The AGGIS tool informs about your governance standard

Video interview with Simona Kustec Lipicer (click to watch)

This interview is an edited version of an original full length video interview with Simona Kustec Lipicer:

Why should international sport organisations use the AGGIS tool?

“There are three main reasons why it would be nice for them to use it. First of all, the AGGIS tool informs about the standards of governance in sport organisations according to the criteria that they give us. Secondly, this means that these standards can be applied by sport organisations and that they are then able to inform themselves about their real life performance. The third one is that they are able to asses and plan their future activities according to the information they get about their existing performance.” 

From a more general perspective, what is important to consider when you monitor organisations? 

“I think you need to think about what you would like to monitor, how you would like to do it, and who you would like to monitor your organisation – would you like to monitor your performance by yourself or by some external monitor? 

When we are speaking about what to monitor, I suggest to be as comprehensive or as wide as possible in doing this. If you really want to have comprehensive information about your performance you need to have the feedback about the inputs, the processes, the outputs and also the future potential impact of your making of your modes of governance.”

More concretely, what sorts of issues can you monitor?

“For example, you can gather data about how much you invested in a concrete project or event. What did you need to do to implement the event and what did you in the end achieve with it? Whether there was a positive cost-benefit. Was it good? Did you make any progress and, of course, how democratic you have been during the process of implementation? Did you open all of the potential possibilities for all of the stakeholders that would like to be involved in those processes?”

How can monitoring improve governance in sport organisations?

“It gives you some kind of information on how well you were performing in the past and how you can perform even better on this basis in the future. It gives you a kind of evidence-based type of information about your previous performance and it gives you at the same time a trigger quality type of information for your potential future making and governance.”

How could the AGGIS tool make a change by setting standards for governance? 

“It has a potential to advocate, to assist you. For example, there are concrete indicators in this AGGIS tool that according to relevant governance theories are important if you want to practise good governance. Maybe there are important governance elements that sport organisations are not already aware about and this could be the opportunity for them to improve by following some set guidelines or standards.” 

Can you give a few examples of such standards?

"What comes first to my mind as an example is the question of gender balance. We know that there are still a lot of sport organisations which are not careful about this issue. Because the organisations are clever, they may say “we can make better scores in the coming years if we are more careful about the gender balance; we need to rearrange it according to some standards, to some norms”. 

The scores in the AGGIS tool set the norms by defining what is good, what is bad, what is excellent. We have, for example in the field of solidarity this dimension of underprivileged groups and the solidarity of sports organisations towards those groups.” 

How do you see the perspective the coming years of implementing better governance in sport organisations?

"I am very optimistic and I hope that our AGGIS tool will be of great use for developing better governance in sport organisations."

Simona Kustec Lipicer is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Links to other AGGIS video interviews:  

• We have a common interest in restoring public trust in sport, interview with Jens Sejer Andersen 
• Good governance: Sport organisations must operate in a decent way, interview with Hans Bruyninckx 
• Sport must turn its culture of secrecy into a culture of transparency, interview with Frank van Eekeren 
• Accountability is a duty to explain, interview with Barrie Houlihan 
• Sport organisations must connect with their stakeholders, interview with Biba Klomp 
• Sports federations are privileged in Switzerland, interview with Michael Mrkonjic
• Sport and the one-nation-one-vote system, text interview with Jürgen Mittag