Enabling Event Volunteer Legacies: A Knowledge Management Perspective

Human capital development delivered through the volunteers is espoused as one legacy outcome of hosting mega-sporting events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games. However, to date the reality of such a legacy remains largely undemonstrated. In this article, Nonaka and Tacheuchi's SECI model and Lee and Yang's knowledge value chain (KVC) are integrated to identify insights to support the development of a potential human capital legacy from volunteers in future mega-sport events through focusing on knowledge management. A case study of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games demonstrates gaps in the knowledge management systems in place, both in terms of the identification of knowledge and the processes for capture and reuse. It is argued that, unless those involved in hosting the events reconsider their approach to human capital legacy development, using the creation and management of knowledge as a core element, it is unlikely that long-term human capital legacy outcomes will be achieved for host communities.