Gun Annika Viola Bodemar

• Strittmatter, Anna-Maria; Horbel, Chris; Traberg, Josephine; Strömberg, Julius Zackarias; Bodemar, Gun Annika Viola & Grønkjær, Allan B. [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2024). Prioritization of the Sustainable Development Goals in the sustainability transition process of sport organizations: national strategies and sport managers’ perspectives. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research. ISSN 2509-3142. 55, p. 94–103. doi: 10.1007/s12662-024-00985-z. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study explores the relevance, and applicability, of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to Norwegian sport organizations’ sustainability transition. The following research questions guided the study: (1) How do National Sport Governing Bodies (NGBs) strategically address and prioritize SDGs and why? (2) How does the strategic prioritization of SDGs align with sport managers’ perspectives? (3) What does their prioritization of SDGs imply about the progress of sustainability transition within the Norwegian sports sector? The qualitative study is based on three interviews with directors in NGBs, document analysis of 11 strategy documents by six NGBs’ and essays produced by 82 sport managers representing the respective NGBs. Data analysis was informed by neo-institutional theory and the waves of sustainability transition framework. In our sample, spanning a diverse range of sports, we observed that 10 different SDGs are seen as relevant for NGBs from a strategy perspective, while sport managers prioritized eight. There is a strong alignment between national strategies and sport managers’ perspectives which is explainable through coercive, mimetic and normative pressures within the organizational field of sports. This further demonstrates that SDG prioritization is linked to the sport political context. While the alignment of prioritization from different perspectives provides a solid foundation for advancing sustainability work, the missing link between the SDGs and organizational goals with concrete suggestions for measures witnesses that Norwegian sport organizations are still in the infancy of sustainable transition.

• Bodemar, Gun Annika Viola & Skille, Eivind Åsrum (2024). Aspirerende ledere på store idrettsarrangement. In Næss, Hans Erik (Eds.), Idrettsledelse i praksis. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202820794. p. 129–150. Full text in Research Archive
• Bodemar, Annika (2022). The balancing act of conformity: aspiring leaders’ response to managerial pressure. Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics. ISSN 1743-0437. doi: 10.1080/17430437.2022.2115363. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper explores conformity processes in various sport events’ institutional contexts. More specifically, I examine how conformity evolves for young aspiring leaders in two inaugural major sport events representing different institutional contexts. My study draws upon qualitative data. Cross-comparative analyses reveal three different conformity modes: straight, reflexive, and cynical. My results show how conformity modes depend greatly upon the degree of institutionalization of practices, rules, and power structures within a given event’s organization. I identify strong institutional frameworks and expediency as key drivers. This paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the significance of the institutional context and consequences of control regimes in event management. Pressure towards conformity seems to be a fast-paced process. Capturing young people’s reflections is important because sport organizations will benefit from reflexive leaders and managers who can solve current and future challenges in such organizations.

• Bodemar, Annika; Strittmatter, Anna-Maria & Fahlen, Josef (2020). Doomed to fail? A study of how junior managers at a major sport event cope with leadership issues. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing. ISSN 1475-8962. 20(3-4), p. 271–288. doi: 10.1504/IJSMM.2020.110845. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The organising committee at the 2012 World Snowboarding Championships in Oslo experienced major problems such as uncertainty among the junior managers and general chaos. Despite this, in external communications, the event was declared to be a success. This article draws on the works of Parent and Seguin (2007) and Parent et al. (2009) to examine the key leadership and organisational factors that contributed to these problems. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the junior managers coped with uncertainty and solved problems. This study is based on semi-structured interviews, documents, and participant observations. The findings show that a variety of mechanisms caused uncertainty, including some factors that predicted the event's failure. Although the existing literature is focused on explaining events' success or lack thereof via leadership, this case provides an opportunity to understand how an event can succeed despite the presence of factors that typically lead to failure.

• Strittmatter, Anna-Maria; Kilvinger, Boris; Bodemar, Annika; Skille, Eivind & Kurscheidt, Markus (2018). Dual governance structures in action sports: institutionalization processes of professional snowboarding revisited. Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics. ISSN 1743-0437. p. 1–19. doi: 10.1080/17430437.2018.1440696. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article examines the current governance structures in international competitive snowboarding and analyses empirically how key actors operate within the diverging logics that shape such structures. We expand upon the existing literature on professional snowboarding by offering a more contemporary understanding of the constantly evolving processes of institutionalization. Qualitative data was gathered from the authors’ first-hand experiences with international snowboarding, based on (1) interviews with system insiders, (2) document analysis, and (3) participant observations. Two dominant and contradicting logics of competitive snowboarding were identified, forming a fragmented, dual institutional structure that we call the industry-based and nation-based governance model. Our findings suggest that recent professionalization processes have led to defragmentation efforts, thus signalling a shift towards a nation-based governance focus. Therefore, we conclude that other action sports that will join the Olympics, such as surfing and skateboarding, are advised to find solutions for mediating inherent contradictions of governance logics to avoid institutional fragmentation at an early stage.

• Bodemar, Annika & Skille, Eivind Åsrum (2016). ‘Stuck in structure’: How young leaders experienced the institutional frames at the Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, 2012. International Review for the Sociology of Sport. ISSN 1012-6902. 51(8), p. 940–956. doi: 10.1177/1012690214563198. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The aim of this paper is to explore how young leaders within the Innsbruck Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee experienced the degree of freedom within the institutionalized structure of the International Olympic Committee. Employing a theoretical framework of new institutionalism, a qualitative case study including observations and interviews was conducted. The concept of translation provides a framework for analysing institutional change in organizations, where new ideas are combined with existing institutional practices and translated into new practices to varying degrees. The Innsbruck Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee consisted of young people with experiences from the event industry. This resulted in greater pressure to introduce new institutional solutions to the field. Despite being constrained by coercive pressure from the International Olympic Committee, new innovative elements were translated by the young leaders in the Innsbruck Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee into the International Olympic Committee event. However, the innovations were restricted to areas that the International Olympic Committee defined as less important such as sustainability projects as opposed to important areas like marketing.

• Bodemar, Annika & Skille, Eivind Åsrum (2014). Young leadership : an exploration using neo-institutionalism and authentic leadership theory. In Hanstad, Dag Vidar; Parent, Milena & Houlihan, Barrie (Ed.), The Youth Olympic Games. Routledge. ISSN 9780415839877. p. 75–90. Full text in Research Archive

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• Bodemar, Annika (2022). Aspiring leaders at sport events: Perception and enactment of leadership. Norges idrettshøgskole. ISSN 9788250206052. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The empirical context for this dissertation is leadership in sport and particularly leadership at sport events, within the academic research field of sport management. This dissertation aims to analyse aspiring leaders in sport events, specifically how young people (aged 24–34 years) perceive and enact leadership in various institutional settings in the sport event contexts. To do so, in this dissertation, I examine four research questions: (a) the influence of the institutional context on aspiring leaders’ perceived agency; (b) aspiring leaders’ coping strategies to deal with uncertainty and ensure successfully completed events; (c) the influence of institutional contexts on aspiring leaders’ conformity processes; and (d) the reasons for diminishing leadership and replacement by conformity in the sport event context. The applied theoretical framework combines neo-institutional theory and two critical leadership perspectives (modes of organizing and functional stupidity). Neo-institutional theory was used to explain how different event contexts enable and constrain leadership. Modes of organizing helped to determine the organizational processes at play and functional stupidity was used to explain the outcome and key drivers behind the organizational processes. The research design is a multiple-case study drawing on qualitative data gathered at two large-scale sport events: the 2012 Innsbruck Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and the 2012 World Snowboarding Championships (WSC). The study uses a qualitative inquiry comprising 47 interviews with staff,representing various hierarchal levels in the organizing committees and is supported by observations before, during, and after the events captured in field notes and documents. The findings showed that aspiring leaders in highly institutionalized settings, such as the YOG, and loosely institutionalized settings, such as the WSC, perceived pressure, resulting in perceptions of restricted aspiring leaders’ agency and, consequently, leadership. Agency seemed minimized, controlled, and disciplined by top leaders and constrained by external pressure. However, the two institutional contexts created pressure differently. In the YOG, pressure related to institutional expectations to conform to norms and regulations, but in the WSC, a lack of orientation in a loosely structured institutional setting and top managers’ authoritarian behaviours caused pressure. Cross-comparative analyses of the events further revealed two main types of conformity responses towards the pressure and constrained agency: reflexive and cynical. The results show that conformity modes highly depend on the degree of institutionalization of practices, rules, and power structures within the event’s organization. The contextual velocity within sport events, power structures, and pressure towards conformity lead to the phenomenon of fading leadership. To ensure successful event implementation, alternative modes of organizing replace leadership. I observed, for example, aspiring leaders applying management towards volunteers, horizontal processes between the aspiring leaders at the same hierarchical level, and power between the CEO/event owner and the aspiring leaders. Furthermore, pressure towards conformity seems to be a fast-paced process. Therefore, capturing young people’s reflections, especially when they first enter an organization, is important because sport organizations will benefit from reflexive leaders and managers who can solve current and future challenges. Previous sport management research commonly applied single hierarchical level analyses to study leadership, yielding inaccurate distinctions and definitions of organizational processes that shape leadership. This dissertation contributes to the literature of leadership within sport management by applying multiple hierarchical level analyses and by examining agency through critical leadership studies, consequently exploring aspiring leaders’ possibilities to act as leaders. More specifically, it provides a deeper understanding of how the institutional context affects aspiring leaders’ agency and pressure towards conformity. A main limitation of this dissertation is that it can only provide a snapshot of a few selected cases that represent extreme institutional contexts. Therefore, future research should explore several institutional contexts and apply a long-term perspective. This dissertation is the first to examine organizational processes in sport events at the microlevel with a critical approach. It explains key drivers and outcomes of conformity processes in different event contexts and illuminates how and why leadership as an organizational mode of organizing fades within a sport event context. Furthermore, this dissertation is the first to examine young peoples’ perceptions and enactments of leadership in sport events. It provides valuable practical implications to owners and organizers of sport events, which have become popular for educating young aspiring leaders.

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