Swimming
Australia’s (SAL) strategic plan from 2006 – 2011 was created to continue to
seek improvement on the world wide sporting stage. Their vision; ‘Swimming
seeks to become Australia’s leading sport through increased participation,
continual outstanding performances and commercial excellence” (SAL Strategic
plan 2006 - 2011). The purpose of a vision is to “look into the future and
forms a clear mental image of what an organisation could be like” (Hoye et.
al., 2012). Organisational objectives as noted by Smith & Stewart (1999)
are manageable steps on the way to achieving a vision. SAL produced a strategic
plan with a number of objectives in order to lead performance over 5 year
duration. Through revision of their strategic plan, and utilising the annual
report of 2012, I have identified a major objective that was not successfully
achieved.
SAL’s
strategic plan 2006 – 2011 outlines the organisational strategic priorities,
breaking them into four operational plans;
1. High
performance
2. Sport
Development
3. Business
Development
4. People
Development
These
operational plans are further broken down into objectives by which they can use
to strive to achieve over the duration of the strategic plan. High performance was
an area that stood out, as they noted a number of objectives by which they set
their standards very high. ‘Thriving at
the elite level’ is a goal that is considered to be imperative within any
National Sporting Organisation. In order to do this SAL has stated that
“quality coaching, domestic and international competition will be offered to
each elite athlete including the preparation, motivation and challenges to be
competitive on the world stage” (SAL Strategic plan 2006 - 2011). However their
key objection of being “the number one swimming national at the Olympic Games
and FINA World Championships” (SAL Strategic plan 2006 - 2011) was not
successfully achieved.
The
Bluestone review conducted post London Olympic Games. It identifies that
“Australian performances at major meets have been on a steady decline since
2005” (Bluestone Review 2013), which is through the implementation of this
strategic plan. It was also noted in the Bluestone Review (2013) that the
London 2012 Olympic Games, Australia won 3% of podium places in comparison to
Athens in 2004 (20%) and Beijing in 2008 (18%). The cause of this steady
decline was noticed that on account due to a number of instances within the
Australian swimming team, that there were some leadership and cultural flaws
(Bluestone Review 2013). Leadership was a major concern in repercussion of the
events that occurred at the London Olympics, and this has since been rectified
with the employment of a new Chief Executive Officer, Head Coach, High
Performance Coach and Integrity Panel (SAL 2013). This change was vital
considering “A corner stone of any well-functioning organisation is good
leadership” (Bluestone Review, 2013).
Hoye,
R, Smith, A, Nicholson, M, Stewart, B & Westerbeek, H 2012, Sport Management principles and
applications, 3rd edn, Routledge, New York, NY.
Smith,
A & Stewart, B 1999, Sports
Management: A guide to professional practice, Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, St
Leonards, NSW.
Swimming
Australia 2013, The Bluestone review: A
review of culture and leadership in Australian Olympic Swimming, prepared
by Blue Stone Edge, BSR, Victoria
Swimming
Australia 2013, Swimming Australia
confirms new leadership structure, version 9 April, Swimming Australia,
viewed 6 November 2013, http://www.swimming.org.au/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=NewsItem&NewsID=34217
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