Leadership and Organizational Culture Transformation in Professional Sport

Organizational culture has long been recognized as a critical component that can facilitate high performance in business (Balthazard, Cooke, & Potter, 2006). The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the phenomena of organizational culture change in professional sport (NBA, MLB, and NFL). Six owners or general managers who had successfully brought their organizations through organizational culture change, as evidenced by their team’s performance, agreed to an in-person interview. Five primary themes emerged ( Symptoms of a Dysfunctional Culture, My Way, Walk the Talk, Embedding New Culture, and Our Way) which together formed an initial model for organizational culture change in professional sport: the Culture Change Cycle. Each theme is discussed in depth, and differences across sport and role are explained.