Background/Purpose While most sport organizations utilize the goal attainment approach to determine effectiveness (Chelladurai & Haggerty, 1991), the internal process approach allows organizations to compare effectiveness and efficiency to that of other organizations who have different outputs and inputs (Slack, & Parent, 2006).
Method To explore this concept of internal efficiency, data were collected from 30 Major League Baseball opening-day rosters from 1996–2010 (N=446). To include a measure of internal processes, the number of “home-grown” players were included for each club (i.e. athletes drafted and developed by the club as opposed to being acquired by trade or free agency). By increasing the number of home-grown athletes that matriculate to the major league level, we hypothesized that the organization would be increasing its efficiency in resource utilization (salaries) and increasing its outcome effectiveness (wins).
Analysis/Results Not surprisingly, significant correlations existed between wins and era (r =-.61, p <.001) and salary (r =.36, p <.001). Moreover, the extent of internal efficiency did appear to play out as a wins were slightly related to the amount of position players on the club roster that came from within the system (r =.10, p <.05). This relationship did not exist, however, with pitchers on the major league club.
Conclusions While most studies regarding the effectiveness of sport organizations utilize the dichotomous goal attainment approach, this study explored the notion of internal efficiency. Results merit further additional research to explore the application of assessing the internal processes of sport organizations.
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