Conceptualizing A-HERO for sport employees’ well-being

Abstract

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.

Developing flourishing among employees in the college sport workplace

“…Although scholars have begun to explore various pathways to the enhancement of sport employees' well-being (e.g. Kim et al , 2017, 2019; Oja et al , 2019), an underdeveloped concept is how engaged sport employees are able to flourish within their jobs (e.g. facilitating the happiness of others and feeling competent).…”

“…The study also utilizes pride as a predictor of job engagement. Pride has seen application with sport employees in recent literature as it has been thought to support the growth of psychological well-being (Oja et al , 2019) and influence important workplace attitudes and behaviors (e.g. affective commitment, job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational citizenship behaviors; Swanson and Kent, 2017a).…”

“…Even as scholars have examined well-being, pride, and engagement in the domain of the sport workplace (e.g. Kim et al , 2019; Neil et al , 2016; Oja et al , 2019; Svensson et al , 2021; Swanson and Kent, 2017a), there remains a limited understanding regarding the process of developing intercollegiate athletics employees' flourishing. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to apply the HRD paradigm to advance the literature pertaining to intercollegiate athletics department employees' well-being, which is advantageous as flourishing employees are likely to improve their work performances (Bakker and Sanz-Vergel, 2013).…”

“…Additionally, the concept of psychological well-being is grounded within the EWB paradigm (Ryff, 1989), which has seen increased attention from sport scholars (e.g. Kim et al , 2017, 2019; Oja et al , 2019).…”

“…With this perspective, the current study signifies pride in the workplace as feelings of significance, sense of worth, and admiration centered on status valuations of one's current job (Swanson and Kent, 2017a; Todd and Harris, 2009). Pride in one's job was found to positively impact United States' professional sport business operations employees' job involvement, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and organizational citizenship behaviors (Swanson and Kent, 2017a), and pride has been hypothesized to support sport employees' psychological functioning (Oja et al , 2019). Further, HRD has been acknowledged as a favorable component for the positive development of employees in order to achieve the goal of elevated pride among employees (Hassan et al , 2006).…”