Theory and Practice of Physical Culture № 12 2016

E.A. Kalieva¹                           
Associate Professor, PhD E.V. Khromin²
Professor, Dr. Hab. E.A. Korotkova³
A.S. Yakovlev^2
1Tyumen Municipal Multidisciplinary Centre, Tyumen
²Sports and Youth Policy Department of the Tyumen Municipal Government
³Tyumen State University, Tyumen

Keywords: PR, communication management, systemic innovation, innovation model.

Background. Public relations (PR) are presently considered an indispensable component of the modern management activity models. Every goal of PR activity will be achieved by the relevant communication management tools. As provided by V.E. Reva, “communication management may be interpreted as the integrity of concepts, methods, tool and forms of communicators’ influence on the informational interaction flows among people, their groups, social and political formations in their communication process designed to attain the key tactical and strategic objectives in the public relations management domain” [3]. In practical terms, this definition is largely applicable to the innovation management system on the whole and the physical culture and sports innovation management system in particular.

Objective of the study was to build up an innovative communication management model and apply it to PR activity viewed as the key element of the municipal physical culture and sports innovative management system.

Study results and discussion. It was since 2013 that the Sports and Youth Policy Department of the Tyumen Municipal Government in cooperation with a research team of Tyumen State University have developed the theoretical and practical basics for a strategic approach to the municipal physical culture and sports innovative management system and the relevant implementation mechanisms for systemic innovations. The systemic innovations mean herein the local new interconnected initiatives designed to yield a large-scale systemic positive effect and new functions [7].

The initiative to implement the strategic innovation system in Tyumen was launched in February 2013 with the Junior Athletes’ Physical Health and Fitness Monitoring Project that is intended to step up the quality of the education and training process, improve the process planning system and offer a set of management decisions to increase the efficiency of the junior athletes’ education and training process in Tyumen. The Project, among other things, gives the means to rate, based on the real-time test data, physical fitness of the Tyumen school population for the GTO Complex tests; and ensures due process adjustment and high-quality practical support for the physical education process. A top priority goal of the Project is to make the trainees’ progress monitoring system traditional for the sector – so that the efficiency of every next initiative could be adequately rated prior to and in the initiative implementation process [2].

Based on the Junior Athletes Health and Physical Progress Monitoring Project (subject to the project are presently 10486 people including 2442 general school pupils), study the material and technical assets (including sport facilities) condition and employment, and progress of the local mass physical culture – a Municipal Bank for Innovative Developments was established to test and implement new initiatives on the experimental sites in Tyumen, including the systemic innovations designed to:

– Establish clusters of physical culture and sport facilities owned by the municipalities;

– Customize the physical culture and health projects to the needs of local communities through target efforts of the sport system designers and managers;

– Integrate the background/ advanced/ vocational education systems by a variety of projects including the Customized Physical Education for 9-11-graders Project; Sport for General Education Schools Project; Sport Disciplines for Special Health Classes Advancement Project; General Education School Pupils’ Health and Physical Progress Monitoring Project; and the University Students’ Sports Promotion Project;

– Control the quality of the children’s and youth sports in the area; and

– Facilitate the communication-based marketing and information support for the local physical culture and sports sector [6].

It is obvious at present that the PR activity designed to attain the above goals cannot be duly designed within the old frame of the traditional system – i.e. under the municipal government orders only as it was the case prior to 2013. In addition to the above initiatives, the Information Analysis Department of the Tyumen Municipal Multidisciplinary Centre has developed a marketing concept to advance the innovative initiatives of the Sports and Youth Policy Department of the Tyumen Municipal Government in cooperation with Physical Culture Institute under Tyumen State University. The advancement process is to be designed to employ every relevant PR communication tool including due analytical support and theoretically grounded monitoring projects.

Based on the above, the following innovative communication management model is designed (see Figure 1 hereunder). The model basically includes 4 key operations subject to the communication management activity. The traditional activity generally includes the operations that used to run prior to 2013, i.e. before the modern systemic innovations were implemented in the local physical culture and sports sector, including the 33 sports-development initiatives on the municipal orders from the Tyumen Municipal Multidisciplinary Centre; calendar initiatives (190) approved by the Department; and the relevant actions of the sector establishments (designed and implemented when the occasion requires). These activities never claim special PR technologies as the operations are run in a traditional format including due cooperation with the local mass media organizations to secure the following: announcement of the event; media coverage, including video/ photo illustrations; and a final report of the event and its results.

Figure 1. Innovation communication management model

The innovative initiatives presently imply the project implementation activity – mostly for the general/ advanced education integration projects, including the Customized Physical Education for 9-11-graders Project; Sport for General Education Schools Project; Sport Disciplines for Special Health Classes Advancement Project; General Education School Pupils’ Health and Physical Progress Monitoring Project; and the University Students’ Sports Promotion Project; plus the children’s and youth sports quality management projects; and the local physical culture for the Tyumen city residents promotion projects designed and implemented by 25 local sports promotion and youth policy implementation establishments. The systemic mass sport activities at the local 170 sport facilities are presently managed by 144 sports managers in charge of 37 sport fields, including 15 sport initiatives for people with impairments. The relevant PR-support campaigning activities include the following:

• PR support for the new sporting activities including Scandinavian walking, dances, workouts, joggers’ club, golf, rugby, and the joints-developing exercises/ body-building;
• PR support for the new local sites of sport activities;
• PR support for private fitness clubs;
• Master classes to give the basic sport management knowledge and skills – for active sport managers, directors of local sport establishments; master class of the Polish Champion of the Women’s Scandinavian Walking Competitions; meeting with Vladimir Cheboksarov, a popular athlete; master classes for mass media organizers; master class of recreative gymnastics by a popular doctor from Cheboksary city etc.;
• Support projects for people with impairments;
• Senior people support projects;
• Public awareness campaigns to promote different projects;
• Tyumen sport managers’ experience and achievements publicizing events;
• PR support for the leading sport managers, including new ones; and
• Sport group activity projects developing, promoting, supporting, monitoring and analyzing activity by the Tyumen Sport Managers Group in the social networks: VKontakte, Odnoklassniki etc.

The non-scheduled events and activities (180) other than the formally included in the innovative initiatives mostly relate to the cooperation of different educational establishments with the local private institutions and companies including special education institutions, universities, general education schools, Tyumen-based industries and companies, fitness clubs etc.

The information analyzing activity implies the mix of information processing actions (data search, collection and processing) to ensure the quality and efficiency of the management decisions and processes. The data processing domain includes the data search, collection, storing and dissemination activities; and the analytical domain implies the data generalizing, classifying, analyzing and customizing activities followed by the relevant conclusions, proposals, recommendations and forecasts being made based on the process monitoring initiatives.

It is the Sports and Youth Policy Department of the Tyumen Municipal Government in cooperation with Physical Culture Institute of Tyumen State University that manages the Information Analyzing Department activities. The latter includes the activities to put together a theoretical basis for the initiatives; design the tutorials and practical manuals; issue relevant study reports and presentations; organise and manage educational workshops and sociological surveys; participate in relevant theoretical and practical conferences on the matters of healthy lifestyle promotion etc.

Conclusion. The ongoing activity to encourage the integration processes in the physical education system; improve the local physical culture and sports promotion systems; perform the mass physical fitness rating initiatives for the GTO Complex tests etc. – has made it possible to notably increase the numbers of the relevant projects under implementation and encourage the sports-promotion activity in the sector; and the efforts have resulted in the public participation in the events and initiatives reported to grow by 55,708 people.

References

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Corresponding author: kolychevav@tyumen-city.ru

Abstract

The article explores the practical experience of the PR activity of the Information Analysis Department of the Tyumen Municipal Multidisciplinary Centre, the activity being designed to integrate operations of the municipal sports-and-youth policies implementing institutions under leadership of the Sports and Youth Policy Department of the Tyumen Municipal Government in cooperation with Physical Culture Institute under Tyumen State University. Due theoretical grounds will be put in place to help the PR activity evolve into a key element of the municipal physical culture and sports sector innovation management system, and it is expected, in its turn, to facilitate further innovation process that is referred to as a top priority objective of the National Physical Culture and Sports Sector Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020.