gest that more research is needed in order to gain further understanding of

leadership requirements in the sport management profession.

In the past decade, much interest in and concern for the growing partici-
pation levels of sport has led to a demand for increased education and training
of specialists in the field. The professionalization of sport has included the de-
velopment of a research-supported body of knowledge, certification processes,
standards, professional organizations, and professional preparation guidelines,
all of which characterize much of the criteria of any profession. The direction
of professionalization has had two major thrusts: (a) recreational sport, which
includes the programmatic orientation of instructional, informal, intramural, ex-
tramural, and club sport as well as spectator aspects within those, including the
viewing of athletic and professional sport; and (b) sport management, which em-
phasizes functional aspects of all sport involvement such as organization, adrninis-
tration, finance, budgeting, marketing, staffing, coordination, planning, and
evaluation.
Proponents of each orientation toward sport have advocated increased re-
search in this field to determine appropriate methods of educating and training
the vast numbers of leadership personnel demanded by a burgeoning sport in-
terest. To this end, the need to identify basic knowledge in this growing field

Direct all correspondence to Lynn M. Jarnieson, Recreation Administration Pro-

gram, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407.
 Competency-Based Approaches 49

was acknowledged in a position paper by Mull (1975), who called for an identi-
ty, terminology, and rationale for recreational sports. Further efforts to establish
leadership in this field were noted by the joint development of a document, Profes-
sional Preparation of the Intramural-Recreational Sports Specialist (Beardsley
& Mull, 1977) by the National Intramural Sport Council and the National Intra-
mural-Recreational Sports Association. This inaugurated a pioneering effort to
provide depth and direction to our growing profession.
This paper addresses one method of research that has affected the develop-
ment of standards, certification, and curriculum in recreational sports, therapeu-
tic recreation, outdoor recreatideducation, and other fields. The method involves
identifying competencies or composite skills in practice and then relating them
to the training and education needs of students and personnel. A review of
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competency-basededucation (CBE) attributes, research in CBE competencies in

related fields, CBE in sport management, and implications for practice point to
a professional direction in sport management. It is by developing competencies
in sport management that a foundation is established for training, education, and
self-regulation of the profession.

Competency-Based Education Reviewed

Within the last 15 years, competency-based education has been developed at the
higher education level, most notably in teacher education. By definition, CBE
consists of "the student's acquisition of specific competencies through learning
objectives that are set in the form of specified learner behaviors" (Hall & Jones,
1973, pp. 10-11). A competency is a composite skill or combination of skills
that best define a core of interrelated actions.
The methods of securing or describing competencies for a given field have
included use of taxonomies developed by generally accepted authors, job analy-
sis of practitioners, critical incidents within specific job roles, the Delphi tech-
nique of consensus development, and checklist development and validation.
Regardless of the method used for listing composite skill requirements for a given
field, there is increased interest in delineating actual job or knowledge require-
ments and integrating them into educational and training objectives, thus linking
theory and practice.
CBE Research in Related Fields
Several researchers in the past decade have concentrated on competency-based
development of curriculum and training modules. The areas other than teacher
education that have received greatest attention are recreation, therapeutic recre-
ation, and outdoor recreation education. Kelley, Brandenburg, and Henkel(1982)
utilized a job analysis procedure to identify entry-leveljob functions in the field
of parks and recreation for certification purposes.
Support for using the practitioner as a source for CB development was
articulated by Rainwater (1978), who stated, "It would seem that the therapeutic
recreation practitioner is most cognizant of competencies necessary for entry level
jobs in therapeutic recreation" @. 20). Kennedy (1978) stated that practitioners
have a higher perception of competencies that need to be performed than educa-
tors do. Swiderski (1981) utilized competency statements and a six-point Likert
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1. Business procedures
2. Comunications
3. Facilitylmaintenance
4. Governance
5. Legality 11. Safetylaccident prevention
6. Management techniques 12. Science

Tables 1, 2, and 3 show the top 20 competency statements for each level
of employment. The importance ranking scale was applied as follows: 0 = not
applicable; 1 = below average importance; 2 = average importance; 3 = above
average importance. A mean score of 2.000 or above allowed for a more inclu-
sive list of competencies not included in this paper.

Table 1
Entry Level (I) Rankings of Top Competency Statements

Competency statement Rank Score*

Recognizes safety hazards which cause injury

Knows basic recreational sports terminology
Identifies and encourages participants for programs
Recognizes various factors that lead to accidents
Understands specific risks of sports activity
Observes and supervises recreational sports participants
Exhibits practical experience in officiating
Handles player misconduct in game environment
Reports maintenance needs of facilities and equipment
Understands symptoms of injuries
Ensures safety through equipment maintenance
 Competency-Based Approaches 51

Table 1 (cont.)

Competency statement Rank Score*

Knows levels of competition in sport

Possesses necessary certification in first aid
Maintains effective communications with public
Knowledge of administration of a facility reservation system
Understands theories of competitive and cooperative play
Knows procedures for dealing with recognition of participants
Understands procedures for settling protests
Conducts routine inspections of facilities and equipment
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Utilizes effective decision making skills

*See note under Table 3.

Table 2
Middle Level (11) Rankings of Top 20 Competency Standards

Competency statement Rank Score*

Recognizes safety hazards which cause injury

Utilizes effective decision-making skills
Demonstratesability to schedule tournaments, leagues, and meets
Maintains effective communications with the public
ldentifies and encourages participants for programs
Maintains effective communications with staff
Knows basic recreational sport terminology
Understands procedures for settling protests
Establishes supervisory controls that prevent participant misuse
of a facility
Understands specific risks of sport activity
Recognizes various factors that lead to accidents
Conducts and investigates disciplinary action, accidents, game
protests, and eligibility status reports
Reports maintenance needs of facilities and equipment
Understands the broad spectrum of recreational sports participants
Understands leadership techniques operational in recreational sports
Develops and maintains procedures for postponements and re-
scheduling
ldentifies and utilizes procedures to regulate the conduct of spec-
tators and participants
Knows levels of competition in sport
Knows procedures for dealing with recognition of participants
Understands the theories of cooperative and competitive play

*See note under Table 3.

 52 Jamteson

Table 3
Top Level (Ill) Rankings of Top 20 Competency Statements

Competency statement Rank Score*

Utilizes effective decision-making skills

Prepares and defends a budget proposal
Examines and analyzes a budget
Maintains effective communications with public
Maintains effective communications with staff
Prepares administrative guidelines for programming
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Recognizes the philosophical values of recreational sports to the

individual
ldentifies sources of income for budget
Comprehends legal implications in recreational sports
Coordinates interagency cooperation
ldentifies and applies affirmative action guidelines to personnel
and programming
Applies purchasing policies and procedures
Understandsthe broad spectrum of recreational sports opportunities
Establishes preventative measures against negligence
Utilizes time management techniques
Establishes procedures reflecting fair treatment of staff and par-
ticipants
Prepares organizational guidelines for staffing and programming
Recognizes safety hazards which cause injury
Participates in short and long range facility development
Understands a philosophical basis of recreational sports

*Rating scale: 0 = Not applicable; 1 = Below average importance; 2 = Average impor-

tance; 3 = Above average importance.

Grouping of competencies into one of the 12 competency areas allowed

for testing of significant differences between settings and employment levels. Table
4 shows relative rankings of the competency areas according to employment level.
Jamieson further analyzed the competency areas through a BMD P2V
Manova program. Tables 5 and 6 showed no significantdifferences for institution-
al settings, p < .01,but did show significant differences at the professional level,
as expected. Jamieson concluded that there is an identifiable body of knowledge
in the field of recreational sports and that it can be utilized in competency-based
form for developing a curriculum. Jennings (1984) replicated this study, utiliz-
ing the Jamieson RSCA instrument to delineate entry-level competencies as iden-
tified by chairpersons of preparational institutions. The differences between theory
and practice were revealed in the results of this study. Using the same priority
ranking scale, the following differences are shown for entry level in Table 7.
Analysis of these two studies would allow for cumculum planning that is
sensitive not only to practitioners' needs but also to educational theory as represent-
 Competency-Based Approaches

Table 4
Competency Area Ranking by Employment Level

Competency area Level l Level II Level Ill

Business
Communications
Facilitylmaintenance
Governance
Legality
Management techniques
Officiating
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Philosophy
Programming techniques
Research
Safetylaccident prevention
Science

Table 5
Levels for Institutional Settings Based on Curriculum Areas

Curriculum areas

Business procedures
Communications
Facilitylmaintenance
Governance
Legality
Management techniques
Officiating
Philosophy
Programming techniques
Research
Safetylaccident prevention
Science

ed by educational chairpersons. Ellard (1985) determined the competencies re-

quired to manage commercial recreational sport enterprises. Through a list of
62 competency statements, the research employed a cluster analysis method to
group competencies into five clusters: business procedures, resource rnanage-
ment, personnel management, planning and evaluation, and programming tech-
niques. Competencies with a mean ranking of less than 2.000 were eliminated
from the list in Table 8.
 Jarnieson

Table 6
Levels of Professional Levels Based on Curriculum Areas

Curriculum areas Level Interaction

Business procedures ,0000' ,0213

Communications .OOOO* .0124
Facilitylmaintenance .OOOO' .OOOO*
Governance .O00Oa ,091 6
Legality .OOOO* .0263
Management techniques .0093* .0042*
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Officiating .OOOO* .0764

Philosophy .OOO* .OOOO*
Programming techniques .OOOO* .00001"
Research .OOOO' .0017*
Safetylaccident prevention .0030* .0547
Science .0001* ,0045"

Table 7
Comparison Ranking of Competency Areas

Phys. Ed. Recreation

Competency area chairs chairs Jamieson

Business procedures 11 9 10
Communications 3 3 7
Facilitylmaintenance 10 8 6
Governance 4 4
Legality 9 7 5
11
Management techniques 8 5 9
Officiating 5 11
Philosophy 1 1 8
4
Programming techniques 6 6 2
Research 12 12 12
Safetylaccident prevention 2 2
Science 7 10 31

Implications for Practice

As in any pioneering effort, more research is needed to validate and increase
the understanding of the complexities inherent in sport management. Several points
may serve to guide future efforts in the development of competency-based edu-
cation. First, this paper demonstrates the detail necessary for establishing an
 Competency-Based Approaches

Table 8
Cluster Labels for Competencies

Cluster 1 Cluster 2
Business Procedures Resource Management
Budget preparation In-service training
Budget review Time management
Legal liability and responsibility Resource allocation
Enterprise evaluation Organizational structure
Employee compensation Arealfacility management
Pricing, fees, and charges Facility management
Marketing
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Advertising
Publicity/promotion
Cluster 4
Purchasing
Business procedures
Planning and Evaluation
Accounting and bookkeeping Program goals and objectives
Financial recordkeeping Strategic planning
Organizational goals and objectives
Program evaluation
Program policies
Cluster 3 Problem solving
Personnel Management Program leadership techniques
Employee evaluation Interest assessment
Hiring
Performance measures
Job analysis
Job descriptions Cluster 5
Staff and personnel supervision Programming Techniques
Staff communication Complaint handling
Staff meetings Communication with clientele
Priority setting Equipment repair and replacement
Employee motivation First aid and safety
Decision-making Program development
Personnel policies and procedures Leagues and tournaments
Employee grievance procedures Instructional programs
Employee recruitment Clinics and special events
Security policies and procedures Program planning
Sports rules and regulations
Awards and recognition
Facility scheduling

acceptable body of knowledge in this field. Course and training module develop-
ment can be generated from competency identification that reflects the sensitivity
to practitioner and educator consensus. Second, existing studies are setting-
specific. Studies reflecting a composite of settings would be valuable, as there
appears to be little difference in settings concerning the training of sports mana-
 56 Jamieson

gers. Third, closer association with practitioners in the field can add dynamism
to education development as well as relating education to certification, standards,
evaluation, and professional development. For example, a certification exarnina-
on, standards document, and curriculum resource bide were developed for t
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National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association(1984). Recreational sports curriculum:

A resource guide. Corvallis, OR: NLRSA.
Rainwater, A. (1978). Comparative analysis of competenciesfor therapeutic recreation
technician I1 and therapeutic recreation leader practitioners in therapeutic recre-
ation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Oregon.
Swiderski, M. (1981). Outdoor leadership competencies identified by outdoor leaders in
$ve western regions. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Oregon.