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Understanding Sense of Community From the Athlete’s Perspective

Stacy Warner and Marlene A. Dixon

Sport programs are often charged with creating a sense of community (SOC), and it is thought that doing so will benefit participants on and off the field of play. Since SOC is specific to the setting (Hill, 1996) and most research has been conducted outside of sport, the literature has not yet fully demonstrated how and when SOC is created within a sport context. Utilizing a grounded theory and phenomenological approach, this study investigated the mechanisms for creating SOC within a sport setting. Twenty former US college athletes were interviewed regarding their sport experiences. The results revealed that Administrative Consideration, Leadership Opportunities, Equity in Administrative Decisions, Competition, and Social Spaces were the most salient factors that fostered SOC. The results contribute to community building theory, and provide practical solutions for enhancing the participant experience.

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Examining Sense of Community in Sport: Developing the Multidimensional ‘SCS’ Scale

Stacy Warner, Shannon Kerwin, and Matthew Walker

As scholars conduct more research on the social benefits of community sport, the need for an instrument to measure sense of community is increasingly necessary. Utilizing previous grounded theory research specific to sport and community building, the purpose of this study was to test previous sport and sense of community theory through the creation and validation of a measurement scale to gauge sense of community. The authors tested a 21-item tool comprised of 6-subscales (i.e., Administrative Consideration, Common Interest, Competition, Equity in Administrative Decisions, Leadership, and Social Spaces) among samples of young sport participants using the three-phase method of item generation, confirmatory analyses, and concurrent validation. The resulting analyses yielded a valid and reliable instrument to measure sense of community in sport. This research suggests refinement to previous sport and sense of community theory and provides needed utility for this theory that has been grounded in the sport experience.

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Employee Satisfaction in Sport: Development of a Multi-Dimensional Model in Coaching

Marlene A. Dixon and Stacy Warner

Despite the overwhelming emphasis on job satisfaction in sport management research, scholars continue to advocate for the distinctiveness and importance of evaluating both job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The purpose of this investigation is to develop a model of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction for intercollegiate coaches. Fifteen head coaches participated in semistructured interviews. Results revealed a sport industry specific three-factor model. Desirable job factors (Player-Coach Relationships, Recognition, and Social Status) were related only to satisfaction. Industry Standard Factors (Sport Policy, Salary, Recruiting, Supervision, and Life Balance) were related only to dissatisfaction. Performance Dependent Factors (Flexibility and Control, Program Building, and Relationships with Colleagues) were related to satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The results support the distinctiveness of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction as constructs, and also demonstrate a continued need for examining job attitudes within context. As sport managers understand the particular expectations of their employees and their industry they can better diagnose and solve employee issues.

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Refereeing as a Postathletic Career Option

Vanessa Bright, Stacy Warner, and Claire Zvosec

Athletes may be especially primed to become referees; yet, we do not know what former athletes think about this career choice. To address the worldwide referee shortage, it is important to better understand athletes’ perceptions of refereeing. From a Career Contingency Model framework, it is evident athletes’ perception would influence their decision to consider refereeing. This study’s aim was to examine athletes’ perceptions of the refereeing environment (RQ1) and identify referee recruitment barriers (RQ2). Utilizing a descriptive phenomenological approach, 23 current and former athletes took part in semistructured interviews based on their lived experience as an athlete. The participants identified the officiating environment as a high-stress environment with financial instability, while time and lack of knowledge and support were identified as recruitment barriers. The results contributed to the burgeoning line of research attempting to address the global referee shortage and provide both theoretical and practical implications for sport managers.

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Enhancing Girls’ Physical Activity and Self-Image: A Case Study of the GoGirlGo Program

Stacy Warner, Marlene A. Dixon, and Christyn Schumann

Physical activity and sport developmental programs have demonstrated some success at providing valuable resources for young women as they navigate their teen years, yet these programs are not always intentional and/or accessible (Cadwallader, 2001; Petitpas, Cornelius, Van Raalte, & Jones, 2004; Tucker Center, 2007). One such program developed by the Women’s Sports Foundation is GoGirlGo. The curriculum, which combines sports participation with education, focuses on reducing and preventing unhealthy behaviors and on providing valuable connections and resources for girls. Using the theory of developmental intentionality, this qualitative investigation examined the efficacy of GoGirlGo in a five day long sport camp setting. This condensed delivery method is not addressed or recommended in the literature, yet the results of this investigation reveal that this delivery method is effective and could broaden the accessibility of the program.

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Officiating Attrition: The Experiences of Former Referees Via a Sport Development Lens

Stacy Warner, Jacob K. Tingle, and Pamm Kellett

Referees are key sport personnel who have important responsibilities both on- and off- the field. Organized competition would not survive without referees, yet little is known about what cause referees to discontinue in the role. This research examines the experiences of former referees so that managers may better understand strategies that might encourage more referees to be retained. Fifteen previous basketball referees were interviewed about their refereeing experience. Ten themes emerged that were related to the sport development stages of referee recruitment, referee retention, and referee advancement. The results indicate that issues experienced during the retention phase (Problematic Social Interaction, Training/Mentoring, and Lack of Referee Community) and then at the advancing stage (Lack of Administrator Consideration, Administrator Decision Making, and Sport Policies) are linked to eventual departure from the role. Interestingly, off-court factors were reported as more influential in the decision to leave. Managerial strategies and implications are discussed.

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More Than Motivation: Reconsidering Volunteer Management Tools

Stacy Warner, Brianna L. Newland, and B. Christine Green

Volunteers provide an essential human resource to sport organizations. Yet measures of motivation and satisfaction have had limited impact on an organization’s ability to improve their volunteer systems. This study applied the Kano Method to categorize volunteers’ perceptions of their experience into four dimensions of satisfaction: Attractive (or Satisfiers), Must-Be’s (or Dissatisfiers), One-Dimensional, and Indifferent. Four types of volunteers (44 sport continuous, 47 sport episodic, 49 nonsport continuous, 176 nonsport episodic) completed a web questionnaire including 26-paired features of their experience, 26 motives, and five key outcome measures. Although motives were deemed important, alone they were poor predictors of key outcomes and were unrelated to satisfaction. Volunteers in the four contexts classified the 26 features in different ways. No Must-Be’s (dissatisfiers) were identified by any group. Although most features were identified as Attractive, the distribution of One-Dimensional and Indifferent features varied by context. One-dimensional items were only identified among features categorized as Supportive Culture, Clear Direction, and Contribution. These features should be prioritized as managers improve volunteer management systems. The Kano Method extends our understanding of the volunteer experience by providing researchers with a tool to distinguish the way volunteers conceptualize their experience. From a practical standpoint, it provides volunteer managers with an additional tool in their efforts to recruit and retain volunteers by prioritizing features that will most immediately impact volunteers.

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Team Dynamics: A Social Network Perspective

Stacy Warner, Matthew T. Bowers, and Marlene A. Dixon

Research has consistently revealed that team cohesion is positively related to team performance under certain conditions. In response to the need for understanding this relationship more fully, and because of the promising new insights that can be garnered with the use of social network analysis (SNA), this study employs SNA as a tool to explore a case study of the structural cohesiveness of two women’s collegiate basketball teams. Members of the two teams completed online roster-based surveys related to different types of structural cohesion levels at four points during the season. This case study revealed that the higher performing team showed improved structural cohesion in the efficacy network over the four phases, and highlighted the movement of key players in the different networks (friendship, trust, advice, and efficacy) over time. These patterns demonstrate the potential for SNA to function as a diagnostic tool for organizations and researchers to generate testable hypotheses even in instances where statistical inference may be precluded by sampling constraints. In short, SNA was found to be a valuable new tool for exploring, depicting, and informing explanations about the individual relationships that impact team dynamics.

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Sport Management Digest

Melanie Sartore-Baldwin, Jacqueline McDowell, Stephen Shapiro, Matthew Walker, and Stacy Warner

Edited by Jeremy S. Jordan

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Development of the Referee Retention Scale

Lynn L. Ridinger, Kyungun R. Kim, Stacy Warner, and Jacob K. Tingle

Building on the current sport officiating research, this study puts forth the Referee Retention Scale. Through a three-phase process, the researchers developed a valid and reliable scale to predict sport officials’ job satisfaction and intention to continue. The first phase consisted of instrument development, whereas the second phase included field testing of referees (n = 253). After exploratory factor analysis and Rasch analysis, the resultant refined scale from Phases 1 and 2 was then administered to 979 referees in Phase 3. Phase 3 results using confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the seven-factor, 28-item Referee Retention Scale was a valid and reliable tool for measuring and predicting referee retention. The results highlight the importance of considering a variety of factors associated with the referee experience, which include administrator consideration, intrinsic motives, mentoring, remuneration, sense of community, lack of stress, and continuing education. A discussion on how the Referee Retention Scale can help administrators manage and retain sport officials is included.