Dr.Sc.Econ, Associate professor V.A. Beskrovnaya
Postgraduate student S.Yu. Petrov
Ph.D. T.I. Vinogradova
Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture, Volgograd
International Education Center, National State University of Physical Culture, Sport and Health named after P.F. Lesgaft, St. Petersburg

Keywords: transparency of administrative procedures, management efficiency.

Introduction. Relevance of the issue under consideration is to be associated with the on-going efforts by the government authorities to implement administrative procedures for the execution of state and municipal governance functions and standards and procedures for provisioning of state services, which are, certainly, aimed at improving the service quality and user satisfaction. However, these fall short of finding adequate solutions for the issues related to the improvement of state and municipal bodies’ overall performance and efficiency. Limited development resources in the public sector require introduction of the best governance practice, ensuring both efficiency and overall performance of their activities [5, 6]. Researchers note inadequate management practices in the field of education and sports caused by underestimation of universal social development patterns and low professional level of managers in charge of administrative bodies in the field of physical culture and sport [1].

Achievement of the maximum possible efficiency may be disputable from the viewpoint of finding a final solution to the issue, yet a certain degree of progress is indispensable. An important element of the progress is transparency of the management structure. The importance of this aspect is supported by the views of international financial institutions, including IMF, suggesting that while a ‘due’ level of management is a pre-requisite for macroeconomic stability, transparency stands out as a key factor of efficient governance. Transparency of the state governance procedures should be founded on a set of basic principles, including clearly defined roles and functions of management bodies; accessibility of information; openness of decision making and execution procedures; and independently guaranteed authenticity of activity reports [2, 3]. Transparency implies an opportunity to assess and analyze the government policies from different aspects resulting in the improvement of governance procedures and more efficient resource utilization.

In the area of physical culture and sport, transparency is understood as a combination of clearly defined functions of relevant management bodies, openness of the decision making and implementation system, and accessibility of information concerning performance and development of the physical culture and sports sector.

The purpose of the study was to offer new approaches to the assessment and improvement of efficiency of territorial physical culture and sports bodies based on the management procedures transparency assessment methods.

Research materials and methods. In order to measure and evaluate the transparency of governance procedures in the field of physical culture and sport basing on available international practice with an account for the complex and multidisciplinary nature of the measured phenomenon, and the lack of any indicators reflecting relevant statistics or source data, the expert evaluation method was employed. The task was to obtain information on rendering services in the field of physical culture and sport as reflected in the respondent experts’ knowledge, opinions and evaluations, which could make it possible to evaluate transparency of relevant management procedures, identification of ‘minimum transparency’ areas, and subsequent evaluation of the management procedures efficiency improvement opportunities for the industry. The subject of evaluation was the system of relationships between the management entities and their controlled elements at different levels of management (regional, local) in the field of physical culture and sport.

The expert survey included 26 questions grouped in five sections, namely ‘Legal aspects of management procedures transparency and efficiency in physical culture and sport’, ‘State policy in physical culture and sport’, ‘Industry information and documentation. Information support in physical culture and sport’, ‘Financial and economic support to physical culture and sport’, and ‘Efficiency of management procedures’.

Evaluations were made through closed-type questions, with possible answers ranging from minimum to maximum transparency. The experts’ choices were guided by the following criteria: competency in physical culture and sports management, including its formal indications (professional status and positions); knowledge of specific management practices in physical culture and sport; agreement and readiness to participate in expert survey. Experts were selected so as to equally represent different groups, including managers of territorial (regional, municipal) physical culture and sports management bodies, managers of sports associations; sports club managers, heads of educational and research organizations, and researchers.

Experts’ work was arranged basing on the standardized individual expert survey method. The survey was arranged in two stages, in 2007 (a sample of 23 experts), and in 2014 (22 experts). Basing on obtained qualitative evaluations of management procedures' transparency in physical culture and sport, quantitative evaluations were calculated.

The following procedure was used for summing up the quantitative evaluations. Each possible answer was assigned a value ranging from 0.33 for the worst evaluation to 0.99 for the best one. Intermediate evaluations were defined as an average of extreme values. Ambiguous evaluations received equal values.

Results and discussion. Analysis of expert opinions concerning legal aspects of transparency of the physical culture and sports management system identifies positive developments in the legal environment. Virtually every expert stated that current regulations in the field enable proper development of the popular and elite sport, operation of sports clubs, and secures adequate conditions for the activities and control. In 2014, the experts noted a certain lag of the legal and regulatory developments behind the actual social and economic environment and sports development requirements, underlining rare reviews of reporting, funding and organization structures of sports clubs. The resulting expert evaluation of the legal basis for the physical culture and sports sector was quite low, demonstrating however a growing trend in 2014 bringing it to the medium transparency level, which is to be generally associated with a mismatch between individual provisions and current situation in the industry.

According to the majority of experts, implementation of the state policy in the area is dependent on the managers’ motivation and competency in physical culture and sports management. The policy implementation is controlled through analysis of targeted programs and achievement of development targets, which is limited by quantitative indicators, while the qualitative aspects are ’marginalized’. Most of experts note that the control functions are determined in a generalized manner, while some believe the control system is virtually inexistent, as the operations reviews are rare, inefficient and fail to result in any improvements (since supervising bodies often lack understanding of the industry).

Introduction of the Federal Laws, No. 44-FL ‘On Contractual Procurement of Goods, Works and Services for the State and Municipal Needs’ and No. 223-FL ‘On Procurement of Goods, Works and Services by Certain Legal Entities’ has resulted, according to the experts, in additional difficulties and problems and motivated the actors to opt for direct contracts. At the municipal level, no tenders can be arranged for the majority of procurement projects due to the lack of potential contractors. The negative aspects are: abundance of unscrupulous suppliers (low quality, late deliveries), unfavorable location of suppliers; lack of regulations for procurement in the field of physical culture and sport; and lack of suppliers resulting from the mismatch between the planned costs and current market prices.

As a result, the state policy turns out to be implemented through inefficient distribution of rights and obligations, and poor coordination of industry players and management bodies. The municipal level is in fact uninvolved in the state governance system. The municipal managers have but poor command of the regional sports developments, and are rarely involved in planning.

Information support in the area of physical culture and sport was evaluated as ‘poor’ by the experts (both in 2007 and in 2014). The comments note that modern information technologies are offered on a paid basis and are not universally accessible; currently available reports are not adequately detailed or do not look into reasons of on-going changes; and the information is insufficient for supporting management decisions. In 2014, 80% of experts (58% in 2007) noted that the information flows in their organizations became poorer, singling out the lack of information and methodological support from the city (district) sports committees and departments. Thus, the information support system requires improvements in terms of timeliness and accessibility of the information, comprehensive reporting, and support in introduction of modern management techniques.

Analysis of evaluations concerning the transparency of management systems involved in providing financial support of the physical culture and sports sphere suggests the sectoral activities are mainly supported by the state budget financing which appears insufficient to cover the current requirements. Only few sports (team and combat) are capable of attracting private funding. At the municipal level (both in 2007 and in 2014) the funds are in short supply. For the majority of experts, financial priorities remain unclear, while the distribution of funds does not appear transparent. Independent business analysis of sports clubs is unknown, as only state management bodies are involved in their supervision. Financial policy in the area of physical culture and sport is inefficient. The funding system fails to facilitate physical culture and sports development in municipalities, while available budget spending tools and allocations fail to meet the requirements, and accessible budget spending data does not facilitate any efficiency improvements.

The experts experienced difficulties in providing an unambiguous evaluation of the management procedures efficiency, as the existing environment prevents any efficient operations. The sector employs a traditional planning system modified to match the external conditions, manager's ’experience and competences, and supervising bodies’ requirements. The managers are mainly concerned with ‘survival’ efforts. Their performance evaluation is mainly based on physical culture and sports development indicators and competition results. In fact, no business or management performance scoring is used in evaluating sports clubs’ activities. Some experts (23% in 2014) note the necessity to give more ‘freedom’ to sports managers before trying to evaluate their efficiency. The resulting evaluation of management efficiency in the sector is quite low, which is to be accounted for by the lack of any clear systematic performance evaluation criteria, inefficient planning, and a very early stage of introduction of result-oriented management principles and techniques, currently still under discussion in the professional community.

As for the quantitative results of the study (Table 1), the following can be noted. During the period under consideration, the evaluations improved for three sections of the survey, namely 'Legal aspects of transparency', ‘Implementation of state policy in the sector’, and ‘Financial and economic support of the sector’. Expert evaluations stayed the same for the ‘Industry information and documentation’ and ‘Management efficiency’ sections; both in 2007 and 2014, the evaluations were below average here. This suggests the worst situation was in the areas of documentation and management.

Table 1. Quantitative evaluations of management process transparency in physical training and sports sector based on expert survey results

^*Note: Statistical difference with respect to 2007 at significance level p<0.01

Conclusions. By way of summing up the results of evaluation of management process transparency in the physical culture and sports sector based on expert surveys, it can be noted that:

• The study has confirmed the relevance of the employed method of management processes transparency evaluation for the physical culture and sports sector.

• The obtained results should be interpreted with a proper account for expert panel composition, experts’ individual evaluations and comments. Close quantitative transparency evaluations in a certain section may differ substantially in their meanings, as their underlying factors are often quite different.

• Evaluation results make it possible to single out some important problem issues concerning the transparency of management procedures in the physical culture and sports sector, including territorial benchmarking.

• The lessons learned suggest that the management systems transparency evaluation techniques can be used in the activities of the physical culture and sports governance bodies under relevant guidance and consulting.

Thanks to the present research opportunities for the use of employed techniques in management practices have been identified. The obtained results allow singling out the maximum and minimum transparency areas of management in the sector, problem issues reflecting the industry’s specific features, major factors affecting the transparency of management processes, and pre-requisites and opportunities for improvement of management efficiency in the field of physical culture and sport. The method enables decision making concerning relevant changes, evaluation of reforms in the sector’s management systems, and benchmarking of municipal-level management structures’ performance within a given constituent territory of the Russian Federation.

References

1. Panchenko, S.L. Upravlenie sotsial'nym institutom sporta (Management of Social Institute of Sport) / S.L. Panchenko, V.D. Panachev // Sotsiologiya vlasti. - 2011. - № 2. - P. 135.
2.  IMF (International Monetary Fund), 2007, Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency. Washington; IMF (International Monetary Fund), 2012, “Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Risk.”
3. IMF Board Paper prepared by the Fiscal Affairs and Statistics Departments. Washington, November. p. 4
4. Khagram, S., Fung, A., de Renzio, P., (Editors), 2013, Open Budgets: The Political Economy of Transparency, Participation, and Accountability. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press
5. Osbome, D., Gaebler, T. Reinventing Government. How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector. N.Y.: A PlumeBook, 1992.
6. Price, R., Roman, F., Rountree, B., 2011, “The impact of governance reform on performance and transparency”. Journal of Financial Economics, 99 (1): 76-96

Corresponding author: vabeskrovnaya@yandex.ru