seminar
CITE & Institute of Human Performance Seminar: Sport and Knowledge Management: An Unlikely But Successful Team.
This seminar is co-organised by CITE & Institute of Human Performance, HKU
Sport, as an activity, is often thought of as frivolous, something associated with leisure, rather than serious work. Yet sport is big business, generating billions of dollars a year across the globe, employing large numbers of people and involving far more than the application of physical skills.
Despite this, sportsmen and women who earn their living from their physical prowess from sport are still stereotyped as brawn not brain . This is a myopic viewpoint. At all levels of sport the use of information and knowledge management is important for success. For example:
* Players use tacit knowledge in applying skills
* Teams use collective knowledge when using offensive or defensive plays.
* Coaches use knowledge in teaching skills and applying strategies during games.
* Sports scientists use information technology to improve performance of athletes.
* Managers use statistics for competitive advantage
* Organisations use information for results and records.
Regardless of the extensive use of knowledge in sport, until recently it has not been valued. Instead an intuitive paradigm has dominated. Coaches have taken the don t think just do it approach. Recently, a new breed of sports managers who understand that the use of information and knowledge can improve their product has achieved success. Sometimes these changes have involved technological advances, others have been driven by better use of information, and others through the recognition that sport is a business.
While sport has learned from other activities, sports knowledge and practices have not been widely investigated by other businesses and industries to learn from it. This presentation will argue that information and knowledge managers can learn from sport and transfer this knowledge into their own worlds.
Dr Kristine Toohey has a wealth of academic knowledge and operational experience in the field of sports management, sport studies, and knowledge management.
Kristine has worked as a program manager at SOCOG, the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, where she was in charge of communication services, a diverse operational unit within the organising committee. Her responsibilities in this role included:
* Managing over 30 staff
* writing, compilation, editing and production of publications
* editorial input, including SOCOG's internet site
* planning for SOCOG's post Games legacy
* public relations initiatives for the older youth market
* implementation of a strategic print alliance for SOCOG
* editor in chief for the Official Report of the Games of the XXVII Olympiad.
Kristine is currently an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business at the University of Technology Sydney where she teaches in the fields of Sport Management. She is the Director of the Australian Centre for Olympic Studies. She has a PhD from Pennsylvania State University, an M A and B A from California State University, Long Beach and a Diploma of Physical Education from Sydney Teacher s College. She has accepted an appointment to Griffith University in 2005 as the Professor of Sport Management.
She has acted as a consultant to various organisations such as: the Olympic Co-ordination Authority, the Australian Sports Commission, the Australian Jockey Club, Womensport Australia, Netball Australia and the International Olympic Committee.
In her professional career she has won a number of awards including the UTS 'Excellence in Teaching Award' and in 1999 was Visiting Professor at the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece.
Kristine has published widely as the author and co-author of a number of journal articles and books, most dealing with Olympic and sporting themes. Her most recent books include: 'The Olympic Games: A Social Science Perspective' (Toohey and Veal), The Contribution of the Higher Education Sector to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games (Cashman and Toohey) 'Sport and Ethnicity' (Lynch, Taylor and Toohey) and 'Pay TV: Strategies for Success' (Lynch, McDonnell, Thompson, and Toohey).