Developing flourishing among employees in the college sport workplace

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how flourishing is achieved among sport employees working at intercollegiate sport organizations in the USA. To do so, a model is constructed that examines the impact of pride and path-goal leadership on job engagement and then flourishing. The model is grounded in the Human Resource Development (HRD) paradigm to extend the literature on positive performance outcomes in sport organizations.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative methods were used to analyze the data. Altogether, 282 useable surveys were completed by sport employees working in intercollegiate athletics departments. The hypotheses were examined with structural equation modeling to provide robust calculations of the relationships within the model.FindingsThe findings of this study demonstrated that both path-goal leadership and pride enabled job engagement, which in turn supported flourishing among intercollegiate athletics employees (e.g. equipment, marketing or facility/event positions). Job engagement is positioned as an important variable as it linked path-goal leadership and pride with flourishing.Originality/valueThis study examined mechanisms (i.e. path-goal leadership, pride) to enhance intercollegiate athletics employees' personal resources (i.e. job engagement, flourishing) through the HRD paradigm. The HRD framework posits that improved employee functioning leads to a superior organizational performance and has yet to be assessed within intercollegiate athletics. The findings add to the HRD literature by focusing on employees' workplace experiences and generating pathways to improved job engagement and the subsequent influence on intercollegiate athletics employees' ability to flourish, which is also understudied.

Job flourishing research: A systematic literature review

“…In our reviewed studies, the theories under this category provided some explanation of the job flourishing construct operationalized by its hedonic and eudemonic components (e.g., Van Rensburg et al, 2017). These theories could also explain some eudemonictype of well-being construct other than flourishing, such as work engagement (Rosales et al, 2020;Schuetz et al, 2021).…”

Innovation is the key: identifying factors to increase career satisfaction and psychological well-being in millennial and generation Z sport employees

“…Kim et al ., 2020), employees (e.g. Schuetz et al ., 2021), and referees (Kim et al ., 2021). As sport organizations seek to improve the quality of their services, sport management researchers have started to explore the development of managerial employees to assist in achieving these performance expectations (e.g.…”

“…To enhance sport employees' job engagement, it is important to consider not only the role of leadership (e.g. path-goal leadership; Schuetz et al ., 2021) but also employee attitudes (e.g. motivation; Svensson et al ., 2021).…”

“…The value of this study is found in the focus on Millennial and Generation Z sport employees' willingness to engage with innovation and the utilization of contemporary constructs to gauge their experiences in the sport workplace. As these generations move into leadership positions within sport organizations, it is critical for sport organizations to acquire knowledge that supports their professional development to attain a competitive advantage (Doherty, 1998; Kim et al ., 2019; Schuetz et al ., 2021). Doing so can advance organizational functionality and result in improved experiences for sport participants and consumers (Kim et al ., 2023; Oja et al ., 2022).…”

Job flourishing : Multilevel determinants and mechanisms

“…In our reviewed studies, the theories under this category provided some explanation of the job flourishing construct operationalized by its hedonic and eudemonic components (e.g., van Rensburg et al 2017). These theories could also explain some eudemonic-type of well-being construct other than flourishing, such as work engagement (Schuetz et al, 2021;Rosales et al, 2020).…”