Search Results

You are looking at 1 - 4 of 4 items for

  • Author: Brent D. Oja x
  • Refine by Access: All Content x
Clear All Modify Search
Restricted access

A New Pitch: Building an Innovative Sport Organization Through Sport Employees

Nathan Baer, Claire C. Zvosec, Brent D. Oja, and Minjung Kim

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.

Restricted access

Major Sport Events and Psychic Income: The Social Anchor Effect

Brent D. Oja, Henry T. Wear, and Aaron W. Clopton

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.

Restricted access

An Examination of Sport Management Doctoral Programs and the Organizational Environment Through Person–Environment Fit Theory

Jay Martyn, Kyle J. Brannigan, Brent D. Oja, and Claire C. Zvosec

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.

Restricted access

Developing Student-Athlete School Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being: The Effects of Academic Psychological Capital and Engagement

Minjung Kim, Brent D. Oja, Han Soo Kim, and Ji-Hyoung Chin

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.