An Analysis of Risk Management Practices and Legal Considerations in South Korean Club Sports

In light of the fact that club sport participation in South Korea is increasing in an unprecedented pace, the primary objective of the study was to establish the management status of sports clubs. Specifically, this study investigated a broad spectrum of issues concerning safety issues with regards to club sport participation, including the status of injury/accident and litigation, risk management practices, and legal considerations. Additionally, the study researched the association between the institutional demographic factors of sport clubs and various risk management variables. The study was conducted by using the self-developed 36-item survey that include demographic information, injury/accident and litigation status, and risk management practices/legal considerations. The questionnaire was primarily developed from the American literatures in the field of sport law and risk management, and was validated by several experts in the field of sport management. The distribution of questionnaire was accomplished by five assigned survey couriers who visited sport facilities in South Korea to collect data from the club sport managers. The findings of this study represented 304 sport clubs across South Korea. Descriptive statistics, Analysis of Variances (ANOVA), t-test, and Chi-square tests were utilized to answer the proposed research questions. Overall, the results of this study revealed that risk management practices were not conducted in a sufficient and consistent manner, even though many sport club managers experienced or observed a significant number of injuries/accidents during the course of club participation. However, a majority of injuries/accidents did not resulted in litigation. Furthermore, several relationships were reported between sport club’s institutional demographic factors and risk management practices. Some of the factors affecting higher responses of risk management practices were contact sports, infrequent club meetings, club with fewer members, club with younger age groups, shorter longevity of club, urbanized location of club, and academic ownership of club’s host facility. The study may contribute to assist building the basic framework for law and policy issues with regards to managing sport organizations in South Korea. Through the formulation of the relevant risk management practices for sport clubs, it is hoped that preventable injuries and possible litigation are avoided in the future.Physical EducationMastersUniversity of New Mexico. Division of Physical Performance and DevelopmentSeidler, ToddBarnes, JohnMao, Lunhu