ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the fascination that sports exert upon organizations and the visibility and readability of performance in sports, specifying what performance stories are about. It also describes the fascination of organizations for modern sports and discusses some of the motifs for it. The chapter explores the idea that sports are a major referential model for contemporary organizations. It provides performance as the signature of modern agon: as that which makes it possible to distinguish modern agon from other forms of agon belonging to other historical contexts. Observers of sports agree on one point: that in modern times, ever-increasing importance has been assigned to competition, competition having become the mainspring of modern sports. Sports is also endowed with a multifaceted aesthetic strength and that too makes it attractive to organizations. A communicative capacity, an aesthetic potential and an ability to stand for perfect efficacy are only a few of the motifs that make sports so alluring for organizations.
