One of the major factors militating contrary to the development of sports in Nigeria today is lack of effective management. A lot of solutions are increasingly being proffered by concerned and loyal Nigerians daily to bail us out the quagmire. One of such solutions is this text entitled “Modern Trends in Sports Administration and Management”. It is published by Doctor. Ernest Awoyinfa, a lecturer in the Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education, School of Education, University of Lagos, Nigeria; a examiner and educational consultant. I was the person invited by the author and the university to review the book when it was presented to the public on November 4, 08 in Nigeria.
According to Awoyinfa, it is a truism all over the world that sport is now a reference issue which still cannot be ignored at various sectors of the economy 축구중계 and spheres of life. The writer adds that this text thus has a critical look at topical issues in sports administration and management, dwelling on ideas and principles of modern trends in sports administration and management such as command, organisation, planning, motivation, etc.
The written text contains 16 chapters. Chapter one is christened “the reasoning behind sports management”. Here, Awoyinfa says management is a concept that implies different things to differing people at different times, thus leading to its multiplicity of descriptions. He explains that management has been variously termed a form of art, a science, a person or people, a discipline and a process.
This author expatiates that as an art, sports management is all about carrying out sports organisational functions and tasks through people; while as a science, sports management is about establishing sports philosophy, laws, ideas, principles, processes and practices. As an organisation, according to him, sports management is understood to be an opportunity of fabricating formal structures and an establishment based on a mission, objectives, targets, functions and tasks.
Awoyinfa says as a person or lot of people, sports management may refer to the pinnacle alone in order to all the senior staff, committee, etc.; while as a discipline, management is a field of study with various subjects and topics. The writer illuminates that sports management as a process is about a methodical way of doing things. Awoyinfa highlights management functions in sports administration as planning, organizing, staffing, directing/leading, controlling, coordination, budgeting and evaluation. On whom a sports manager is, this author educates that a sports manager is anyone at any level of sport organisation who markets
the efforts of other people towards the achievement of organisational goals sport-wise.
Chapter two is based on the subject matter of development and trends of sports management thought. Here, Awoyinfa shows that the development of ideas on sports management goes back to the days when people first attemptedto accomplish goals by working together in a group. In his words, “There was serious thinking and theorising about managing many years before the start of the twentieth (20th) century, which marked the beginning of modern sports management thought. Major efforts to develop ideas and principles of sports management began from the early twentieth (20th) century with the work of Frederick Taylor and Henri Fayol. The industrial wave of the nineteenth (19th) century probably provided the climate for this very serious theorising. inch
Awoyinfa adds that since the turn of the the twentieth century, writers on sports management and business theory have been propounding different ideas about how to manage work and personnel more efficiently and effectively. This author educates that the three main schools of management thought are: the time-honored; the human-behavioural; and the integrative. Awoyinfa also highlights early sports management theorists; principles and characteristics of scientific management; assessment of the scientific management theory, etc., in this chapter.