The numbers game: quantifying good governance in sport

Abstract

Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Research question: The paper interrogates the growing quantification of good governance and its implications for sport organisations. It addresses what shapes the production of governance codes and who decides what aspects of governance to be quantified and how we govern and study the quantification of good governance in sport.

Research methods: This is a position and conceptual paper, which reviews three international and two national codes to illustrate the five dimensions of the quantification of governance, including the work required, its reactivity, its tendency to discipline human behaviour, its polyvalent authority, and its aesthetics.

Results and findings: The quantification of governance codes requires a significant amount of work and triggers compliance responses from sport organisations, which leads to structural changes and an ever-greater institutional complexity and need for capacity building. Quantification has challenged sport organisations’ autonomy as it does not promote self-governance but rather meta-governance. How the quantification of governance is related to its theorisation and codes’ accuracy validity remains problematic.

Implications: The paper challenges the uncritical acceptance of good governance codes as a norm for sport organisations and calls for a reconsideration of our approach in line with a sport-focused model, which acknowledges the value systems, local traditions and institutional frameworks underpinning the model.