Conceptualizing employee identification with sport organizations: Sport Employee Identification (SEI)

Passion in the workplace: empirical insights from team sport organisations

“…Given that previous research has suggested that many people identify themselves with the object of their passion (Murnieks, Mosakowski, & Cardon, 2014;Vallerand & Houlfort, 2003), one could argue that participants in this study are passionate about their job, which seems to have become part of their identity. This finding adds to empirical evidence from recent studies (e.g., Oja et al, 2015;Swanson & Kent, 2015) that employees' identification in the sport industry is not restricted to the team, but extends to the organisation itself. However, the finding that workforce demonstrates a high level of passion implies that these employees do not only identify with the organisation when it is contextually salient to do so (Tajfel & Turner, 1986), but instead (or as well) with the very specific job-related task because they can both pursue it and see its importance at all times (Houlfort et al, 2015;Lavigne, Forest, Fernet, Crevier-Braud, 2015).…”

“…That is, the passion for sport is the very same that employees experience as passive or active consumers (Smith & Stewart, 2010;Wakefield, 2016) and/or through their identification and involvement with a sport team (Todd & Andrew, 2008). Indeed, recent empirical studies have shown that the employees of team sport organisations are distinct from those in other industry sectors, in that they identify both with the parent organisation in which they are employed and the team that represents it (Oja, Bass, & Gordon, 2015;Swanson & Kent, 2015). Job seekers, therefore, are largely attracted to sport industry jobs because they perceive a good fit between their preferences for future work and the sporting environment (Todd & Andrew, 2008).…”

March Madness in the Collegiate Sport Workplace: Cultural Implications for Sport Employees

“…As for RQ4, the community gatherings that took place outside of the workplace were bolstered by the college sport employees' shared interest in sport and competition, as it was the driving force for the assemblies. The emphasis on the shared interest in sport and competition reinforces previously hypothesized (Oja et al, 2015) and discovered (Kellett & Warner, 2011) results. Moreover, the strength of the participants' interest in sport transcended physical workplace boundaries to external meeting locations.…”

“…These include social spaces that foster social interaction (e.g., watch parties), competition (e.g., tournament brackets), and a common interest in sport. College sport employees are thought to have an interest in athletics (Oja et al, 2015). It stands to reason that when a popular event (e.g., March Madness) occurs during normal work hours, then those with a sport interest (i.e., college sport employees) will watch the sport event.…”

“…This examination is necessary as the sport environment is unique when compared with other nonsport industries (Chalip, 2006). Past examinations of collegiate sport employees have included, among other things, job satisfaction (Cunningham, Fink, & Sagas, 2005;Kim, Magnusen, Andrew, & Stoll, 2012), identification (Oja, Bass, & Gordon, 2015), and organizational power incongruities (Oja & Bass, 2016). While some scholars have begun the process of investigating collegiate sport employees, little is known of such employees' cognitive processes and subsequent behaviors.…”