Application of Humanistic Management in Sports Clubs

Yanni Zhang

Yangtze University College of Technology & Engineering, Jingzhou, Hubei, 434020, China

Keywords: Humanistic Management, Clubs, Application.

Abstract: With the comprehensive development of sports causes, the improvement of management mode is an urgent

task for sports clubs of all sizes in China. As an important characteristic of modern management, human-

istic management is suitable for organizations, especially like sports clubs, that combine management with

service. It has become the general trend in current sports clubs. Considering current core aging and under-

performing of domestic clubs, the application of humanistic management will bring them unprecedentedly

vigorous development.

1 INTRODUCTION

As Mao Zedong said, “material elements need man's

subjective initiative for their exploitation”, which

reveals the important significance of people-oriented

management. Years of practice has improved the

content and extension of humanistic management.

And its related specific management channels are

also expanded by incessant exploration of people.

Operation state and development prospect are

affected by the transformation of people,

environment, culture and value in the entire

organization. And this is the reason why increasing

people are looking for breakthroughs in state of

people’s mind and interpersonal relationship as well

as organization forms in order to realize the

improvement of management quality.

2 CURRENT MANAGEMENT

SITUATION OF SPORTS CLUBS

2.1 Unreasonable Management

Mechanisms of Clubs

In China, professional and amateur sports clubs are

in combined form of the government and enterprises.

Similar to most clubs, sports clubs profit from

supplying professional sports equipment, facilities

and stadium, or from competitions and performances

by employed professional athletes. With various

sports programs, clubs of football, basketball and

taekwondo are the most common, making up a large

proportion of clubs (Qiu Lewei, 2013). And these

clubs have fixed forms and scales of management.

Meanwhile, the spring-up of other professional clubs

(i.e., clubs of shooting, cycling and motorcycle)

diversifies the development of professional and

amateur sports cause in China. Most domestic sports

clubs, unlike sales industry or manufacturing

industry, seldom have great demands and fixed

distribution channels. Faced with certain

management stress, their operating profit only relies

on membership fee, venue rental fee and ticket

receipts. Uncertain operation and the lack of finance

from public companies have broken the industry

operation chain of most sports clubs. Clubs in small

and medium size and clubs of second-tier or third-

tier cities are on the verge of closing down.

Obviously, the

single outdated management has

shown its limitation. As the source of club activities,

club management urgently requires necessary

improvement and reformation for continued and

prosperous development of sports clubs.

2.2 Lack of Professional Spirit in

Athletes

Athletes in training or competitions are an important

component of professional and amateur sports clubs.

With an excellent match or performance, athletes can

build favorable team image and develop positive

aggressive sportsmanship for belonged clubs (Zhao

137

Zhang Y.

Application of Humanistic Management in Sports Clubs.

DOI: 10.5220/0006445501370140

In ISME 2016 - Information Science and Management Engineering IV (ISME 2016), pages 137-140

ISBN: 978-989-758-208-0

137

Qiutao, 2014). For clubs with precise systems,

normative discipline of training and life for athletes

is required and so does professional competence in

athletes, which both can improve overall image of

teams and clubs. However, poor management in

some clubs and the lack of fairness and justice in

competitions suppress the expected enthusiasm of

athletes, leading to the degradation of their public

image. Besides, instead of delivering positive

impression to coaches and the public, some of

athletes are lax in discipline and unpunctual in

training, and they even contradict coaches and

referees, insult opponents, etc. (Ni Mengmeng,

2013). These behaviors are against sportsmanship

and damage the reputation and image of clubs,

which will cause a vicious circle in the future

development.

2.3 Weak Relationships between Sports

Clubs and the Public

With strong professionalism, most professional

sports clubs realize their strategic importance and

value by closed training and profitable matches. In

China, there are several famous clubs such as such as

Guangzhou Evergrande, Shandong Luneng and

Henan Jianye who have compact training and

matches. Many sports enthusiasts can well know

club schedules, competition arrangements and

athlete conditions. And closely crowed with these

big fans, famous clubs are gradually far away from

common people. More people know about these

clubs only by Chinese Super League and Soccer

Game of National Games, without other reliable

accesses. Therefore, for most people, sports clubs are

still high-class or independent organizations, and

there is nothing known about their training venues

and professional daily performance. Lacking

organization planning, some amateur sports clubs or

leisure clubs also have weak relationship with the

public, failing to realize the purpose to “develop

physical exercise and build up people's health”.

Theoretically, on the basis of the masses, such

organizations could never exist without the support

of common people. Most current sports clubs,

however, have ignored their social responsibility and

twisted their position in the entire sports cause,

gradually abandoning their characteristic of

socialization.

3 APPLICATION OF HUMAN-

ISTIC MANAGEMENT IN

SPORTS CLUBS

3.1 Optimization of Human Resource

Allocation in Management Layer

Similar to other enterprise units, the management of

sports clubs needs professional financial staff,

committee, department managers, etc. Humanistic

management concept emphasizes the role of people

in management of enterprises or organizations. For

example, for club management, managers have to

optimize the staffing in organization. “People

orientation” mentioned in humanistic management

requires that chairmen or supervisors of clubs should

have reasonable evaluation and positioning of

individual condition, working capability and

potential capability of each staff. And on this basis,

post allocation and function setting can be gradually

carried out. Wise managers know the way to realize

the maximal function of limited human resource.

Despite of the system of government-enterprise

combination, sports clubs still require internal staff

have strong professional qualification and handling

ability of interpersonal relationship as well as

organizational skills, which are beneficial for further

simplification and efficiency of club activities.

Especially commercialized sports clubs that are hot

recently are more supposed to positively introduce

young and popular consumption patterns as well as

leisure sports forms. And then with scale effect and

chain management, these clubs can change the

public fixed opinion of sports clubs and promote

mutual development of the entire field.

In addition, expanded financing channels and

enterprise cooperation can also help some clubs out

of trouble. Club managers have to abandon

traditional management and positively participate in

market competition and resource sharing. Such

modern management will renew the enthusiasm of

entire work groups in clubs to make up the deficits

and get surpluses. Similar to most organizations,

sports clubs are work teams composed of

individuals, where is suitable for the application of

humanistic management. Qiaodan Sports, for

example, has staff rooms in working areas, well-

equipped facilities and perfect service. And the

company organizes staff for various outdoor training

and provides further study opportunities. Meanwhile,

in order to maximally eliminate staff’s concern and

help employees focus on their jobs, the company

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even offers special rooms for working couples and

builds bilingual kindergartens for staff’s children.

Such humanistic management gains people’s praise

and reliance as well as promotes employees’ loyalty

and efficiency. Cautious and conscientious work in

large scale will produce huge power for the

transition of difficult period. For sports clubs with

bumpy development, people-oriented staff

management will generate enormous internal drive

for clubs to ensure their permanent development.

3.2 Development of Athletes’ Potential

and Spiritual Strength

The image and spirit of athletes are significant

symbols of clubs. Excellent athletes in clubs can be

involved in the national team of corresponding

events. Training of elite athletes is always carried out

in clubs. It is indicated that there is a close and

meaningful relationship between athletes and their

clubs. In consequence, clubs should place athletes in

an important position in management.

By necessary means, humanistic management

mode can realize the functions of cultivation,

exploitation and encouragement in management of

athletes. Athletes with pertinent evaluations will

form intensified team spirit. Such athlete team is

more likely to treat routine training seriously and

achieve good performance in competitions. In fact

however, poor management and lax athlete

management system in domestic clubs have led to

frequent athlete flow and made it difficult for clubs

to retain talents. Destabilizing effect of team is

against the development of athletes and the entire

clubs. Additionally, focusing on the quota or

ranking, clubs widely utilize the system of “survival

of the fittest”, which increases more mental stress on

athletes. Sports supposed to inspire fighting spirit

have become a tool to limit and suppress athletes.

Such condition without timely reversal will cause

serious vicious circle in athletes and prevent further

development of athlete career and clubs. Therefore,

chairmen and coaches have to put individual

development of athletes in the first place, and respect

and rely on athletes, looking for the perfect balance

in cultivation of athletes. Meanwhile, the “balance”

requires coaches’ strict checking of daily training

and corresponding disciplines of training and life.

Athletes are required to be punctual and obedient in

the training. And far way from things harmful to

image of athletes and clubs, athletes have to

discipline themselves to gain reorganizations of the

public.

In addition, athletes need self-judgment and self-

selection in their training without the interference of

coaches. Having enough space for freedom and

development, athletes can improve their training

methods in controllable range, which gradually

establishes personalized management mode. The

development of athletes’ potential is provided with

strong support to promote their performance in

training or competition for renewed records. The

relationship between the club and athlete is like that

of a ship and water. Water can keep the ship afloat

or sink it. With work emphasis on the development

and cultivation of athlete abilities, clubs can not only

meet the demand of self-development of numerous

athletes, but also increase own strength and

competitiveness. Finally, the positive effect will

bring dominant position to clubs in corresponding

field.

3.3 Establishment of Sports Clubs Full

of Humanistic Concern

Following “people orientation”, the management of

sports clubs also has to present its humanistic

concern. On the basis of good internal management

system and athlete development, clubs have to

provide intimate service to the masses for their

support of sports cause and sports clubs for years.

And in the external management of clubs, service

optimization should be treated as the long-term

working principle of staff in order to improve the

quality of club service. Clubs, especially some

commercialized or leisure clubs, have to provide

corresponding perfect service for people with

payment to gain favorable impression and

recognition of customers. For hardware facilities,

clubs are required to change those damaged and

obsolete sport equipment in venue, increase a certain

amount of fitness equipment, and ensure the neatness

and well function of equipment. All these measures

can provide comfortable environment and enjoyment

for customers and meet their hard requirements,

ultimately realizing the basic value of clubs.

Besides, clubs can set up some innovative

training programs or conduct some interesting

activities for customers. With closed relationship,

clubs can more effectively communicate with

customers. Some of big clubs even involve typical

service programs such as catering and entertainment.

Managers have to increase the cultivation of

employee services and standardize their specific

behavior in customer reception and transaction

processing. High quality of service will become a

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club’s business card to attract more customers. In

addition to this, sports clubs are supposed to regard

fitness of the masses as own duty and actively carry

out series activities that benefit people. For example,

clubs can regularly open the venue for free, provide

instruction of physical exercise for common people,

and support the cultivation and selection of youth

athletes in school. The activities not only respond to

the call of nationwide fitness programs, but also

obtain funds subsidization from the government and

enterprises. What’s more, good relationship with the

masses will establish positive social image for clubs.

With support of the public, clubs will gradually

move towards a better future.

4 CONCLUSIONS

With the management form of modern enterprises,

sports clubs shoulder the important social

responsibility of sports cause development in China.

Therefore, there is great significance of the

upgrading in their management patterns and

concepts. With exact emphasis on the role of humans

in organizations and society, humanistic

management requires improvements in internal

personnel management, athlete development, and

social image. Domestic sports clubs will come to a

high level under humanistic management, and

humanistic care will spread all over the management

of the entire clubs. Such improvement can not only

improve clubs’ current condition of weak

development and destabilizing workforce, but also

help clubs establish modern operation mode, which

will bring long-term benefit for various sports clubs

in China.

REFERENCES

Ni Mengmeng, Deng Xinran. Analysis on Humanistic

Management of Enterprises in China Based on Fox-

conn Workers Suicide. Business. 2013 (47): 134-134.

Qiu Lewei. Analysis on the Relationship of Sports Compe-

tition and Economic Competition in Professional

Sports Clubs. Hubei Sports Science. 2013 (8): 663-

665.

Zhao Qiutao. Preliminary Study on Humanistic Manage-

ment in New Economy Era. Young Society. 2014 (4):

292-293.

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