Sport Management Review 23 (2020) 750–763

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Sport Management Review

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/smr

Conscious capitalism and sport: Exploring higher purpose in a

professional sport organization
Evan Gwartz* , Kirsty Spence
Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: The higher purpose of a professional sport organization has been an elusive concept, with
Received 29 August 2018 both sport organizational scholars and leaders seemingly ambiguous in their definitions of
Received in revised form 31 August 2019 why such organizations exist (Newman, 2014; Zeigler, 2007). In contrast, management
Accepted 9 September 2019
researchers (Sisodia et al., 2014) provided evidence that organizational leaders’
Available online 27 September 2019
communication of an organization’s higher purpose profoundly benefits organizational
performance. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a qualitative,
Keywords:
descriptive case study of a single professional sport organization, whereby 13 participant
Purpose
Conscious
leaders and employees espouse their organization’s higher purpose. Data including
Culture interviews, observation of organizational artifacts, and an analysis of organizational
Management documents were analyzed by creating typologies based upon Mackey and Sisodia’s (2013)
Leadership Conscious Capitalism framework that defines four types of higher purpose (i.e., The Good,
The Beautiful, The True, The Heroic). Participants espoused several sources of higher purpose
that related to The Good, The Beautiful, and The Heroic, and did not espouse any source of
higher purpose related to The True. Moreover, participants espoused no definitive
statement of the organization’s higher purpose and each participant’s espoused higher
purpose varied. These findings suggest that leaders and scholars alike have an opportunity
to collectively reflect upon and define the purpose of a professional sport organization.
Crown Copyright © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Sport Management
Association of Australia and New Zealand. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Sport scholars have questioned the ‘consciousness’ of those studying and leading professional sport organizations and
have contended that scholars and practitioners have an opportunity to reflect upon a professional sport organization’s
purpose within society (Hiebert, 2014; Newman, 2014; Zeigler, 2007). Specifically, Zeigler (2007) questioned “what are we
really promoting, and do we know why we are doing it?” (p. 298). Newman (2014) asserted that scholars and practitioners
currently assume sport exists “principally as a commercial activity” (p. 604) and an opportunity for commercial gain, rather
than as a contributor to social good. Hiebert (2014) cautioned against this perception, claiming “sports shaped by the needs
of a capitalist system serve vested interests and become a type of ‘cultural anesthesia’” (p. 59).
This dialogue calls attention to researchers' and practitioners' potentially imbalanced focus towards the commercial
aspects of managing sport organizations. Researchers have identified several types of value these organizations contribute to
both consumers and communities, including: creating joy for spectators (Eastman & Riggs, 1994), providing an escape from

* Corresponding Author.
E-mail addresses: egwartz@gmail.com (E. Gwartz), kspence@brocku.ca (K. Spence).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2019.09.002
1441-3523/Crown Copyright © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand. All rights reserved.
 E. Gwartz, K. Spence / Sport Management Review 23 (2020) 750–763 751

everyday stressors (Wann, Allen, & Rochelle, 2004), enhancing self-identity (Cialdini et al., 1976), strengthening social
networks (Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001), and fostering community pride (Jarvie, 2006). Despite such identification,
researchers have yet to link that beneficial value to industry practice to understand if practitioners are purposefully creating
this value for these stakeholders; that is, whether practitioners consciously pursue purposes beyond profit.
Mackey and Sisodia (2013) claimed that a profit-focused management paradigm has become pervasive in all industries—
not just professional sport—and aptly introduce Conscious Capitalism as a management framework for scholars and
practitioners to lead organizations in pursuing a purpose beyond profit. In examining professional sport organizations with
the Conscious Capitalism framework, scholars and practitioners may grow their collective consciousness towards
understanding organizational purpose and from such understanding, may promote an expanded perspective towards how
professional sport is studied, managed, and perceived.
Such examination aligns with thinking among sport management scholars (Frisby, 2005; Misener & Misener, 2017), who
advocate for paradigmatic shifts in how researchers study professional sport. For example, Frisby (2005) noted, “whereas I
am not rejecting growth or profit as possible outcomes of practice and research, I see the broadening or balancing of the
agenda as a much needed and healthy development in our field” (p. 6). Moreover, Misener and Misener (2017) urged
researchers “to consider disrupting the traditional ways of understanding organizations” (p. 130) and to be innovative and
visionary agents of change when addressing organization problems or contributing to academic discourse. As such, we
utilize Conscious Capitalism as a disruptive management framework in this paper, with an aim to facilitate discussion
towards the elemental topic of organizational purpose.
The need for researchers to reflect upon the purpose of a professional sport organization thus emerges from the scholarly
ambiguity that exists towards their purpose beyond profit, the suggested prevalence of a profit-focused management
paradigm in mainstream management, and sport scholars' call to re-imagine how such organizations are studied and
managed. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a qualitative, descriptive case study of a single
professional sport organization, whereby leaders and employees espouse their organization’s purpose. From this purpose,
two research questions guide this paper, including: (a) does this organization have a higher purpose, and if so, (b) what
higher purpose do stakeholders espouse?
In this case study, we utilize Mackey and Sisodia (2013) Conscious Capitalism framework to define and describe an
organization’s purpose and the findings represent a preliminary descriptor of stakeholders’ beliefs about the purpose of a
professional sport organization. This description supports sport management scholarship by enhancing consciousness
towards organizational purpose, which is a foundational concept for understanding organizations that has been previously
absent from the sport management dialogue. These findings also identify opportunities for sport practitioners to both reflect
upon their organization’s purpose and to leverage a clarified sense of purpose so they may further connect with stakeholders
in an effort to improve organizational performance.

2. Review of literature

To describe the purpose of a professional sport organization, it is first important to define the concepts of Conscious
Capitalism and higher purpose, as these concepts both reveal gaps within current sport management scholarship and
practice and expose the beneficial opportunities related to stakeholders' consciousness of an organizational higher purpose.
Mackey and Sisodia (2013) introduced Conscious Capitalism as “a way of thinking about business that is more conscious of its
higher purpose, its impacts on the world, and the relationships it has with its various constituencies and stakeholders”
(p. 32). Conscious Capitalism serves as a framework for leaders to utilize a foundational understanding of why their
organization exists and what value the organization provides to stakeholders as a strategic management resource to guide
their decision-making and align stakeholders, including employees, partners, customers, and community members (Mackey
& Sisodia, 2013). As such, Mackey and Sisodia (2013) advocated that this framework prepares leaders to manage complex
organizational environments, often characterized as the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous 21st century
organizational environment, which Bennett and Lemoine (2014) noted features constant political, economic, and social
change.
Mackey and Sisodia (2013) described Conscious Capitalism as built upon four tenets, including: (a) higher purpose and
core values; (b) stakeholder integration; (c) conscious leadership; and (d) conscious culture and management. First,
Mackey and Sisodia (2013) defined higher purpose as “the reason a company exists” (p. 33), from which leaders may
understand the value their organization provides to their stakeholders, while they defined core values as “the guiding
principles [a] business uses to realize its purpose” (Mackey, 2006), which are said to “animate the enterprise and unite all
stakeholders” (Mackey & Sisodia, 2013, p. 34). Second, stakeholder integration refers to leaders’ dedication to serving all
stakeholders, such that creating the value defined by the higher purpose for all stakeholders is seen as the ultimate ‘ends’
of the organization; this contrasts a traditional business paradigm which may view stakeholders as a ‘means’ to maximize
profits.
Third, Mackey and Sisodia (2013) described conscious leaders as servant leaders who act in service of their organization’s
stakeholders and who are stewards of the organization’s higher purpose, ensuring they integrate the higher purpose into all
organizational practices. Finally, a conscious culture is representative of a leader's manifestation of the previous three tenets,
whereby stakeholders share common assumptions and patterns of behaviour that further connects them with the
organization’s higher purpose and other stakeholders, allowing the higher purpose to be prevalent and enduring.
752 E. Gwartz, K. Spence / Sport Management Review 23 (2020) 750–763

In utilizing Conscious Capitalism in a professional sport context, scholars and practitioners may broaden the sport
management agenda and balance value creation for investors, employees, customers, and other stakeholders. As previously
acknowledged, researchers have discussed sport’s value to individuals and communities (cf. Cialdini et al., 1976; Eastman &
Riggs, 1994; Jarvie, 2006; Wann et al., 2004,2001); however, many have critiqued the disproportionate focus towards the
commercial aspects of managing professional sport organizations (cf. Frisby, 2005; Newman, 2014; Zeigler, 2007). Freeman,
Wicks, and Parmar (2004) suggested that balanced value creation for all stakeholders ultimately enhances profitability, and
claimed shareholder value is generated "by creating products and services that customers are willing to buy, offering jobs
that employees are willing to fill, building relationships with suppliers that companies are eager to have, and being good
citizens in the community" (p. 366).
Mackey and Sisodia (2013) importantly distinguished Conscious Capitalism from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
practices, claiming “a good business doesn’t need to do anything special to be socially responsible. When it creates value for
its major stakeholders, it is acting in a socially responsible way” (p. 37). Mackey (2011) critically discussed CSR, stating that
associated concepts “attempt to ‘graft’ social and environmental responsibility onto what in many cases is just a traditional
corporate business model” (p. 87). Within professional sport, Babiak (2010) described how many organizations have
established team-related charitable foundations with the aim of impacting their communities (e.g., encouraging youth
participation in sport) and contributing to their business objectives (e.g., enhancing brand reputation). Relative to Mackey
(2006) critique, Babiak (2010) argued that these CSR initiatives are beneficial in their scope, but fail to address larger issues of
social responsibility, such as domestic violence by athletes or gender and racial diversity in organizations. In this way, leaders
may find greater value in utilizing Conscious Capitalism for establishing social responsibility, as corporate citizenship and
creating beneficial value for stakeholders (i.e., including customers, communities, the environment) are reframed as
fundamental tenets of the organization’s management.

2.1. Describing higher purpose

Mackey and Sisodia (2013) presented higher purpose and core values as the foundational tenet of Conscious Capitalism,
explaining that leaders of purposeful companies reflect upon why their organization exists and the core values that unite
their stakeholders. Mackey and Sisodia (2013) further deconstructed this tenet by defining an organization’s higher purpose
as “the difference you’re trying to make in the world” (p. 47). As an alternative perspective, Bloom (2010) suggested that
imagining a world where the organization does not exist reveals its higher purpose; he stated “even if you sell toilet paper,
imagine a world without toilet tissue and you’ll realize that you’re in the business of giving new powers to your fellow human
beings” (p. 368). As previously stated, core values act in service of a higher purpose by defining the behavioural principles
needed to realize that purpose (Mackey, 2006); that is, higher purpose represents ‘why’ and core values represent ‘how.’
While core values are an integral tenet of Conscious Capitalism, Mackey and Sisodia (2013) conceptualization of higher
purpose is most relevant to this paper, as it provides a framework to describe the purpose of a professional sport
organization; therefore, our ensuing discussion focuses on higher purpose.
Examples of higher purpose are difficult to glean from professional sport organizations; indeed, while engaging in initial
research for this study, most of these organizations were found to have no publicly published purpose. While this does not
confirm the absence of an organizational purpose, this may suggest a lack of stakeholder integration and a potential
misalignment between internal stakeholders' (i.e., employees) and external stakeholders' (e.g., customers, partners,
communities) understanding of the organization’s purpose. Many organizations outside of professional sport publicly
publish their purposes, including Disney’s purpose to “create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people
of all ages, everywhere” (The Disney Instute & Kinni, 2011, p. 39) and Google’s purpose “to organize the world’s information
and make it universally accessible and useful” (Google, 2016).
Sinek (2009)nicknamed higher purpose or ‘the reason an organization exists’ as an organization’s ‘why,’ claiming that
inspirational leaders communicate their organization’s ‘why’ to connect with stakeholders’ own values and sense of purpose,
ultimately leading to more meaningful stakeholder relationships. Mackey and Sisodia (2013) posited that leaders’
understanding of their organization’s true value specifically enables them to communicate their ‘why’ and create these
types of connections with their stakeholders. Fig. 1 illustrates the way various stakeholder groups can engage with a higher
purpose and the positive outcomes that Mackey and Sisodia (2013) suggested may follow. For example, an employee who
connects with an organization’s higher purpose may become happier, leading to increased motivation, and heightened
innovation and quality service. Further, meaningful relationships with vendors and suppliers may lead to better partnerships,
resulting in quality products and better value, which delights customers and grows sales and profits for investors.
In developing the Conscious Capitalism framework, Mackey and Sisodia (2013) identified four distinct types of higher
purposes by which organizational pursuits can be characterized. The Good, The Beautiful, and The True are derived from
Plato’s transcendent ideals (i.e., pursuits that animate all human endeavours), while Mackey and Sisodia (2013) additionally
conceived The Heroic as a fourth type of higher purpose. ‘The Good’ represents stakeholders’ collective dedication towards
service to others and improvements to stakeholders’ health, education, and quality of life; within sport, improvements to
one's quality of life may include examples of joy (Eastman & Riggs, 1994) and social connectivity (Wann et al., 2001) that
sport provides to individuals. ‘The Beautiful’ inspires stakeholders’ pursuit and creation of perfection, excellence, and beauty,
which while often related to art, may be represented in sport through the excellence associated with high performance
athletics and the crafting of beautiful sporting events and productions.
 E. Gwartz, K. Spence / Sport Management Review 23 (2020) 750–763 753

Motivated Innovation &

employees service

Employee Partnerships with

happiness vendors &
suppliers

Increased job Quality

satisfaction products

Congruent HIGHER Good value

values
PURPOSE
Community &
Delighted
environmental
customers
responsiveness

Giving back Sales growth

Corporate Profits &

citizenship Motivated growth
investors

Fig. 1. Stakeholder Interdepdence Model (Mackey & Sisodia, 2013, p. 73).

‘The True’ represents our collective efforts to further human knowledge through discovery and innovation, where
examples within sport may include high performance sport research or sport management scholarship. Finally, Mackey and
Sisodia (2013) conceived that ‘The Heroic’ captures stakeholders’ “desire to change the world” (p. 63), solve insoluble
problems, and make the world a better place. Here, sport examples may include sport for development initiatives or
charitable programs run by a professional sport organization's foundation. Mackey and Sisodia (2013) noted that leaders or
other stakeholders may define an organization’s value to its stakeholders by any one or any combination of these types of
higher purpose.
Importantly, Mackey and Sisodia (2013) contended that some purposes exist that should not be considered ‘higher
purposes.’ As previously noted, scholars (Hiebert, 2014; Newman, 2014) have claimed that many sport management
professionals view sport as a commercial activity with leaders valuing growth and profit as a primary organizational
objective. While Mackey and Sisodia (2013) acknowledged that even though profit may be necessary for an organization’s
health and is a source of value for one stakeholder group (i.e., investors), maximizing revenue is not considered to be a higher
purpose for an organization, as it is not a source of value that serves all stakeholders. Specifically, these authors explain that a
profit-focused management strategy fosters an imbalanced business practice that de-emphasizes the majority of
stakeholders' needs (e.g., employees, customers, communities, environment) to otherwise serve investors' needs. In
contrast, given its virtues, a higher purpose engages all stakeholders and inspires value creation for all stakeholder groups
(e.g., employee engagement, customer satisfaction, profit for investors).

2.2. Conscious organizations

Scholars (Laloux, 2014; Sisodia, Sheth, & Wolfe, 2014) have utilized qualitative case study research to learn about
organizations that apply Conscious Capitalism’s tenets and incorporate a higher purpose into their strategic management
practices. Combined, Laloux (2014) and Sisodia et al. (2014) have studied 78 organizations worldwide that “have broadened
their purpose beyond the creation of shareholder wealth to act as agents for the larger good” (Sisodia et al., 2014, p. xxii),
including organizations such as Disney, Southwest Airlines, and Patagonia. These ‘conscious organizations’ may represent
“vanguards of a new business mainstream” (Sisodia et al., 2014, p. xxii), with exemplary leadership and management
revealing opportunities for other organizations to enhance the value created for their stakeholders and improve
organizational performance. It is important to note that Laloux (2014) and Sisodia et al. (2014) did not study any sport
organizations (i.e., those organizations involved with the delivery of sporting events or sport programs) while researching
conscious organizations.
754 E. Gwartz, K. Spence / Sport Management Review 23 (2020) 750–763

Conscious Capitalism is thought to positively influence organizational performance by aligning stakeholder beliefs and
uniting their actions by “clarifying [an organization’s] identity and serving as a rallying point for employees” (Lencioni, 2002,
p. 114). Dolan and Garcia (2002) proposed that value alignment within an organization serves a triple-purpose, including: (a)
to simplify the organization’s direction in the face of complexity; (b) to guide the strategic vision of the organization; and (c)
to secure commitment of employees, as a means to increase motivation and improve individual performance. Aligning
stakeholders is also thought to reduce ‘cultural entropy,’ where a misalignment of higher purpose and core values causes
conflict, friction, or frustration between stakeholders (Barrett, 2014).
Researchers observing conscious organizations have validated these theoretical benefits and noted the positive effects of
aligned beliefs on organizational performance. For example, Sisodia et al. (2014) case organizations had high levels of
employee engagement, whereby employees felt emotionally and intellectual connected with their organization. Barrett
(2014) noted that organizations with highly engaged employees have been observed to be significantly more productive and
customer focused and have higher retention rates and less absenteeism than organizations with disengaged workgroups.
Scholars have also noticed heightened financial performance as a correlate with organizational cultures with an embedded
higher purpose; for example, Collins and Porras (1994) observed case organizations’ stocks outperforming comparison
companies 15:1 between 1926 and 1994 and Sisodia et al. (2014) noted their case organizations outperforming the average
market firm 14:1 over 15 years (i.e., 1998–2013). These findings serve as evidence that a conscious organizational culture, in
which stakeholders have an aligned perspective of their higher purpose, may result in more meaningful stakeholder
connections and increased stakeholder value.
Welty-Peachey, Damon, Zhou, and Burton (2015) identified two characteristics of sport organizational leadership that
position these organizations as unique sites to learn about Conscious Capitalism and higher purpose. First, particular
stakeholder groups are thought to hold more power in a sport organization than in other business sectors, due to external
stakeholders’ passion and identification with the organization (e.g., fans, partners) and given particular internal
stakeholders’ celebrity status (e.g., athletes, coaches, executives) (Welty-Peachey et al., 2015). Therefore, these stakeholders
are thought to have a heightened influence towards leaders of sport organizations, which may represent a greater
opportunity to learn about how leaders integrate stakeholders with a higher purpose.
Second, Welty-Peachey et al. (2015)suggested that sport leaders may be more vulnerable to exhibit ‘dark leadership’
traits such as narcissism and hubris, due to seductive pressures related to commodifying athletes (Griffin, 2011), the
massification of sport (DeSensi, 2014) and the pressure to win at all costs (Sagas & Wigley, 2014), not to mention leaders'
significant wealth and social status associated with such positions in professional sport. Babiak (2010) noted several
examples of leaders’ resulting adverse behaviour, including a lack of preventative action towards athletes’ long-term
health (e.g., head injuries in American football) and the damage to local investments and employment when a
professional sport franchise moves from a community. Accordingly, studying these organizations may represent an
opportunity to learn about how leaders may utilize Conscious Capitalism and a higher purpose to instill an ethos of
serving the greater good within an organization’s culture, in spite of leaders' vulnerabilities to possibly enacting such
dark leadership traits.
Thus, while Laloux (2014) and Sisodia et al. (2014)identified the positive influence of Conscious Capitalism, studying
higher purpose in a sport organization may deepen our understanding of how organizations may be transformed by a
conscious culture with an embedded higher purpose. Further, the scarcity of relevant literature towards sport
organizations’ higher purpose presents an opportunity for sport scholars and leaders to improve such organizations,
following the leadership of vanguard conscious organizations. In summary, sport management scholars (Frisby, 2005;
Newman, 2014; Zeigler, 2007) have acknowledged the opportunity for reflection upon professional sport organizations’
purpose and Mackey and Sisodia (2013) Conscious Capitalism framework provides an opportunity to observe and describe
their purpose.

3. Method

To describe the higher purpose espoused by leaders and employees of a professional sport organization, we conceived a
qualitative research design to include a descriptive, single-site case study methodology. We were guided by a pragmatic
research paradigm, in which knowledge is evaluated based upon its practical effects and usefulness, which led to our choice
of a qualitative research design that could generate a rich description of the beliefs and experiences of organizational
stakeholders (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). Further, we utilized a case study methodology to gain a holistic understanding of
the organization’s higher purpose in its real-life context (Yin, 2017). Specifically, we felt Yin (2017) depiction of a descriptive
case study was worthy to both guide the research design and fulfill the study’s purpose, through which we aimed to describe
“the incidence or prevalence of a phenomenon” (p. 6).

3.1. Case site

A single-site was utilized for the case study, where the research was bounded around one professional sport organization.
The case site was purposively selected as a representative case (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013) to reflect the common conditions
of professional sport organizations, based upon two criteria, including: (a) the organization fields a team that competes in a
prominent national professional sporting league; and (b) the organization has a typical governance structure of a
 E. Gwartz, K. Spence / Sport Management Review 23 (2020) 750–763 755

professional sport organization, with private ownership and a front-office staff that manages daily operations. Permission to
access the case site for data collection was granted by the leader of the organization’s business operations after the first
author (Gwartz) had both sent this leader a letter of invitation describing the proposed study and had met this leader in-
person to negotiate conditions of access. Gwartz ensured this leader that all references to and identifiers of the organization’s
name and its individual employees would remain confidential; anonymity could not be guaranteed however, due to Gwartz’s
exposure to both the organization and individual employees.

3.2. Data collection

Data were collected within the case site through three sources, including: (a) interviews; (b) observation of
organizational artifacts; and (c) analysis of organizational documents. Schein (1992) explained that employees’ beliefs and
assumptions (i.e., an implicit level of organizational culture) and behaviour, artifacts, and procedures (i.e., an explicit level of
culture) can express an organization’s culture, and therefore, their shared purpose and values. These data sources were
chosen commensurate to specific methods to extract these two levels of culture in order to describe the purpose and values
espoused by the organization’s employees, such that any espoused higher purpose could be revealed. Specifically,
conducting interviews with organizational employees was meant to access data to analyze the implicit level of culture, while
collection of documents and observation of organizational artifacts were both meant to access data to analyze the explicit
level of culture.
First, all full-time organizational employees (n = 42) were invited to participate in interviews after receiving a letter of
invitation, which were sent separately to individuals' respective publicly listed organizational email address. From this
participant recruitment process, a total of 18 employees (43%) responded to this letter of invitation indicating their intention
to participate and 13 (30%) employees arranged to meet to be interviewed. The remaining five employees did not participate
due to further non-response or to scheduling conflicts. These 13 participants included employees representative of multiple
departments within the organization’s business unit (e.g., marketing, ticketing) and their organizational tenure varied from
under one year to 11 years, with an average tenure of 4 years.
Participants are listed in Table 1 and are identified based upon their position designation, where Direct Reports include
entry-level employees who work with a Coordinator title (n = 4), Middle Managers include employees who work with a
Manager title (n = 7), and Leaders include employees who are members of the organization’s executive committee and who
work with C-Level, Vice President, Director or Senior Manager titles (n = 2). All interviews were held in a private room within
the organization’s office building, where participants were asked generative questions to explore their beliefs towards the
organization’s purpose. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim.
Second, observations of organizational artifacts were conducted within communal spaces of the organization’s
office building (e.g., lobbies, social spaces). Fieldnote sketches were made according to Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw
(2001) guidelines in order to both record data from observations and generate in-depth depictions of physical
characteristics, features, and items that may have represented expressions of the organization’s purpose. Specifically,
Gwartz created these sketches with journalistic writing that described the who, what, where, and when of the
organization’s spaces.
Third, a variety of public documents (e.g., media articles, public speeches), practical documents (e.g., training manuals,
intra-office memos), visual documents (e.g., photographs, branding), and audio-visual documents (e.g., videos, narrated
presentations) were gathered to be later analyzed. The organization’s gatekeeper provided Gwartz access to internal
documents (e.g., training manuals, intra-office memos), whereas public documents were collected from relevant web-
searches (e.g., the organization’s website, local media). Together, these three data sources converged to provide a detailed
description of the organizational purpose, as implicitly and as explicitly espoused by employees.

Table 1
Participant Descriptions.

Participant Abbreviation Department

Direct Report 1 DR1 Marketing
Direct Report 2 DR2 Ticketing
Direct Report 3 DR3 Ticketing
Direct Report 4 DR4 Marketing
Middle Manager 1 MM1 Ticketing
Middle Manager 2 MM2 Administration
Middle Manager 3 MM3 Corporate Partnerships
Middle Manager 4 MM4 Ticketing
Middle Manager 5 MM5 Ticketing
Middle Manager 6 MM6 Stadium Operations
Middle Manager 7 MM7 Marketing
Leader 1 L1 Marketing
Leader 2 L2 Stadium Operations
756 E. Gwartz, K. Spence / Sport Management Review 23 (2020) 750–763

3.3. Trustworthiness

Triangulation and self-reflexive strategies were implemented, according to Savin-Baden and Major (2013) guidelines, to
ensure these research findings may be considered trustworthy. Triangulating data through three primary data sources (i.e.,
interviews, observation of artifacts, internal, and public organizational documents) allowed the phenomenon of interest to
be viewed from different perspectives, such that a holistic description of stakeholders’ espoused purposes could be captured.
Also, it is important to note that Gwartz self-reflexively journaled prior to enacting data collection methods in order to
bracket any prior perceptions of the case organization. Specifically, he wrote about his perceptions of the organization’s
purpose(s) to heighten his awareness of these perceptions, such that he could bracket them when collecting and analyzing
data. Further, identifying his own perceptions allowed him to become more attuned to stakeholders’ alternative perspectives
when collecting and analyzing data, such that he could create a full and rich description of the case site.

3.4. Data analysis

As the theoretical framework guiding the current study, Mackey and Sisodia (2013) Conscious Capitalism framework also
guided the data analysis. Mackey and Sisodia (2013) four types of higher purpose were utilized as categories to form a
typology that could frame the case description. As Tracy (2013) explains, a typology serves as a classification system, where a
researcher may organize collected data into ‘conceptual bins’ that describe ‘the ways of doing something.’ As such, each type
of higher purpose represented a conceptual bin, with participants’ perceptions of the organization’s higher purpose
organized based upon their relevancy to one of the four types (or bins) of higher purpose.
Furthermore, Tracy (2013) two-stage coding cycle was utilized to build the typology, whereby: (a) data were reduced in to
descriptive codes; and (b) data were organized into the categories of the typology. During the first stage, interview
transcripts, fieldnote sketches, organizational documents were imported into the NVivo qualitative analysis software.
Descriptive codes were then generated to symbolically represent the behaviours, events, or emotions presented in these data
sources. All descriptive codes were integrated into a comprehensive code list, allowing for data from the three sources to
converge and triangulate. During the second stage, each descriptive code was examined to identify its relevant meaning,
such that the code could be categorized in relation to one of the four types of higher purpose. In this stage, codes that were
not relevant to any of the four types of higher purpose were grouped into a fifth category, which was entitled ‘Other
Purposes.’ In its totality, the type or types of higher purpose participants espoused were encapsulated and described fully
within the typology.

4. Findings

Through an analysis of these data, the findings of this case study describe the organization’s higher purpose, as espoused
by the case organization’s employees. This description first begins from an analysis of interview data and specifically,
participants’ responses to questions focusing on the organization’s culture. These data are further triangulated with an
observation of organizational artifacts and an analysis of organizational documents, which provided a description of the
espoused higher purposes in the explicit-level of the organization’s culture (i.e., behaviour, artifacts). Given we utilized
Mackey and Sisodia (2013) Conscious Capitalism framework to both conceive of this study’s purpose and to lead the data
analysis, we further use their four types of higher purpose to organize and present these findings. In Table 2, a summary of
the organization’s higher purposes, as espoused by participants, is provided.

4.1. The good

Mackey and Sisodia (2013) defined ‘The Good’ as “service to others – improving health, education, communication and
quality of life” (p. 59). This type of higher purpose was found to be the most commonly espoused higher purpose within the
case organization by participants, as each of the 13 participants interviewed referred to improvements to stakeholders’
quality of life as a reason that the organization exists and each made specific references to various impacts that the
organization’s sporting events have on their stakeholders, including customers, employees, corporate partners, and
community members. Participants believed that the organization contributed to stakeholders’ quality of life by: (a) creating
entertainment and positive experiences for customers; (b) contributing to individuals’ and the community’s sense of
identity; (c) being a source of community pride; and (d) fostering unity amongst community members.
First, all participants referred to the entertainment and positive experiences that customers incur during the
organization’s sporting events, making this the most commonly described example of how the organization contributes to
stakeholders’ quality of life. Participants explained, “why we exist, being people enjoy watching [sports]” (DR2) and “[it’s]
just a happiness thing. . . it just genuinely gives people the upmost of joy” (DR3). Further, an organizational leader stated in a
newspaper interview, “we get up every day to deliver the best live viewing experience in [our country for] sports.” Within a
training manual for the organization’s front-line staff, one of the staff objectives was listed as, “to always go [above and
beyond] to create an incredible guest experience.” From both participants and explicit displays in organizational documents,
it appears that the value of the organization’s entertainment and their provision of positive experiences is prominently
recognized within this organization.
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Table 2
Typology of higher purposes espoused by organizational stakeholders.

Stakeholders’ Espousal of the Relevant Meaning (Themes) Representative Quote Type of Higher Purpose
Organization’s Higher Purpose Secondary Coding Cycle Secondary Coding Cycle
(Descriptive Codes)
Primary Coding Cycle
 Aspirations of fans and dreams of Entertainment and positive “people enjoy watching [sports]” (DR2) The Good
kids experiences “it just genuinely gives people the upmost of
 Enjoyment, relaxation joy” (DR3)
 Entertainment of watching sport “we get up every day to deliver the best live
 Escape from everyday routine viewing experience in [our country for] sports.”
 Positive impact on people’s lives (Excerpt from newspaper interview with
 Making memories organizational leader)
 More of a ‘want’ than a ‘need’
 Positive experience for fans
 Serving fans
 Tradition of attending games

 Association with community’s iden- Individual and community “the team has sort of become a part of people”
tity identity (L1)
 Association with individual’s identity “people are just proud to have their own team
 Contribution to [country’s] culture and something to cheer for” (MM6)
 Emotional connection to the team
 Personal connection to the team
 Team is special because it’s this city’s
own team

 Community engagement Community pride “[people] have pride in the team, and therefore,
 Community pride in the city.” (MM2)
 Public support for the team

 Community unity Community unity “[games create] a sense of togetherness with

 Connection with the team makes you other people to share a common bond. . .
part of something bigger than self supporting one team and one goal” (L2).
 Fostering community partnerships
 Platform for relationships, friend-
ships, family
 Void if team didn’t exist

 Value attributed to winning games & Desire to win championships “regardless of why you became a fan, what The Beautiful
championships keeps you a fan is winning” (L1)

 ‘Being the best’ Aspiration to ‘be the best’ “we take pride in being the top of the league
 Creating the best experience for fans and the top of the sports world” (DR3)
 Pursuing excellence

Not espoused by stakeholders The True

 Giving back to the community Giving back to the community “the [team] is here to add to the goodness of the The Heroic
 Making the city a better place community as a whole” (MM5)

 Desire of owner to be philanthropic
 Owner’s family connection to team
 ‘It’s a business’
 Business development and desire for
profit
 Economic impact, job creation
Owner’s philanthropic intentions
Revenue Generation
“[they] had the finances to [buy the team], to
make sure that [the organization] was doing
things that make the city great and giving back”
(MM5)
“there’s a business opportunity to make money Other Purposes
off a professional sport franchise and monetize
that experience” (L2)

 Exists for the sake of existing Historical Existence “people have been following the team for,
 Historical existence of sport in the theoretically, hundreds of years. . . it’s
community something they’ve always done” (DR2)
 Upholding the structure of the league

Several participants described the value of the organization to individual’s and the community’s sense of identity as
another source of purpose that benefits stakeholders’ quality of life. Certain participants referenced benefits to individual
identity, explaining that “the team has sort of become a part of people” (L1), with many customers being “die-hard fans [who]
eat, sleep, and breathe [the team]. So, [if the team didn’t exist]. . . a lot of people would be missing a small part of them”
(MM1). Participants explained that the organization’s team “has become a huge part of [this community]. . . because people
are just proud to have their own team and something to cheer for” (MM6), as well as being “the one thing to bring everybody
758 E. Gwartz, K. Spence / Sport Management Review 23 (2020) 750–763

back together” (DR3) with the organization’s brand being “the logo that you can rally around” (L1). The organization actively
promoted the team’s expression of the community’s identity as well, with a promotional video on the organization’s website
featuring a voice-over asking “who are we?,” followed by a description of the characteristics that make their community and
their team unique.
Certain participants also claimed that the organization represents a source of community pride, which services
individuals’ connection to their city. Middle Manager 2 suggested that organizational stakeholders, including customers,
partners, and community members, “have pride in the team, and therefore, in the city.” Further, Direct Report 3 stated that
those stakeholders who interact and engage with the organization “hold something a little bit closer to [the city].” The
organization also promoted the pride for their community with a marketing campaign in which players from the
organization’s team were featured explaining what makes the part of the city in which they live special and ends with the
players saying in-unison, “together, we are [this city].” Middle Manager 6 suggested that a localized team has heightened
benefit for community members, saying “I think people are just proud to have their own team and something to cheer
for . . . . I guess it’s a little more relatable than, maybe, teams in [other cities].”
The final source of purpose related to The Good was the organization’s ability to foster unity for community members.
Several participants described the organization’s team as “the one universal element that bonds the city” (DR3), “the golden
thread” (MM5) of the community, where the organization’s sporting events create “a sense of togetherness with other
people to share a common bond. . . supporting one team and one goal” (L2). More specifically, Direct Report 4 explained that
the organization’s events are “a place for [people] to go with their families and have a shared experience,” while Middle
Manager 1 also recognized events as being “a spot [for people] to get together with their buddies [and] enjoy a beer or two. . .
[and a place for a] business relation where that’s where [someone would] go to entertain clients.” Organizational leaders
claim to intentionally foster these social opportunities at their events, as a newspaper interview with an organizational
leader described the creation of social areas in the stadium that are conducive for gatherings of friends or family. Thus,
participants perceived that the organization improved stakeholders’ quality of life by delivering events and experiences that
impacted individuals, the community, and these relationships within the community, representing an espoused higher
purpose of The Good.

4.2. The beautiful

Mackey and Sisodia (2013) defined ‘The Beautiful’ as “the pursuit of beauty and excellence, and the quest for perfection”
(p. 62). Several participants referenced an organizational pursuit of excellence that is essential to its existence, while through
an analysis of organizational artifacts and documents, written dedications to ‘winning’ and ‘success’ were found to be
prevalent. The organization’s pursuit of excellence was expressed through: (a) their desire to win championships; and (b)
their aspiration to ‘be the best.’
Many participants expressed excellence as a higher purpose for the organization through their desire to win
championships, as they acknowledged that an important element of the organization’s value to stakeholders is their
association to a winning team. For example, Leader 1 explained a customer’s connection to winning by stating, “at the end of
the day, regardless of why you became a fan, what keeps you a fan is winning.” Further, Middle Manager 2 explained
corporate partners’ connection to this source of purpose, explaining, “if we’re doing really poorly and their name is coming
up every time we lose, it’s not a great mental association. . . but, if players are scoring and in the background, their name is
behind the player. . . that would be winning for them, too.” An observation of artifacts and analysis of documents reinforced
the organization’s pride in their championship victories, as the number of championships the organization has won was
listed both in steel letters at the entrance of the workplace and in the one-sentence description of the organization on a social
media account.
One other expression of the purpose of excellence was found through organizational stakeholders' common aspiration to
‘be the best.’ Most explicitly, a poster observed in the organization’s workplace reads “Being the best. There is no other reason
to play.” Organizational leaders openly communicated their aspiration to ‘be the best,’ through both broadly published
statements, such as a leader in a newspaper interview stating, “we get up every day to deliver the best live viewing
experience,” and specific details of their practices, including a claim on the organizational website that their stadium’s seats
have the most ‘leg room’ of any similar stadium in the country. Direct Report 3 explained that organizational members take
“pride in being the top of the league and the top of the sports world.” Together, organizational stakeholders’ desire to win
championships and their quest of being the best represents a pursuit of excellence and an espoused higher purpose of The
Beautiful.

4.3. The true

Mackey and Sisodia (2013) defined The True as “the search for truth and the pursuit of knowledge” (p. 61), often
characterized by organizational stakeholders’ commitment to learn, be creative and innovative. In this study, it was found
that The True was espoused neither implicitly nor explicitly as a higher purpose of the organization by participants, as no one
referenced elements of The True as a reason the organization exists. Furthermore, no examples of a commitment to
innovation or furthering knowledge were observed within organizational artifacts or organizational document sources. That
said, two participants referenced innovation as a common value among staff, where Middle Manager 4 specifically explained,
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“we seem to be on the cutting edge a lot of times. . . it seems like we have this somewhat innovative culture where we’re
coming up with ways to get better and make the experience hopefully better for our customers.” Additionally, Middle
Manager 1 stated “we want to be on the cutting edge . . . . We’re always trying to push the boundary. . . [and] giving up the
good to go for the great.” Both participants who espoused these examples of The True worked with Middle Manager titles in
the organization’s Ticketing Department. Moreover, neither organizational leader, nor any direct reports espoused The True
as a higher purpose. Therefore, while it was found that these Middle Managers expressed innovation as a value guiding their
behaviour within one specific department, overall it was found that participants did not express The True as a higher purpose
throughout the organization.

4.4. The heroic

Mackey and Sisodia (2013) defined 'The Heroic' as “the courage to do what is right to improve the world” (p. 59). While not
all participants referenced this type of purpose, certain participants acknowledged the organization’s contributions to their
community as a reason the organization exists. The organization’s will to improve the world was expressed through: (a) their
attempts to give back to the community; and (b) the owner’s philanthropic intentions.
First, several participants referenced the organization’s initiatives to give back to the community as acts of generosity that
positively impact members of their community. For example, the organization positions the team’s athletes as community
role models through several organizational programs, as they deliver health and nutrition education at schools, coach and
mentor high school athletes, and are friendly visitors to children’s hospitals. Additionally, the organization was found to
include a form on their website, upon which local charities may apply for donated tickets and merchandise to be utilized for
fundraising initiatives.
Leader 1 however questioned the ‘heroic’ nature of the organization’s community partnerships, claiming:
[community programming] ultimately exists as a way to market the team and sell tickets, and not, ‘hey. . . our community
department is here to connect with youth and make impactful change.’ It’s right in the mission statement, but then
behind the scenes, we’re sort of told, ultimately, it’s a cheap, free, easy way to get in front of people.

This critique was corroborated with organizational documents, which revealed that the organization’s community
relation initiatives were overseen and executed by the marketing department; thus, charitable programs were structurally
positioned as associated with promoting the organization’s events.
Certain participants also perceived the organization’s owner’s philanthropic intentions as a reason the organization
exists. A newspaper article explains that the owner purchased the organization when it was facing bankruptcy in order to
salvage the team that his family and the community cherished. Middle Manager 5 further explained:
I know [the owner] loves sports, but it wasn’t like [their] first calling was to be the owner and the GM of a sports team . . . .
I think [they] had the finances to do it. . . to make sure that [the organization] was doing things that make the city great
and giving back.”

Thus, Middle Manager 5 acknowledged that in purchasing the organization, the owner intended to do ‘what was right’
and ensure the organization and its team could continue to exist. In this way, the owner’s behaviour appears to align with The
Heroic, as through their ownership, the organization is able to ‘improve the world’ by giving back to the community (The
Heroic), improve people’s quality of life (The Good), and pursue excellence (The Beautiful), thereby satisfying multiple types
of higher purposes.

4.5. Other purposes

Several participants also espoused other types of purposes that Mackey and Sisodia (2013) do not consider as ‘higher
purposes.’ First, certain participants referenced leaders’ dedication to revenue generation and profit maximization as a
source of purpose. For example, answers to the question about why the organization existed included: “to create revenue. It’s
a business, at the end of the entertainment” (MM7) and “it exists because there’s a business opportunity to make money off a
professional sport franchise and monetize that experience” (L2). Further, Middle Manager 3 suggested that the organization
has become more commercialized over time, saying the organization “has become more about the business. It’s been, maybe
a 100% sport, down to 50–50 in terms of being about the [sport] and now being about revenue generation.” Middle Manager
1 provided an alternate perspective, explaining that “we exist to make money, so that we’re a sustainable entity where we
exist year over year without fear of the team folding.” In a newspaper interview, the organization’s owner shared a similar
perspective, explaining that their goal is to make the organization profitable, to ensure its long-term sustainability.
Secondly, certain participants referenced the organization’s historical existence as a reason it currently exists. For
example, Direct Report 4 claimed, “[the organization] exists just because it’s always been here.” Other participants
referenced the traditions surrounding the organization’s team, with Middle Manager 3 explaining that “people have been
following the team for, theoretically, hundreds of years,” with Direct Report 2 suggesting that community members engage
with the organization because “it’s something they’ve always done.” Direct Report 1 also suggested that the organization’s
team is “so steeped in tradition that it seems like no matter how bad things get, the people and [the city] would just never let
it die.”
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4.6. Ambiguity towards higher purpose

When considering these findings above, participants’ dialogue towards each type of higher purposes is enlightening in
identifying sources of purpose for the organization; however, participants’ responses also suggest ambiguity towards the
organization’s higher purpose. For example, such ambiguity was first apparent among participants who had difficulty
answering the question, ‘why does this organization exist?’ Transcribed responses included: “Phew [exhale noise] . . .
umm. I guess . . . ya, that’s an interesting question” (MM1), “[long pause] . . . Hmmm. [pause]. I don’t know” (MM2), and
“That’s a tough question . . . . I think everybody would struggle with that question” (MM9).
This ambiguity was secondarily apparent from the variation among participants’ responses. When participants
provided an answer to the question of why the organization existed, each response was unique; participants varied in
whether they acknowledged one or several of The Good, The Beautiful, The Heroic, or non-higher purposes and varied in
how they emphasized the importance of each. With this, only one source of higher purpose was espoused by all
participants (i.e., entertainment and positive experiences). Further, several participants explicitly stated that they believe
their perception of the organization’s purpose would differ from other participants, with one participant stating, “I think
that more than likely there would be some common threads that come up. . . but I think everyone’s experience is a little bit
different” (MM1).
It is also noteworthy that there was no organizational artifact or document (i.e., public or private) found to state an
organizational higher purpose, mission, vision, or core values. Due to this, participants’ perceptions were the lone data
source for interpreting the organization’s higher purpose, to which they both struggled to define this purpose and varied in
their espousals. Thus, the organization’s higher purpose appears to be ambiguous, as the absence of an explicit statement by
leaders, participants’ difficulty defining the purpose and participants’ varied perceptions suggests that a unified definition of
the organization’s higher purpose does not exist.

5. Discussion

Key insights about this organization’s higher purpose were found, as espoused by participants (i.e., organizational
employees). Specifically, participants unanimously espoused The Good as a higher purpose, they espoused The Beautiful, The
Heroic, and The True to a more limited degree, and they also espoused other ‘non-higher purposes.’ These findings reveal
opportunities for leaders to improve their organization’s performance by developing a deeper understanding and definition
of the higher purpose of their professional sport organization, as well as inspiring further questions for future sport
management research.
The findings demonstrated that participants most predominantly espoused The Good (i.e., improvements to quality of
life) as the organization’s higher purpose, providing examples of how the organization improves quality of life for various
stakeholder groups, including the creation of entertainment, fostering of individual and community identity, inspiration of
community pride, and encouraging community unity. These findings align with Newman (2014) recognition of the value of
sport to individuals’ quality of life, describing how community leaders historically thought “of sport as a feature of the public
good” (p. 605) and that sport makes “for a healthier, more disciplined, and ultimately better society” (p. 605). These findings
also align with sport scholars’ research towards the value professional sport provides, including joy for spectators,
enhancements to self-identity, strengthened social networks, and increased community pride (Cialdini et al., 1976; Eastman
& Riggs, 1994; Jarvie, 2006; Wann et al., 2001, 2004). The narrative that sport positively contributes to quality of life is also
prominent in modern day, with the Olympic movement advocating for sport as “a service [to] the harmonious development
of humankind” (International Olympic Committee, 2017, p. 11).
Participants less prominently expressed the other three types of higher purpose than The Good, given some participants
(but not all) espoused The Beautiful and The Heroic as higher purposes, and given no participants espoused The True as a
higher purpose. These findings may indicate that stakeholders (including participants, leaders, other employees, and
ultimately, external stakeholder groups) have over-relied upon The Good to satisfy them, such that their espousal of other
potential meaningful higher purposes of a professional sport organization may be suppressed or not considered. For
example, the organization’s community relations initiatives (e.g., donation requests, community programming) being led by
their marketing department may have repurposed these initiatives from philanthropically improving the world (i.e., The
Heroic) to being promotion for the organization’s events (which contribute to The Good). The absence of The True may also
contribute to participants’ limited espousal of the other types of higher purpose, as stakeholders’ perceptions of the
organization’s scope may be limited to the traditional narrative of The Good if leaders have yet to encourage innovation or
evolvement.
Mackey and Sisodia (2013) acknowledged the advantages of integrating multiple types of higher purpose into
management practices and processes, which may reveal an opportunity for leaders to further attend to The Beautiful, The
True, and The Heroic as higher purposes. These authors suggest that the truest application of Conscious Capitalism is
pursuing an understanding and integration of all four types of higher purposes simultaneously, explaining:
many businesses straddle multiple purposes. . . . Ultimately, all four [types of higher purpose] are connected. When
something is Good, it is also True, Beautiful, and Heroic in its own specific ways. . . . There is always unity within the
diversity if our minds are able to see the integration (p. 64).
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One organizational leader provided an example of this type of integration in a newspaper interview, saying, “we get up
every day to deliver the best live viewing experience in [our country for] sports.” Here, the leader recognizes that the
organization’s creation of positive experiences (i.e., The Good) is realized through integrating pursuits of excellence and
‘being the best’ (i.e., The Beautiful). Further incorporating pursuits of excellence (i.e., The Beautiful), discovery, and
innovation (i.e., The True), and positive change (i.e., The Heroic) alongside pursuits of service (i.e., The Good), would allow
leaders to dedicate their sport organization to a fully integrated higher purpose.
Overall, viewing this organization through the lens of Conscious Capitalism reinforces an opportunity to relieve both
practitioners’ and scholars’ ambiguity towards the higher purpose of a professional sport organization. Participants’ lack of unity
towards a definition of their organization’s higher purpose and the absence of an explicitly stated purpose, mission, vision, or core
values within public or private organizational documents connects with Zeigler’s (2007) past query of sport scholars and
practitioners, “what are we really promoting, and do we know why we are doing it? I do not have a comprehensive answer” (p. 298).
This gap of understanding may also be impacting the performance of professional sport organizations, as scholars suggest
a lack of unified beliefs may be limiting to an organization’s performance. Barrett (2014) explained that misaligned beliefs
may cause cultural entropy and result in internal conflict and stakeholder frustration, as well as compromise the simplicity of
strategic direction and the employee commitment that value alignment can foster (Dolan & Garcia, 2002). Additionally,
Lencioni (2002) recognized that misaligned beliefs may result in stakeholders’ lacking a clear sense of identity, which can
inhibit stakeholder engagement. As such, based on the findings of this case study, scholars and practitioners alike may have
an opportunity to improve sport organizational performance by engaging stakeholders in reflection upon ‘why we are doing
it’ and by attempting to align stakeholders’ perceptions of the purpose of a professional sport organization.
Participants’ espousal of purposes that Mackey and Sisodia (2013) did not consider ‘higher purposes’ is also noteworthy.
Several participants espoused an organizational purpose of revenue-generation, suggesting that the organization exists
given the opportunity to monetize sport entertainment and profit from the organization’s events and experiences. As
previously explained, Mackey and Sisodia (2013) specifically cautioned against utilizing profit as an organizational purpose,
as devotion to profit-maximization may result in an imbalanced business practice, whereby value is generated for one
stakeholder group (i.e., investors) at the expense of others (e.g., employees, the environment).
Participants’ responses support scholars’ (Frisby, 2005; Newman, 2014) claim that sport management research and
practice is disproportionately focused towards the commercial aspects of sport organizations, whereby professional sport
organizations’ purpose beyond profit is de-emphasized. Scholars’ and practitioners’ common assumption that sport exists
“principally as a commercial activity” (Newman, 2014, p. 604) may thus represent a barrier for professional sport
organizations to generate the stakeholder value they are capable of providing, if this non-higher purpose is prized above
higher purposes (i.e., The Good, The Beautiful, The True, The Heroic). Therefore, within both this sport organization and the
greater sport industry, opportunities may exist to broaden a sport organization’s potential for generating stakeholder value,
if both scholars and practitioners aspire to fulfill a higher purpose.

5.1. Conclusions

In sum, the findings from this study provide a deep description of how organizational stakeholders of this case site
perceived a higher purpose in their professional sport organization. The discussion generated from this study mirrors sport
management scholars’ dialogue that recognizes the opportunity for sport organizational stakeholders to engage in an
exploratory, discovery-based dialogue and mainstream management scholars who have identified the prosperous
opportunity of aligning stakeholders with a meaningful and inspirational higher purpose.

5.2. Delimitations and limitations

Our deliberate choices in this study’s design bounded the case study to a specific case site and participant sample. First,
the organization chosen for this case study did not have a publicly or privately published purpose statement; and as such, the
case site was delimited to this organization to represent a typical organization in the professional sport industry. Secondly,
the interview sample was delimited to employees as the sole stakeholder group, due to their proximity to and intimacy with
the organization’s culture and their role in creating the products and services that provide other stakeholder groups (e.g.,
customers, partners, community members) value.
This study may have been limited by the interviewsample, as the limited numberof leaders serving as interview participants (n = 2)
may have resulted in a non-response bias (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). As such, descriptions of leadership behaviour were
largely derived from interview data with direct reports and middle managers (n = 11), from observations of organizational
artifacts and from organizational documents, rather than largely derived from organizational leaders themselves.

5.3. Opportunities for further reflection and future research

This study represents an empirically based reflection upon higher purpose for the case organization; however, further
reflection is required to establish a unified definition of the organization’s higher purpose. With participants varying in their
responses to the question ‘why does this organization exist?’ and no evidence forthcoming from leaders who may have
defined an organizational purpose, these leaders may have a strong opportunity to continue this dialogue, whereby
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stakeholders espouse the organization’s higher purpose. Such reflection may allow leaders to comprehensively understand
the organization’s value to its stakeholders and may generate a unifying definition of the organization’s higher purpose, from
which such a higher purpose could inspire benefits, including: leveraging an integration of stakeholders, adopting conscious
leadership practices, creating a conscious culture, and in turn, improving organizational performance.
Mackey and Sisodia (2013) recommended that leaders initiate a dialogue towards ‘why the organization exists’ by
conducting an exercise called a Purpose Search. Within this exercise, leaders engage in an in-person reflective practice with
members of each stakeholder group (e.g., other leaders, employees, partners, customers, community members), thereby
creating a dialogue about why the organization does and should exist to eventually arrive at a unified definition of the
organization’s higher purpose. Welty-Peachey et al. (2015) acknowledgement of internal stakeholders’ (e.g., athletes,
coaches) and external stakeholders’ (e.g., passionate fans) unique power within sport organizations emphasized the
importance of sport leaders integrating stakeholder perceptions in their definition of a higher purpose for a sport
organization. To this end, a Purpose Search practice may serve as a method for leaders to enact with stakeholders to
collectively reflect upon and define the organization’s higher purpose.
These findings and the corresponding discussion also revealed areas of inquiry that may benefit future sport management
practitioners and scholars, if further explored. First, future researchers have an opportunity to relieve the observed
ambiguity towards a professional sport organization’s purpose through continued questioning about ‘why professional sport
organizations exist’ and examining the value such organizations provide to their stakeholders. Single- or multiple-site case
studies may be useful to understand various stakeholders’ (e.g., employees, customers, partners, community members)
espoused purposes for their organizations. Furthermore, non-profit organizations may also find value in this exploration to
generate a tenable theory for their sport organization. Such a theory may further support sport leaders in communicating a
unified purpose of their organization, rallying stakeholders, and creating a clear sense of the organization’s identity;
practices that have been seen to improve an organization’s performance (Barrett, 2014; Lencioni, 2002).
Second, researchers have an opportunity to study sport leaders’ capacity for conscious leadership. Mackey and Sisodia
(2013) claimed that to lead a conscious organization, a leader must possess heightened awareness towards “[their] inner self,
[their] external reality, and the impacts [they] have on the world” (p. 29). Through the Leadership Development Framework
(LDF), Cook-Greuter (2004) defined various 'meaning-making levels' called action-logics, through which a leader's capacity
to embody such conscious leadership qualities can be assessed. Spence and Macdonald (2010) mixed methods study of sport
leaders’ relationships between their action logics and their transformational leadership capacities represented a first
exploration of conscious leadership capacity in sport management. As such, future research evaluating leaders' capacity may
allow scholars, leaders, and other transformational change agents to better support leaders with ‘inside-out’ developmental
interventions needed to fully utilize Conscious Capitalism.
Third, future researchers have an opportunity to identify management practices that may support leaders’ utilization of
Conscious Capitalism. Research of national sport organizations revealed that leaders' failure to integrate core values into
organizational practices, including decision-making, strategic planning, and program development, prevented these values
from influencing stakeholders and improving organizational performance (Bell-Laroche, Maclean, Thibault, & Wolfe, 2014;
Kerwin, Maclean, & Bell-Laroche, 2014). Thus, beyond identifying why sport organizations exist, it may be of equal
importance to understand how sport leaders can strategically utilize higher purpose within their management. Future case
study research of both commercial and non-profit organizations could explore how leaders currently manage organizational
culture and how leaders may integrate an awareness of higher purpose into their leadership practices to support improved
management practice and beneficial organizational outcomes.
In the process of exploring this organization’s higher purpose, these empirical findings support creation of future
knowledge within the sport management field. This study provides an example of how research may help to generate a
tenable theory for professional sport; that is, from scholars deeply examining why people believe professional sport
organizations exist and the value these organizations create for stakeholders. Further, this research provokes new questions
that may help scholars and practitioners recognize the unique character of a professional sport organization, such that they
are prepared to lead purposeful sport organizations of the future.

Declaration of Competing Interest

None.

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