Servant leadership for multidimensional sport employee well-being: relationships, health, and happiness [Abstract]

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Workplace dynamics in professional sport: a case study of identification, political skill, and personal control

This case is based on a collection of real-life scenarios encountered by employees working for professional sport organizations. The workplace in this environment contains circumstances distinct to the sport context which this case aims to highlight. A small work group of three individuals with diverse backgrounds representing key departments in a professional basketball club are brought together to lead a difficult challenge in the community. Over the course of the season, several meetings and personal interactions play out which present difficulties in productivity due to individual differences in human relations capacity and varying psychological connections with the environment. In combination with the teaching notes, the case is designed to highlight (1) the special nature of employee identification in the professional sport setting (2) an array of political skills which are relevant and useful to the sport workplace and (3) the role of perceived personal control in sport organizations. An overview of theory and its specific application to the case is provided along with discussion questions and answers to aid instructors in effectively engaging with students around the topical areas. </div

Sport identification and employee pride: key factors in sport employee psychology

The current study used a positive psychology approach to gain insight on employees working within the professional sports industry. While psychological fulfillment has been proposed as a critical area of distinction for managing in the sport environment, there is a need for empirical investigation relating to this proposition. The purpose of the current study was to address this gap in the literature and assess the role of psychological fulfillment in the form of sport employee pride. This study also addresses the role of identification with a specific sport and introduces this concept to the organisational behaviour literature more generally. More than 1,000 employees from five different professional sports leagues participated in the study, with structural equation modelling results providing support for sport identification and employee pride having a positive influence on satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour. Implications for sport managers are that employees working in this environment can have a psychological connection with a particular sport, which in turn augments employee pride and leads to positive attitudes and behaviours in the workplace. The results of this study are significant to sport managers in relation to human resource decisions and promoting positive psychology in the workplace

Surfacing implicit leadership theories in a professional sport context - A comparison of four research techniques in two Bundesliga handball clubs

Surfacing implicit leadership theories in a professional sport context - A comparison of four research techniques in two Bundesliga handball club

Use of Machine Learning to Automate the Identification of Basketball Strategies Using Whole Team Player Tracking Data

The use of machine learning to identify and classify offensive and defensive strategies in team sports through spatio-temporal tracking data has received significant interest recently in the literature and the global sport industry. This paper focuses on data-driven defensive strategy learning in basketball. Most research to date on basketball strategy learning has focused on offensive effectiveness and is based on the interaction between the on-ball player and principle on-ball defender, thereby ignoring the contribution of the remaining players. Furthermore, most sports analytical systems that provide play-by-play data is heavily biased towards offensive metrics such as passes, dribbles, and shots. The aim of the current study was to use machine learning to classify the different defensive strategies basketball players adopt when deviating from their initial defensive action. An analytical model was developed to recognise the one-on-one (matched) relationships of the players, which is utilised to automatically identify any change of defensive strategy. A classification model is developed based on a player and ball tracking dataset from National Basketball Association (NBA) game play to classify the adopted defensive strategy against pick-and-roll play. The methodology described is the first to analyse the defensive strategy of all in-game players (both on-ball players and off-ball players). The cross-validation results indicate that the proposed technique for automatic defensive strategy identification can achieve up to 69% accuracy of classification. Machine learning techniques, such as the one adopted here, have the potential to enable a deeper understanding of player decision making and defensive game strategies in basketball and other sports, by leveraging the player and ball tracking data

Innovative cultures in professional sports: The role of servant leadership in fostering employee cooperation, creativity, and satisfaction [Abstract]

Innovative cultures in professional sports: The role of servant leadership in fostering employee cooperation, creativity, and satisfaction [Abstract

Book review: Qaddafi's Point Guard: the incredible story of a professional basketball player trapped in Libya's Civil War

Book review: Qaddafi's Point Guard: the incredible story of a professional basketball player trapped in Libya's Civil Wa

Employee pride and identification with sport: Key drivers of positive organizational behavior [Abstract]

Despite calls for investigation of organisational life and human resource management in the sport environment (e.g., Doherty, 1998), the sport management discipline has generally given more attention to other areas of the field such as marketing, consumer behaviour, and more recently sport for development. The current study utilised a positive organisational behaviour approach to provide additional Insight in this area, which some scholars have proposed should be a primary focus of organisational research (e.g., Luthans, 2002). From a similar perspective, Todd and Kent (2009) developed a model of positive social identity and proposed that sport employees might experience psychological fulfillment in excess of what is seen in other industries. A main aim of the current study was to empirically assess Todd and Kent’s conceptual model by examining the impact of sport employee pride on job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour. In addition, this study tested the hypothesis that identifying with a specific sport can be a contributing factor to increased levels of employee pride in the current context

Leading in multiple contexts: Investigating the meaning of leadership for sport officials [Abstract]

Sport officials (e.g., referees) are an essential element of sporting competition, with the role of facilitating structure and fair play, the quality of spectator experience, and an environment conducive to optimal athlete performance (Cuskelly & Hoye, 2014; Kellett & Shilbury, 2007). However, despite their important positions in the production of organized sport, they have received very little attention in the field of sport management in comparison to athletes and coaches. Moreover, with such explicit positions of influence in the sporting environment, it is surprising that sport management research has yet to address the notion of leadership as it relates to officiating. The aim of the current research is to address this gap in the literature and gain initial insight on the meaning of leadership in the context of sport officials. Our investigation was framed around two main research questions: what characteristics are representative of an ideal leader in officiating?; and, what is the meaning of leadership in the context of officiating? This process in turn provided the foundation for a conceptual framework, which is developed and discussed in relation to the officiating context and other environments

Sport leadership: A new generation of thinking [Editorial]

Sport leadership: A new generation of thinking [Editorial