Change and isomorphism—A case study of translation processes in a Norwegian sport club

This article builds upon former research into sport organizations, which has revealed how institutional fields become uniformed through isomorphic processes, and at the same time how organizations undergo change. In this article change in a Norwegian football club is studied first by considering the organization as a mixture of rational, natural and open systems, and second, by applying a neo-institutional perspective of translation. Through document analysis, observation and interviews, it was found that change in the sport club's policy is based on the interplay between internal discussions and external influence. When the focal football club should develop a model for development of players, aiming at taking into account both elite orientation and mass participation, the solution was found by mimicking ideas from other organizations in the institutional field. Hence, the article shows how decision-making processes within one sport club's board are related to translations (Campbell, 2004) of ideas in the regional field of similar clubs, more particularly those conceived as successful.