Sports Administration (Essay Sample)

Sports Administration Author’s Name Institutional Affiliation Number & Course Name Instructor’s Name Due Date Sports Administration Sports administrators have an important role to play in the sporting world. They are tasked with various duties, the most important of which is improving the sports programs that they are in. Sports administrators are charged with creating programs that ensure profitability, success, and benefits to the organizations and athletes on and off the field of play. Academic Preparation To perform their tasks, sports administrators must be equipped with the requisite skills that will help them navigate the challenges that they will face in their practice. These skills are taught through academics, and they include planning skills, organizational skills, and human resource management. Planning is the process of strategizing, analyzing, and organizing the required activities for a certain goal to be achieved. The planning process is specific, has various phases, and is a necessary skill for many occupations, sports administration included (Singh & Singh, 2020). Decisions about the goals, politics, strategies, programs, and plans that direct the activities in sports organizations are determined during the planning phase of the management process. The sports organization adapts a dynamic, ongoing planning process that impacts the environment in which it operates. (Ilić, 2013). The setting of objectives is done in the planning process. Objectives enable teams to keep their eyes on the price. Planning is beneficial in improving the coordination of the team members and their tasks. Working in teams to achieve grand goals can be hectic and chaotic if planning is not done well. A team with a well-defined plan will have fewer uncertainties and be orderly and disciplined. This leads to team members having higher morale. Additionally, planning reduces the wastage of resources that may be scarce. Organization is the process of identifying and organizing the tasks that need to be completed, defining and allocating authority and responsibility, and building relationships to enable people to collaborate productively to achieve goals (Allen, 1958). Organizational skills are important skills to learn as it has several benefits. Good organization leads to improved efficiency in management. A sound and balanced organization aids in the managers' ability to work more effectively. Managers properly distribute the entire workload among various employees per their abilities through employing organizational skills. Similar to planning, organizational skills enable the proper use of resources. The best possible use of an enterprise's human and material resources is made possible through organizational skills. Every person is given work based on their potential and ability, and the conditions are set up to allow them to use that capability to the fullest. For instance, if a worker has knowledge of modem equipment, but the equipment is not available within the company, attempts are made to make the equipment available. Proper organization facilitates proper communication. Making the correct decision at the right moment depends on effective communication. However, only through organization is it possible to develop a successful communication system. In an organization, the best time for communication is chosen to ensure that all pertinent information reaches the involved officials aiding in decision-making. Finally, organizational skills enable coordination. Coordination between the various organizational tasks is crucial for the organization to achieve its goals. Coordination is only made feasible by organization. The division of work is created under organization in a way that makes all of the activities complimentary to one another, enhancing their interdependence. Relationships are formed as a result of interdependence, which improves coordination. Sports administrators deal majorly with human beings, e.g., athletes. Therefore, they need to have human resource management skills. Mathis and Jackson (2008) define human resource management as the creation of formal systems for managing human potential inside a business to achieve goals. Human resource management plays a crucial role in organizations. For sports administrators, human resource management skills enable them to manage and get the best out of the talent at their disposal, enabling them to have a competitive edge (Lado & Wilson, 1994). Human resource management skills help sports administrators manage their organizations strategically. With its understanding of how human capital affects organizational success, human resource management helps the company's bottom line. Leaders with a background in strategic human resource management take part in corporate decision-making that underpins current personnel evaluations and forecasts for future workforce requirements based on business demand. Recruiting and onboarding new human talent is a crucial part of moving an organization forward and requires sports administrators to have good human resource management skills. Practical Application The future presents many challenges for sports administrators. The world of sports is constantly changing. Some of the challenges that sports administrators will face include: - keeping up with technology, doping, and the Internet. Technology integration is going to be crucial for sports administrators moving forward. In sports, technology has found its way into many facets, such as training, nutrition, and data. Sports training now involves virtual reality, wearables, and vision training, among others. Virtual reality headsets enable players to have an immersive experience, i.e., they feel like they are right in the game. American football has especially benefited from virtual reality technology as quarterbacks can analyze their play instantly. Wearable technology provides an in-depth look into how an athlete's body performs. This sports performance technology is intended to be worn by athletes both on and off the field, as the name would imply. Coaches and fitness gurus can utilize this to collect a variety of data depending on the equipment used. Wearable sports performance technologies have greatly aided the development and maintenance of good sleeping habits among athletes. Small wearable gadgets, such as watches or wristbands, are perfectly capable of detecting when a person enters a particular stage of sleep. This is frequently accomplished by monitoring your movements and measuring your heart rate. Vision training primarily aims to increase reflexes, cognitive ability, and visual accuracy. The actual world can surely benefit from these mental advantages, but sports like football, basketball, hockey, and others gain the most from them. Nutrition technology is also evolving by the day. Sports nutrition is a relatively new discipline, with less than a hundred research papers published yearly since 1990 (Jonvik et al., 2022). Moving into the future, sports administrators must be keen on sports nutrition. Sports have become data intensive. Data is recorded about anything and everything and stored in databases. Athlete data is recorded, analyzed, and used to make crucial decisions. Information related to athletes, such as team rosters that list biographical details like name, sex, age, contact information, and even the sizes of team uniforms' clothes. The same database might also provide information about the athletes' health issues, past performances, or other participation traits (Rosandich, 2008). Sports administrators must be awake to new developments in technology to have a competitive edge. Doping is another challenge that sports administrators have to deal with. Athletes are always under pressure to perform more and better. The pressure will only get better as time goes by. These athletes get tempted to use performance-enhancing drugs. Athletes will be encouraged because even though sports bodies have increased the number of tests, the number of athletes found to be doping is roughly the same. For instance, the number of individual drug tests conducted between 2005 and 2012 increased by roughly 90,000, or almost 50%, yet the number of negative analytical findings remained largely the same (Dvorak et al., 2006). The Internet is another factor that will cause challenges to sports administrators. Social media has enabled fans to connect with their sports organizations and superstars. This means that these entities must keep their fans updated on information regarding their activities, which is a tedious task. Also, sports organizations and superstars must ensure that whatever is publicized via the Internet is material that is in line with the value of the organization they represent (Yoo, 2022). Many sports superstars have been fined and banned for things they did on the Internet. An example is a player called Kurt Zouma, who posted a video of himself kicking his cat. The public was very angry about the situation, and they made their feelings heard on the Internet. This led to Kurt Zouma being fined two weeks' wages by his club, West Ham, and sentenced to 180 works of unpaid work by a court of law. The Internet is also a source of negat...