Abstract
M.Phil. (Sport Management)
Against the stark reality of an unstable political environment, student unrest
and high levels of poverty, universities with multiple campuses are faced with
challenges in delivering equitable services to all students. This research aims
to describe the management and delivery of sport and recreation of an innercity
campus to its student population from a resource dependency perspective.
This study adopted a descriptive approach with a multi-method design. This
produced both qualitative and quantitative data sets that derived from
questionnaires (n=333) and semi-structured interviews (n=11). The study
provides valuable insight on sport management and delivery challenges faced
by South African universities operating in resource poor environments.
Dependencies and power relations are investigated to understand the
organisational practice of university sport and recreation. The utilisation and
management of resources is explored to understand how sport and recreation
are delivered within a multi-campus university. Key findings of the study show
that four resources (information, physical, human and financial) play a
considerable role towards the optimal delivery of sport and recreation to the
inner-city campus and university as a whole. The study identified challenges
such as fragmented strategy, maladministration of operational processes,
leadership, institutional culture, unproductive utilisation of resources, and
defective communication to be detrimental to the efficient delivery of sport and
recreation. The study also found instances of innovative strategies used by
management and student leaders to overcome the challenges that deter
optimal delivery of sport and recreation. Furthermore, the study identified
structural constraints to be the dominant contributor to student nonparticipation
in sport and recreation.