Abstract:
Contemporary business challenges and globalisation pressures have had a
significant impact on the human resource management (HRM) practices of
many organisations. Whilst the adoption of more sophisticated, complex
and strategic management systems is well documented in the general HR
literature, organisations that operate with both paid and volunteer human
resources have been virtually ignored by scholars. In this paper we report
on a study on the adoption of HRM practices by state sport organisations
in New South Wales, Australia. Our results indicate that despite pressures
to become more strategic in their people management, only a minority
of these sport organisations have formal HRM systems. We also found
differences between the HRM practices used with paid employees and
volunteers particularly in organisations with formal HR policies. Research
and practical implications for HRM in sport organisations are discussed
as well as future challenges.
