Examining Organizational Values in Practice
Although gender equity has been adopted as an organizational value in some sport organizations, evidence of continued gender inequities at all levels of sport signal it is not always enacted. This book uses a post-structuralist feminist perspective to examine and critique dominant meanings of gender equity and raise questions about how such knowledge is produced and put into practice for athletes. In addition, it enters into discussions about how ingrained meanings and practices perpetuate gender inequities and entertains possibilities for transformation.
The book presents data collected from case studies of four sport programs (basketball, ice hockey, rugby, and swimming) at one Canadian university. The findings from the case studies challenge the assumptions that there are unitary and widely shared understandings of organizational values and that espoused values are fully put into practice. It is an essential reading for students and researchers interested in the sociology and organizational culture of sport.