Search

Scholarly literature focusing on organizational environments and organizational fit highlights the importance of a Multi-Fit perspective, which includes person–environment fit, person–culture fit, and person–vocation fit. However, relatively few scholars in sport management have focused on the organizational environment that includes sport management faculty and doctoral students. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine sport management doctoral programs to evaluate how sport management faculty and sport management doctoral students assessed the academic environment. Findings from 15 sport management faculty and 13 doctoral students resulted in three distinct overarching themes: (a) initial evaluations from person–environment fit, (b) fitting in with person–culture fit, and (c) the gap in person–culture fit. Moreover, subthemes emerging from faculty were (a) coachable, (b) well-roundedness, (c) experience, (d) research interests, and (e) statistical knowledge. Subthemes emerging from sport management doctoral students were (a) funding, (b) initial contact, (c) geography, (d) foundation, and (e) cohort mentality. The findings of this study have significant importance to the sport management academy as scholars have suggested approximately 50% of doctoral students fail to receive their degree, and cohort entrance and exit attrition may be as high as 85%. Therefore, the goal of this study was to increase the extant knowledge pertaining to person–environment fit and the sport management doctoral matriculation and enrollment process between sport management faculty and sport management doctoral students.

Persistent evidence of inequitable experiences within collegiate recreation exists. Within the same field are multiple articulations of diversity and inclusion's high significance. The intersection of these contrasting ideas suggests there is a need to expand understanding of the role of diversity and inclusion in collegiate recreation. Exploring germane theoretical conceptualizations may allow for those stated goals to consistently align with practical outcomes, resulting in more equitable experiences for collegiate recreation's multiple stakeholders. Thus, the purpose of this article was to propose the integration of two conceptual frameworks which can be applied by researchers and practitioners to increase the scope and depth of understanding pertaining to engagement with diversity and inclusion.

Sport management scholars have recently taken a greater interest in the psychological processes of sport employees in order to generate well-being among them. One source of well-being for sport emp...

Research question: In an attempt to advance the development of creativity among sport employees, this study was designed to empirically evaluate the relationships among individual sport employee psychological resources. These resources included pride, harmonious passion, sport employee identification, and an expanded psychological capital construct. Moreover, the application of psychological capital offers a modern approach to producing novel problem-solving abilities. Research methods: Within the study, structural equation modeling was utilised to build a model of sport employee creativity, whereby an expanded psychological capital archetype of sport employees, labeled A-HERO (i.e., authenticity, hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism), was employed as a central feature of the model. The sample consisted of full-time American sport employees (N = 301). Results and findings: The higher-order construct of A-HERO was empirically validated. Pride and passion influenced sport employee identification. Also, tenure moderated the relationship between pride and sport employee identification. Importantly, A-HERO was found to facilitate sport employee creativity. Implications: The findings provide empirical evidence that demonstrates how certain psychological features of sport employees can increase their creativity, which is the initial stage of organisational innovation. Consequently, sport organisations can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage through their employees’ A-HERO and creativity. The results of this study provide an improved understanding of positive organisational behaviour and creativity in the sport workplace.

The purpose of this study is three-pronged: (1) to expand the understanding of social identities and motivations of sport officials, (2) to explore the utilization of Sport Employee Identification ...

Ben Davis has recently been hired to take over as the president of business operations for Major League Baseball’s newest expansion club, the Nashville Comets. He is faced with a challenging task: filling out the rest of his senior management staff. Ben knows he needs to meet certain initiatives set by the ownership group. Of these, the most important is that the ownership team wants to build an organization that will set itself apart in the crowded Nashville entertainment market, allowing it to flourish in the long term. While consulting with some of his industry colleagues, Ben has honed in on innovation, job crafting, and meaningful work as a means of doing so. Ben is seeking to develop an organization that inspires innovation in its employees, maximizing his staff as a resource for change. Using concepts like meaningful work and job crafting, students will be tasked with assisting Ben in fleshing out the Comets’ front office in a way that fosters creativity and innovation among their employees, contributing to the success of the organization.

Research Question: The purpose of this study was to explore and develop pathways to sport employee creativity. Currently, the literature is devoid of content regarding sport employee creativity, wh...

The quality of a student-athlete’s experience can be a product of the services provided by their sponsoring sport organization. In an attempt to improve the student-athlete experience, this study was positioned to examine how collegiate sport services could use academic psychological capital (PsyCap) and student-athlete engagement to promote school satisfaction and psychological well-being. A total of 248 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I student-athletes participated in this study. Results indicated that academic classification moderated academic PsyCap’s influence on engagement. In addition, the academic PsyCap of the student-athletes positively influenced school satisfaction and psychological well-being, but student-athlete engagement fully mediated the relationship between academic PsyCap and psychological well-being. This empirical evidence provides new knowledge on the relationships among student-athletes’ motivational cognitive constructs, educational engagement, school satisfaction, and psychological well-being in the context of highly competitive collegiate sports. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, including incorporating the results with services provided to student-athletes.

Rationale/Purpose: Broadly, the purpose of the study was to explore the psychological processes of college recreation employees. Several constructs were chosen for this study including pers...

Referees are valuable contributors to the legitimacy of a sporting contest. Despite this, abuse in sport has become a growing concern and is regularly noted as an obstacle with which referees must contend. Continued abuses have been associated with referee discontinuation and have been noted as a detrimental influence in the recruitment and retention of referees. Sporting organizations, coaches, and players all feel the impact when there is an inadequate supply of referees. Coaches have been noted as a primary perpetrator of referee abuse; thus, in this study, the authors utilize a phenomenological approach to explore perceptions of referee abuse through the lens of the collegiate rugby coach. Data were collected from 15 participants, all of whom completed two phone interviews. Five factors that influence one's perceptions of and proclivity towards referee abuse emerged from the data: (a) personal characteristics/philosophies, (b) relationships, (c) social influences, (d) organizational expectations, and (e) culture. Implications to practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.

This phenomenological study seeks to better understand the role of the referee in the Olympic sporting structure and to deconstruct the apparent dichotomies that exist within this role. Eleven rugby sevens referees each completed a pre and post interview for a total of twenty-two interviews. From the data, four sources of role ambiguity or conflict emerged; (1) remaining unnoticed vs. media exposure; (2) the team vs. individualistic nature of officiating; (3) being a judge vs. being an athlete, and (4) amateurism vs. professionalism. This study discusses how these dichotomies highlight the major sources of role ambiguity and role conflict for rugby sevens officials within the larger Olympic context. Implications regarding increased role clarity, reduced role strain, and referee management are discussed.

Purpose In an attempt to promote sport employees’ well-being, the purpose of this paper is to examine the more traditional constructs of psychological capital (i.e. hope, efficacy, resiliency and optimism) and to feature the inclusion of authenticity, an often overlooked construct, among sport employees. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper is designed to create an expanded sport employee psychological capital construct, labeled A-HERO, and a subsequent theoretical model to improve their well-being. Findings In detailing a conceptual model of A-HERO for well-being, the model includes and explains the relationships among sport employee antecedents (i.e. sport employee identification, pride and passion), an organizational contextual variable (person–organization fit), and an important employee and organizational outcome (i.e. employee well-being) in contemporary sport organizations. Research limitations/implications A-HERO offers a necessary first step for future theoretical research and empirical applications to improve sport employees’ well-being. Originality/value By elucidating the role of authenticity at work with traditional psychological capital constructs in the current sport industry, this paper stimulates sport business and management scholars to validate empirically the A-HERO construct and examine proposed relationships for an improved prediction of sport employees’ well-being.

A unique phenomenon, known locally as “town ball,” occurs every summer in Minnesota. Most individuals who support town ball teams are from rural communities. Despite small populations, teams often ...

What is organizational behavior, and why should sport managers study it? This chapter introduces the foundations of organizational behavior as it relates to organizational success in the sports industry. Concepts discussed include positive organizational behavior, institutional theory, and resource dependency. The topics introduced in this chapter will receive substantial discussion throughout the remaining chapters of this book.

Organizational behavior is heavily influenced by internal factors such as organizational culture, size, and access to resources. External factors, including societal influences, politics, and employee identification, further alter how organizations interact with stakeholders, including employees and volunteers. This chapter defines and categorizes sport organizations as unique organizations and deserving of study within the broader management disciplines. As students read through this chapter, they will be introduced to important concepts which will be discussed throughout the remainder of this book.

This chapter presents an underutilized topic in sport management: labor. Within this chapter, we take a broad view of the impacts on labor and how labor impacts sport organization employees. The chapter starts with the history of labor and how it has evolved in America. Much of the content in this section is not specifically sport-related, but it is nonetheless essential to have an understanding of how labor is utilized. We then discuss how the law has shaped labor throughout history. We also explore the debate of collegiate student-athletes as employees and what that would mean for the collegiate sports industry. Lastly, the concept of emotional labor is put forth to demonstrate how not all labor is physical.

Sport employees engage in behaviors at their workplace every day that impact the organization’s overall success. Those behaviors can be defined as in-role or extra-role behaviors. Extra-role behaviors include organizational citizenship behaviors, as well as creative behaviors. Employee creativity is influenced by domain-relevant skills, intrinsic task motivation, and engagement in creativity-related processes. Those processes can be broken up into three stages: problem identification, information searching and encoding, and idea generation. Other influential mechanisms for managers to encourage creative behaviors include autonomy, time and space, rest, and specific idea generation activities, including juxtapositioning and divergent thinking.

This chapter covers a wide array of motivational theories. It starts with a review of well-known practical perspectives, such as equity theory and expectancy theory. From there, a discussion of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s motivational hygiene theory is conducted. A prominent theory of motivation, self-determination theory, is then covered and applied to the sports industry. The chapter finishes by examining contemporary constructs (i.e., authenticity and grit) and their potential application within the sports industry.

As has been widely discussed throughout this book, communication between sport organizations and their employees is a critical but challenging process. We’ve also discussed the importance of organizational culture in defining the organization’s identity, as well as the role person-organization fit plays in helping employees determine if their values are in line with those of their employer. This chapter explores how each of those topics relates to how sport organizations socialize new employees into the organization. Specifically, we’ll examine how organizations communicate with new employees and how new employees search for and perceive information about their workplace. The chapter ends with a brief discussion on psychological contracts between sport employees and sport organizations.

Communication is one of the most challenging yet important tasks that any organization undertakes. Communication allows employees to learn about organizational goals, share ideas, and develop plans. However, organizational messages are only useful if they are received and understood by the intended audience. This chapter explores the communication process, from identifying the intended audience, choosing the proper communication channel, and delivering the message so that it can be understood. This chapter also explores the challenges for lower-tier employees in getting their messages to upper administration.

This chapter covers all aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion as it relates to sport organizations. There are four major aspects of diversity to consider: ethical, legal, economic, and consumer/participant. First, understanding what diversity and inclusion are provides the foundation for building a better sport organization. The research in sport management indicates diversity and inclusion can be beneficial to the organization. Practical steps and considerations for improving diversity and inclusion in sport organizations are discussed in this chapter. This includes diversity statements, recruitment strategies, hiring process issues, programming, and organizational structure.

Conflict is often seen to be a negative word within organizations. Unchecked, conflict can cause many issues that will tear teams and organizations apart. However, a lack of conflict can be just as detrimental. This chapter differentiates between functional conflict that can benefit an organization and dysfunctional forms of conflict, which can be extremely harmful to an organization’s health. We will then discuss structural and contextual factors that influence conflict within sport organizations. The chapter ends with a discussion about negotiation.

This chapter describes the various forms of personality among individuals and how their personality can contribute to their “fit” with their organization. This chapter discusses various personality frameworks such as the DISC profile, the Big 5, and Myers-Briggs’ perspectives. We also explain how one’s beliefs and value systems guide one’s decision-making processes. The chapter concludes with a review of the concept of “person-environment fit” and its various subcomponents.

Innovation does not happen alone. Building a creative and innovative work team increases the likelihood of successful innovation in sport organizations. When innovation is the goal, these elements need to be considered: leader-member exchange, participative safety, vision and goal clarity, support for innovation, task orientation, diversity of thought, social interaction, and resources, such as time and rewards. Innovation in a sport organization can include positive changes to process or structure, as well as new products. The process of innovation has been theorized as a three-stage process: idea initiation, idea adoption decision, and idea implementation. In that process, identifying and supporting an innovation champion has been shown to increase the likelihood of an idea’s success in an organization.

Emotions are a part of everyone’s life, and the workplace is no different. This chapter will look at both traditional and contemporary perspectives of how humans perceive and generate emotions. Concepts such as emotional intelligence, pride, passion, and well-being are all examined. The chapter also includes a discussion on how emotions are particularly relevant and important in the sport workplace.

Social identity theory (SIT) has proven to be a popular topic of discourse in academia. Scholars in the field of sport management have predominantly focused on team identification and how sport fan...

To better understand the intangible impacts on host communities of major sport events, the psychic income of local residents was examined. In addition, social anchor theory was applied to potentially better explain the lasting intangible benefits of hosting the event. The impetus of the study came from the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, held in Kansas City, MO. Data were collected from local community organizations before and after the event. The results suggest that some components of psychic income dissipated after the event, whereas other components did not significantly change. Furthermore, social capital increased, but neighborhood identity decreased after the event. As such, the event as a social anchor was unable to sustain residents’ psychic income after the event. Potential limitations and future research directions are also offered.

The growth and popularity of eSports cannot be understated. The domain has become so mainstream that colleges and universities are rapidly beginning to launch eSports programs within their athletics departments. In this study, the authors interviewed 33 student-athletes receiving scholarships for participating in eSports at one institution. In all, the identity and social capital of athletes in this “new” athletic arena were explored and compared with previous studies examining “traditional” athletes. The implications of the similarities and differences are discussed and ideas for future research into this emerging field are presented.

Contemporary research suggests that there is a stratification of adjustment levels for collegiate students. Past scholars have found that ethnic minority students at predominantly White institutions have lower adjustment scores than White students. Further, ethnic minority student-athletes have lower levels of adjustment when on the campus at large, but interestingly they have shown higher levels of adjustment when in the team setting. These circumstances prompted the question: What impact does team social capital have on ethnic minority student-athletes’ adjustment variables? Over 1000 student-athletes were surveyed. Results of the study showed that team social capital is a mediator between race and adjustment. Thus, practical implications are such that athletic teams should consider extending the team concept to the campus environment as much as possible to increase the adjustment of their ethnic minority student-athletes and potentially mitigate some of the negative consequences of the lack of ...

Purpose – The practice of an interscholastic athletic department reproducing the logo of a collegiate team for its own use is becoming increasingly visible. In response to this growth, many collegiate licensing departments have begun actively enforcing zero-tolerance policies that prohibit third parties from using their respective colleges’ trademarks. Conversely, other institutions have exercised discretion by allowing high school programs to use their athletic departments’ logos only after receiving assurances from the high school that it will adhere to strict usage guidelines. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a thorough discussion on the concept of brand dilution and its application to sport. More specifically the study gives an account of the strategies employed by trademark specialists to protect (and in some cases, enhance) the equity of their brands. To identify these strategies, a qualitative questionnaire was employed, which was completed by 13 brand managers representing institutions from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 Conference, Big Ten Conference, Mid-American Conference, Missouri Valley Conference, Pac-12 Conference, and the Southeastern Conference. Findings – Qualitative questionnaire responses from collegiate brand managers suggest that licensing departments differ in their perceptions of the outcomes associated with allowing logo replication in high school athletic departments. Originality/value – Perceived consequences of two enforcement strategies – prohibitive and cooperative – are highlighted, as are implications and directions for future research.

The concepts of organizational identification and team identification have been researched heavily over the last half-century. However, scholars have failed to specifically examine organizational identification among sport employees. We develop a theoretical framework of organizational identification of sport employees, coined Sport Employee Identification (SEI). We conceptualize SEI as an amalgamation of organizational identification and team identification in which sport employees are both external (fans) and internal (employee) members of the sport organization. The development of the SEI model is based on related theory and further ethnographic data are collected over a four-month period within an intercollegiate athletics fundraising department. Implications for scholars and practitioners and avenues for future research are discussed.

The national recognition of concussions has increased greatly over the past de-cade. While concussions have moved to the spotlight, institutional policies and procedures are just beginning their climb into the public eye. This research delves into a sphere of sport that has to date been largely ignored, the role of equip-ment personnel. Equipment personnel were chosen due to their connection to concussions and organizational power. Organizational power has traditionally rested with those who acquire the most resources. Coaches usually represent such power. However, power can also be derived from maintaining resources. Quali-tative methodology was utilized to gauge the perceptions of equipment person-nel on a variety of topics related to organizational power and concussions. The results revealed that equipment personnel have little overall professional power. Although a majority of participants reported that they believed they retained the power to choose protective equipment for student-athletes, this autonomy was neither consistent nor sovereign. Informal power structures were discovered in which coaches were thought to have more power than their formal supervisors. Administrators should consider implementing policies that grant greater autono-my to equipment personnel in order to better protect student-athletes.