Teamwork makes the net-work: participant-governed networks and athletics sustainability collaboration

Abstract

Purpose

Athletic departments play an important role in sustainability-based collaborative processes due to their boundary spanning connections with both internal and external university stakeholders. As a result, athletic department representatives have become prominent members of university participant-governed network structures. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of dedicated “athletics green teams” as a unique form of control and coordination by considering how green team interactions support and augment the collaborative network of actors who are responsible for executing athletics sustainability practices on university campuses.

Design/methodology/approach

A sociocentric analysis is used to explore the network of a green team at a large American university. The analysis focuses on examining the size, composition and structure of relations involving green team members that facilitated various forms of information transmission and strategic action(s).

Findings

The results highlight how the presence of the athletic department in the green team provides heterophilous and multiplex relations across the collaborative network and how the green team itself provides a unique forum for planning and coordination, which is critical for providing more sophisticated, advanced structures for sustainability.

Practical implications

The findings of this study should reassure practitioners involved in convening green teams that such shared governance structures add value to athletics sustainability collaborative processes. In addition, subtle changes to the network governance structures has the potential to streamline the contribution of athletic departments to university sustainability initiatives and help project a more cohesive “Athletics” sustainability message that transmits across the collaborative network.

Originality/value

The outcomes of dedicated athletics green teams have been explored from a largely qualitative perspective. However, this study applies a novel relational approach to understand the shared governance value-added within a largely intra-organizational collaborative network.

Citation

Barrett, M., Jones, G.J., Bunds, K.S., Casper, J.M. and Edwards, M.B. (2022), "Teamwork makes the net-work: participant-governed networks and athletics sustainability collaboration", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 1090-1106. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-05-2021-0188