High tacit knowledge deployment model: How managers can design and potentiate tacit knowledge use within and across team processes

The football industry, in particular, has shown extraordinary growth in recent years of between 10 and 15%, depending on the markets. However, this growth is expected to decelerate in the next few years, as a result of the global economic and financial crisis of 2008. The teams in Mexico's First Division of football have not been immune to the influence of all these aforementioned factors which affect the external environment, above all since the time that they began to take part in international tournaments. Some of these sports organisations dedicated to football in Mexico have begun to work with management models oriented towards continuous improvement (Kaizen, to use the Japanese term). Thus the main purpose of this research is to analyse the application of Kaizen in the specific context of a sports organisation dedicated to football. The research method adopted was the case study. Research was carried out in sports organisation dedicated to football, and adopted a retrospective focus. Three methods were used to gather data: direct observation, documentary analysis, and semi-structured interviews. The Kaizen approach helped this sport organization dedicated to football to improve their management system and sport management results. A continuous improvement management framework drawn from analysis of the case study is shown. Research was based on a single case study. However, rather than seeking empirical generalisation, it tries to examine and explore how is the Kaizen approach applied in a specific environment such as that of a sports organisation dedicated to football in Mexico. The research is effectively a guide for practitioners (Sport Managers) wishing to apply or already applying Kaizen in their sport management systems. A review of academic and practitioner literature on the subject indicated that application of the Kaizen approach in sport organisation dedicated to football had hardly begun to be explored. It is also significant that in Mexico and Latin America, examples of the transfer and implementation of this kind of approach are practically non-existent in academic literature on the subject.