“Experiencing” Sport Management: The Use of Personal Narrative in Sport Management Studies

Abstract

According to Paton, sport management research went through several phases up to the 1990s: a praxis phase, based upon “administrative principles, usually developed by authorities in the field, and upon program planning in physical education”; a second more theory-based phase that continues to the present; and a third descriptive phase (Paton, 1987, p. 26). In most of this research, however, the use of methodological innovation in research and in reporting research has been relatively scarce (as in many of the subdisciplines in physical education/kinesiology). In the present article, I argue for the use of personal narrative and personal storytelling in sport management research methodology, which might result in the asking of different questions and in write-ups that could serve to invigorate sport management studies. This method of research answers different, interactionist-based questions for researchers delving into how sport management affects people and how sport managers interact with others. In other words, this method examines how lives are lived into existence, and it provides models for practitioners and scholars of sport management to model, discover, experience, and use.