2009 ISECS International Colloquium on Computing, Communication, Control, and Management

The Research on the Organizational Culture of Competitive Sport Organization

and Its Effect on the Organizational Effectiveness in China
Zhang DongJun
Department of Physical Education
Zhangzhou Normal University
Zhangzhou, Fujian, China
e-mail: zhangdj2001@126.com
development in China. Slack(1997) point to organizational
culture as an alternative approach to those traditional social
psychological approaches to the study of sport management,
offering rich insights to sport management. Organizational
culture values gives stability to an organization and help its
member to Make sense of organizational activities (Slack,
1997). At present, Chinese competitive sports organizations, is
conducting a comprehensive reform of the professional, but
there are many problems need to be solved. By building the right
organizational culture, the development of competitive sports to
create a positive external environment, and nurture the core
values of sports organizations will help to solve such problems.

AbstractThis research applies the methodology of

management psychology scale with which the empirical
research is conducted to the various competitive sport
organizations mainly in the area of Hubei regarding the
relations between organizational culture and organizational
effectiveness. The two questionnaires both adopted the score
of Likert 5-points. Statistical tool of SPSS11.5 and
LISREL8.5 are adopted to analyze the investigation results
by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), one-Way
MANOVA, correlation and regression. The purposes of this
study were to clarify the reality and the consistency of
organizational culture and organizational effectiveness of
competitive sport organizations in our country. It was also to
compare the differences between those personnels
demographic variables on their organizational culture and
organizational effectiveness. In addition, it tried to probe the
relationship
between
organizational
culture
and
organizational
effectiveness
of
competitive
sport
organizations.
The main results are as follows:
(1)The scores of each dimension of organizational culture
and organizational effectiveness are even. The organizational
culture and organizational effectiveness in competitive sport
organizations were very congruent.
(2)There are significant differences in the assessment of
organizational culture and organizational effectiveness made
by athletics of different background, in which the effects of
age, technical grades, training yeas on organizational culture
have reached up to a significant degree.
(3)A higher correlation between organizational culture and
organizational effectiveness exist in competitive sport
organizations.
(4)The organizational effectiveness of competitive sport
organizations could be predicted effectively by their
organizational culture. Especially both development culture
and consensual culture had powerful predictability.
Keywordsorganizational
culture;
effectiveness; competitive sport organization

I.

II.

METHODS

1. Sample
320 athletes from Hubei province men's volleyball team, track
and field team, wushu team, table tennis team etc. were
investigated. Of the 320 survey instrument distributed, 304 were
returned usable for this analysis, representing a return of 95%.
2. Literature Review
A large number of foreign and domestic organizational culture
literature were collected, provide theoretical support for this
study.
3. Interview
Some athletes and coaches were interviewed to understand their
cognitive of organizational culture and organizational
effectiveness, in order to obtain of some relevant information
this study.
4. Questionnaire
This study adopted a questionnaire about the organizational
culture and organizational effectiveness, which come from
Cameron and Quinn (Cameron & Quinn, 1999), and all items
were measured on a five-point Likert scale of 1 to 5 , from
strongly agree to strongly disagree. In addition to
organizational culture and organizational effectiveness
instrument, the questionnaire include some question about
background of respondents.
5. Data Analysis
The data were analyzed by the SPSS and LISERL computer
statistical packages.

organizational

INTRODUCTION

With the successful held of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games,

the peoples enthusiasm about take part in sport increased
continuously, and various sports organizations in China have
been booming. As the most part of sports organization in china,
competitive sports influence peoples life more directly and
intensely, they play an immeasurable role in the development of
the health of the community. There is growing evidence that
organizational culture affects an organizations ability to
perform, and that culture has an important relationship with and
contributes to organizational effectiveness (Cameron & Freeman,
1991). Therefore, the effectiveness level of organization would
have vital impact on the competitive sport organization

978-1-4244-4246-1/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

III.

RESULTS

1. Descriptive statistical analysis for variables

1.1 The present situation of organizational culture and
organizational effectiveness
From table and table, we can see the reality of
organizational culture and organization effectiveness and in
China's competitive sports organizations. Overall, there were not
significant difference in various dimensions of organizational
culture and organizational effectiveness. The conformity of
organization culture and effectiveness were calculated (table).
1.2 The difference of organization culture in various
demographic of respondents

CCCM 2009

419

To analyze the difference among the athletes of various

background in competitive Sport organizations with regards to
their cognition difference in, the results obtained by analysis of
variance.
Table displayed that male is scoring higher than female only
in consensual culture (p<.05), in other organization culture
dimensions, there werent significance differences (p>05).
Table and table showed the difference of various age
athletes scores about organizational culture, the age of 21-25
years scored significantly higher than these 21years and below in
Development Culture, Consensual Culture and Organization
Culture (p<.01). 26-30years scored higher than 21years and
below in Consensual Culture (p<.01).
Table and table showed the difference of various technical
levels athletes scores about organizational culture. In the item
of development culture and organization culture, the
international top athletes significantly higher than first, second
and third-class athletes (p<.01). Elite athletes in China
significantly higher than first, second -class athletes (p<.01).
Table and table showed the difference of different training
periods about organizational culture.
Training periods of 6-10 years group scored significantly higher
than other training periods group in Development Culture,
Consensual Culture and Organization Culture (p<.01).
2. The Relationship between Organizational Culture and
Organizational Effectiveness
To probe the factors impacting organizational culture and
organizational effectiveness, this study used Pearson correlation
to analysis the different factors of organizational culture on
organizational effectiveness. The results showed that the
correlation coefficient between organizational culture and
organizational effectiveness are very significant (p< .01), 45
coefficients were all positive. That means, all dimensions of
organizational culture had a positive impact on all dimensions of
organizational effectiveness (Table ).
Last, for measuring the efficiency that organizational culture
affects organizational effectiveness, this paper adopted multiple
regression analysis (Table ). It showed that organizational
culture highly influenced organizational effectiveness,
organizational culture can interpret 65.4% of total variation of
organizational effectiveness. Its means, the more significant the
Consensual Culture, Hierarchical Culture, Rational Culture and
Development culture, the higher the organizational effectiveness.
In all dimensions of organizational culture, this study found they
can effectively predict the organizational effectiveness, and
among them the Consensual Culture and Hierarchical Culture
have better predictability.

IV.

CONCLUSION

1. The scoring of organizational culture and organizational

effectiveness are all medium to high level. Among four
dimension culture, Hierarchical Culture ranked first. And in
organizational effectiveness, the highest was Direction, Goal
Clarity.
2. There was high conformity in organizational culture and
organizational effectiveness of competitive Sport organizations
in China.
3. This research found significant difference in organizational
culture and effectiveness which perceived by various gender, age,

TABLE I.

technical levels, training periods of competitive sport

organization athletes.
4. There exist high positive correlation between organizational
culture and of competitive sport organizations. All aspects of
organizational culture can been effective prediction on the
organizational effectiveness. Among them Consensual Culture
and Hierarchical Culture have better predictability.

V.

IMPLICATIONS

1. Continue to strengthen Chinese competitive sports

organizational culture, especially the consensual culture and
Hierarchical Culture, it should be the key work for promoting
organizational effectiveness.
2. When competitive sports organizations building
organizational culture, they should pay more attention to
different backgrounds of athletes, treated them differently. Only
in this way can them built stronger organizational culture, obtain
good organizational effectiveness.
3. Tough the present empirical results largely support the current
model, this study still has several limitations. First, since the
empirical data were provide by individual informants, the
existence of possible biases cannot be discounted. Second, the
current data were collected in Hubei province, and the
distribution of the scale of the competitive sport organizations
surveyed may be quite different from that in other province.
Thus, it should not be assumed that the present results represent
the wider case.

REFERENCES
[1]

Cameron, K. S. Domains of Organizational effectiveness in

colleges and universities. Academy of Management Journal,1981,
24,25-47.
[2] 2. Cameron, K.S. & Freeman, S. J., & Mishra, A. K. 1991. Best
practices in white-collar downsizing: Managing contradictions.
Academy of Management Executive. 5: 57-73
[3] 3. Cameron, K. S. Effectiveness as paradox: Consensus and
conflict in conceptions of organizational effectiveness.
Management Science,1986, 32(5), 539- 553.
[4] 4. Cameron, K. S., & Whetten, D, A. Organizational Effectiveness:
A Comparison of Multiple Models. New York, NY: Academic
Press, 1983.
[5] 5. Colyer S. Organizational Culture in Selected Western Australian
Sport Organization. Journal of Sport Management, 2000: 14, 321341.
[6] 6. Peters, T. J., & Waterman, R. H. In search of excellence:
Lessons from Americas best-run companies. New York, NY:
Harper & Row, 1982.
[7] 7. Quinn, R. E., & Cameron, K. S. Paradox and transformation:
Toward a theory of change in organization and management.
Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1988.
[8] 8. Quinn, R. E., & Mcgrath, M. R. The transformation of
organizational cultures: A competing value perspective. In P. J.
Frost, M. R, 1985.
[9] 9. Quinn, R. E. Beyond rational management: Mastering the
paradoxes and competing demands of high performance. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1988.
[10] 10. Slack, T. (1997). Understanding sport organizations: The
application of organization. of sport marketing. Champaign, IL:
Human Kinetics.

TABLE1 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS FOR REALITY OF ORGANIZATION CULTURE

420

Rational Culture
Mean
S.D

3.68
0.44

TABLE II.

Mean
S.D

Direction,
Goal Clarity
3.73
0.64

Development
Culture
3.59
0.47

Productivity,
Accomplishment
3.72
0.71

TABLE III.

Consensual
Culture
3.67
0.51

Hierarchical
Culture
3.70
0.46

Organizational
Culture
3.66
0.33

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS FOR REALITY OF ORGANIZATION EFFECTIVENESS

Innovation,
Adaptation
3.46
0.67

External
Support, Growth
3.50
0.55

Participation,
Openness
3.62
0.72

Commitment,
Morale
3.63
0.59

Stability,
Control
3.66
0.66

Documentation,
Information
3.56
0.67

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS FOR THE CONFORMITY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE & EFFECTIVENESS

Dimensions of Organizational
Culture & Effectiveness
Rational Culture
Rational Goal Model
Development Culture
Open System Model

Average of
Each Item
3.68
3.73
3.58

Deviation

Dimensions of Organizational
Culture & Effectiveness
Consensual Culture
Human Relations Model
Hierarchical Culture
Internal Process Model

0.05
0.10

Average of
Each Item
3.67
3.63
3.70

Deviation
0.04
0.09

Note: *represents p<0.05** represents p<0.01the following is same

TABLE IV.

ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OF ORGANIZATION CULTURE IN GENDER

Dimensions

Male

Rational Culture
Development Culture
Consensual Culture
Hierarchical Culture
Organizational Culture
TABLE V.
Dimensions

Rational
Culture
Developmen
t Culture
Consensual
Culture
Hierarchical
Culture
Organization
al Culture

SD
2.58
2.96
2.96
2.90
8.10

Mean
21.91
21.48
21.57
22.07
87.04

SD
2.74
2.50
3.20
2.45
7.74

F
.707
.029
4.28
.365
1.49

Sig
.401
.864
.039*
.546
.223

ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OF ORGANIZATION CULTURE IN AGE

20 years and below

Mean
SD
21.94
2.60
21.17
2.63
21.65
2.98
22.07
2.73
86.83
7.49

Rational Culture
Development Culture
Consensual Culture
Hierarchical Culture
Organizational Culture
TABLE VI.

Female

Mean
22.17
21.43
22.31
22.27
88.18

21-25 years
Mean
SD
22.62
2.52
22.40
2.91
23.52
2.58
22.58
2.48
91.12
7.35

26-30 years
Mean
SD
22.44
4.13
24.00
4.00
23.56
4.93
23.22
3.73
93.22
15.21

F
1.48
8.32
9.32
1.38
8.63

Sig
.229
.000**
.000**
.253
.000**

ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OF ORGANIZATION CULTURE IN ATHLETES' TECHNICAL LEVELS

the international
top athletes
Mean
SD
25.10
2.99

elite athletes in
China
Mean
SD
22.71
2.65

first-class
athlete
Mean
SD
21.91
2.39

second-class
athlete
Mean
SD
21.10
2.98

third-class
athlete
Mean
SD
22.67
2.84

F
6.12

Sig
.000**

24.00

3.40

22.78

2.95

21.32

2.50

20.22

2.76

20.33

3.06

8.16

.000**

26.10

2.99

23.71

2.94

21.42

2.84

21.71

2.71

22.33

3.65

11.54

.000**

24.70

2.98

22.80

2.81

22.00

2.47

21.90

3.30

21.67

3.08

3.27

.012*

99.90

7.88

92.00

8.20

86.65

6.90

84.93

7.75

87.00

9.59

13.43

.000**

TABLE VII.

Rational Culture
Development Culture
Consensual Culture
Hierarchical Culture
Organizational Culture

ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OF ORGANIZATION CULTURE IN LENGTH OF TRAINING

2 years and below

Mean
SD
21.91
2.78
20.93
2.91
21.53
3.19
21.60
3.09
85.98
8.72

3-5years
Mean
SD
21.93
2.52
21.20
2.40
21.71
2.78
22.23
2.43
87.07
6.49

TABLE VIII.

5-10 years
Mean
SD
22.98
2.54
23.39
2.92
24.08
2.83
23.18
2.67
93.63
7.66

10 years and above

Mean
SD
18.00
5.66
17.50
3.54
18.00
7.07
20.00
5.66
73.50
21.92

MULTIPLE COMPARISONS SCHEFFE

421

F
3.90
11.82
10.75
4.04
14.61

Sig
.009**
.000**
.000**
.008**
.000**

Organizational
Effectiveness
3.61
0.36

Gender(1=male, 2=female)
Age(1=20 years and
below,2=21-25 years,3=2630 years)
technical levels
(1= the international top
athletes, 2=elite athletes in
China 3= first-class athlete
4= first-class athlete 5=
first-class athlete)
Training periods (1=2years
and below, 2=3-5years,
3=6-10years,
4=10 years and above)

Rational
Culture
.401
.229

Development
Culture
.864
.000**

Consensual
Culture
.039*
.000**

Hierarchical
Culture
.546
.253

Organizational
Culture
.223
.000**

.000**

.000**

.000**

.012*

.000**

.009**

.000**

.000**

.008**

.000**

TABLE IX.

Stability, Control
Participation, Openness
Documentation, Information
Direction, Goal Clarity
Productivity,
Accomplishment
Innovation, Adaptation
Commitment, Morale
External Support, Growth
Organizational Effectiveness

Dimension of organizational
effectiveness
Stability, Control

External Support, Growth

Innovation, Adaptation
Commitment, Morale
Direction, Goal Clarity
Productivity,
Accomplishment
Organizational Effectiveness

C23124
C33124
C431
C53124

.316**
.266**
.323**
.298**
.258**

Development
Culture
.257**
.288**
.224**
.272**
.243**

Consensual
Culture
.285**
.398**
.300**
.216**
.301**

Hierarchical
Culture
.231**
.287**
.215**
.201**
.265**

Organizational
Culture
.317**
.396**
.341**
.250**
.309**

.334**
.319**
.346**
.514**

.365**
.303**
.347**
.521**

.296**
.282**
.373**
.536**

.339**
.236**
.435**
.475**

.426**
.365**
.480**
.654**

TABLE X.

Documentation, Information

C312
C22131
C321
C521
C1123
C21345 234
C3134 234
C51345 234

THE CORRELATION COEFFICIENT BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE & EFFECTIVENESS

Rational Culture

Participation, Openness

Scheffe

The order of selected

variable
Development Culture
Hierarchical Culture
Development Culture
Rational Culture
Consensual Culture
Development Culture
Rational Culture
Consensual Culture
Development Culture
Consensual Culture
Rational Culture
Hierarchical Culture
Consensual Culture
Hierarchical Culture
Hierarchical Culture
Consensual Culture
Development Culture
Hierarchical Culture
Consensual Culture
Consensual Culture
Hierarchical Culture
Rational Culture
Development Culture

MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS

R

R2

R2

F change

Beta

.280
.336
.345
.396
.412
.325
.357
.432
.503
.375
.419
.433
.397
.417
.298
.323
.353
.284
.334
.530
.607
.637
.657

.078
.113
.119
.157
.170
.105
.128
.186
.253
.140
.176
.187
.157
.174
.089
.105
.125
.081
.112
.280
.369
.405
.431

.078
.034
.119
.038
.013
.105
.022
.186
.067
.140
.035
.012
.157
.017
.089
.016
.020
.081
.031
.280
.088
.037
.026

25.659
19.109
40.682
27.952
20.410
35.613
22.010
69.113
50.922
49.268
32.080
23.048
56.386
31.679
29.344
17.580
14.228
26.480
18.918
117.735
87.891
68.154
56.694

25.659
11.653
40.682
13.533
4.650
35.613
7.625
69.113
26.821
49.268
12.944
4.285
56.386
6.023
29.344
5.389
6.842
26.480
10.521
117.735
42.046
18.476
13.675

.592
.591
.761
.523
.361
.804
.475
.708
.661
.666
.587
.355
.809
.354
.836
.445
-.437
.686
.514
3.392
3.078
2.372
2.254

.205
.200
.248
.162
.130
.278
.156
.328
.278
.257
.195
.115
.351
.136
.298
.178
-.159
.222
.187
.305
.246
.183
.184

422