their own understanding of strengths and weaknesses of their work and using it as springboard to improve their performance in the group assignment.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

·         A 1,000 word critical essay which examines management theory in a sporting context;

·         A 2,500 word group assignment which examines how management theory can be applied to sport in order to gain deeper understandings

Formative assessment and feedback

This module adopts an enquiry based approach to feedback where the emphasis is on providing resources to students which allow them to identify their own strengths and weaknesses in order to develop learning strategies which will allow them to improve their performance

• Prior to the assignment, lecture time will be spent discussing the assignment and feedback process;


• A detailed marking scheme which provides guidance on how marks will be awarded for each element of assessment. This marking scheme has benefits for both staff and students. For staff it allows for consistency of marking between markers and for rapid and rigorous marking. For students it makes it absolutely clear what is expected of them. Students will receive a mark for each element of the assignment which they can reference to the marking scheme for detailed individual feedback;


• Generic feedback which explains what students did well and did less well overall. This will take two forms. In the first lecture after submission, time will be spent explaining the key learning issues from the assignment and, once marking is completed, students will receive detailed generic feedback via SurreyLearn including a statistical breakdown of marks so that they can place their own performance into that of their cohort;


• Examples of excellent practice – students will be provided with over 20 examples of assignments which achieved marks of 70 or higher in order that they have a number of points of comparison for their own work;


• Action Plans – students will be encouraged to produce action plans which demonstrate that they have engaged with the feedback resources and which identify their strengths and weaknesses and form the basis of a learning strategy for the end of module assessment.

Module aims

• Enable students to understand how sports organisations formulate, select and implement business strategies that contribute to their on-field performance
• Enable students to understand the relationship between professional sports organisations and a range of political, social, legal and economic issues in the environment in which they operate
• Provide students with a set of rigorous theoretical frameworks through which they can analyse and interpret a range of management issues for professional sports organisations
• Provide solid foundations which will allow students to appreciate the challenge of people management in sports organisations
• Enable students to understand and interpret a variety of financial information and to see how it can inform decision making in professional sports organisations
• To provide the basis on which management problems faced by professional sports organisations can be solved analytically
• Enable students to appreciate the importance of a range of management disciplines and activities to professional sports organisations

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

Give students the opportunity to gain knowledge and understanding of the relevant theory and business practices and problems which are pertinent to professional sports organisations.


The teaching and learning methods are based around the delivery of lectures and seminars. Whilst the lectures are mainly designed to illustrate and explain theoretical concepts and models, the seminars illuminate the theoretical concepts and models by reference to and explanation of a range of specific case studies and exercises. Seminars are, therefore, designed to develop a practical view of managing sports organisations. The lecture precedes the seminar. Prior to attending the seminar, students are required to undertake the essential reading of the theory and relevant case study assigned in the relevant lecture which precedes the seminar.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Formal and interactive lectures (2 hours per week)

• Seminars

• On-line discussions

• Enquiry based learning

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: BMS2068

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2020/1 academic year.