The Relationship between Perceived Organizational Support, Work Engagement, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Customer Orientation in the Public Sports Organizations Context.

As sports activities have recently become socio-culturally important in South Korea, the roles and functions of public sports organizations are attracting attention. In this situation, perceived organizational support is considered one of the significant variables to explain the attitudes and behaviors of employees within the organizations. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between perceived organizational support of public sports organizations, work engagement, organizational citizenship behavior, and customer orientation and examine the mediating effect of work engagement. This study collected data from 248 employees working for public sports organizations, and data were analyzed with SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 26.0. The results showed the following. (1) Perceived organizational support has a significant positive effect on work engagement but does not affect organizational citizenship behavior and customer orientation. (2) Work engagement significantly positively affects organizational citizenship behavior and customer orientation. (3) Work engagement has been shown to fully mediate the relationship between perceived organizational support, organizational citizenship behavior, and customer orientation. This study suggests that public sports organizations need an efficient support strategy that can maximize employees' work engagement. For example, organizations should increase their sense of unity with employees and understand the importance of their work to strengthen perceived organizational support. Lastly, organizations need to create an environment where employees can devote themselves to and focus on their work.

Esports Associations and the Pursuit of Legitimacy: Evidence From Germany.

The dominant position of esports game publishers is a fundamental difference between the systemic governance of esports and traditional sports. There are no such equivalent organizations in traditional sports. As for-profit corporations, the publishers develop and market the electronic games as their commercial products and thus, possess exclusive property rights. Publishers control the virtual sporting environment and the rules of the game. In conventional sports, by contrast, non-profit associations administer their sports with the core task of developing the sport by regulations, playing rules, and licensing. There are, however, esports associations which resemble traditional leagues and national governing bodies. Given this, we explore how esports associations pursue legitimacy. This study is empirically motivated by the recent emergence of two esports associations in the insightful case of Germany and examines the pursuit of legitimacy by the World Esports Association (WESA) and the eSport-Bund Deutschland e.V. (ESBD). The study is based on a content analysis of 55 documents and nine interviews with relevant stakeholders. The findings show that the esports associations rely on conformance and manipulation strategies by transferring existing structures from traditional sports to esports. The most effective practices are lobbying for social and public acceptance of esports and creating supportive networks for esports development. While publishers possess an undisputed and taken-for-granted legitimacy based on their product property rights, esports associations struggle for recognition and acceptance. They may still have a long way to go, given that established associations in conventional sports have a history for decades. Yet, esports associations need to accept publisher dominance. Thus, they can only claim partial legitimacy within the esports ecosystem by targeting segments of stakeholders. Management, policy and theoretical implications of this key insight are finally presented.

Gender inequality in table tennis: an analysis of women coaches in certification courses

Abstract Aim: This study aimed to investigate the presence of women coaches in table tennis certification courses carried out by national and international federations. Methods: We carried out an analysis on documents extracted from the official websites of the Brazilian Table Tennis Confederation (CBTM) and the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). Those documents presented the certificated coaches by each organization. We also collected information about the location of the coach according to the five macro-regions of Brazil. Results: We found a greater frequency of men (89.3%) compared to women (10.7%) in ITTF courses and, in Brazil, we also found a higher rate of men (83.7%) compared to women (16.3%) certified by CBTM. We found no increase in women's participation in ITFF courses over the years. In both national and international courses, most of the women coaches (international = 36%; national = 46.4%) were from the Southeast, while few women coaches were found in the Northeast and North. Conclusion: The findings of our study reveal that the training process of table tennis coaches is still mostly occupied by men. We also found a discrepancy between the macro-regions of the country where most women coaches are from the Southeast. CBTM managed to almost double the women's representation among coaches (from 10.7% to 16%) due to the policy that has been adopted in an attempt to increase the number of women in the sport. We highlight the importance of gender equality policies to improve women coaches' participation in table tennis.

Bullying Trends Inside Sport: When Organized Sport Does Not Attract but Intimidates.

Bullying is acknowledged by scientists as a considerable and still unresolved problem in sport. By triggering stress-related emotions, they determine the behavior of those experiencing bullying and cause various negative effects on their physical and mental health. However, in the presence of the tenacious trend in sports "to put one's own house in order," athletes, coaches, teams, and sports organizations themselves often do not emphasize bullying or state that they do not encounter the problem at all, and adheres to the belief that athletes may use negative emotions instrumentally in order to perform tasks given to them more effectively. The aim of this research was to reveal the determinants of the internal environment of sports organizations, causing trends of bullying in organized sport. To achieve the research aim, a qualitative research paradigm was chosen. The empirical study involved eight coaches working in organized sport in Lithuania. The survey was conducted using the semi-structured interview method. Data were analyzed employing inductive content analysis. The presented research results encompass the transcriptions of interviews, which are conceptually divided into three main categories revealing coaches' opinion on trends of bullying in organized sport, related to the sports organization's internal environment. Categories identified during the study can be equated to interrelated levels of model of Organizational behavior. The micro level-interrelationships; the mezzo level-sports professionals' (coaches') behavior; and the macro level-management of interrelationships. These results revealed which determinants of the sports organization's internal environment can be favorable for emergence of bullying and its dynamics in both interrelationships among athletes and interrelationships between athletes and coaches. And these trends of bullying, revealed on the basis of the responses of coaches involved in the study, allow us to see harmful principles of coaching, bullying-promoting traditions of team/group leadership, existing in sport, and to predict how this may effect both the athlete himself, his environment and attractiveness of the sporting activity itself.

Overcoming the organization-practice barrier in sports injury prevention: A nonhierarchical organizational model.

The organization of sports at the national level has seldom been included in scientific discussions of sports injury prevention. The aim of this study was to develop a model for organization of sports that supports prevention of overuse injuries. The quality function deployment technique was applied in seminars over a two-season period to develop a national organizational structure for athletics in Sweden that facilitates prevention of overuse injuries. Three central features of the resulting model for organization of sports at the national level are (a) diminishment of the organizational hierarchy: participatory safety policy design is introduced through annual meetings where actors from different sectors of the sporting community discuss training, injury prevention, and sports safety policy; (b) introduction of a safety surveillance system: a ubiquitous system for routine collection of injury and illness data; and (c) an open forum for discussion of safety issues: maintenance of a safety forum for participants from different sectors of the sport. A nonhierarchical model for organization of sports at the national level - facilitated by modern information technology - adapted for the prevention of overuse injuries has been developed. Further research is warranted to evaluate the new organizational model in prospective effectiveness studies.

O jogo das cidades em tempos de megaeventos esportivos: algumas reflexões / El juego de ciudades en tiempos de megaeventos deportivos: algunas reflexiones / The game of cities in times of mega sporting events: some reflections

O ensaio objetiva analisar aspectos referentes aos megaeventos esportivos propostos para acontecer no Brasil, com o intuito de compreender seus possíveis impactos. Neste texto, são apontadas situações que o Brasil está vivendo na fase que antecede aos megaeventos, no que se refere às transformações das cidades, aos impactos no cotidiano dos moradores decorrentes de todas as mudanças exigidas, aos possíveis legados e, por fim, como a Educação Física situa-se nesse processo. Sediar megaeventos esportivos remete a estratégias complexas, sendo de fundamental importância a participação da comunidade, uma responsável gestão pública e estudos científicos, técnicos e operacionais que identifiquem, com profundidade, tais impactos.

This paper examines aspects related to mega sporting events proposed in Brazil in order to understand their potential impacts. It points out situations that Brazil is experiencing in times preceding those mega events, with regard to changes in cities, impacts on residents’ daily lives as a result of all the changes required, their possible legacy, and finally, the place of Physical Education in the process. Hosting mega sporting events implies complex strategies and crucial aspects include community participation, responsible public management as well as scientific, technical and operational studies that identify such impacts in depth.

El estudio objetiva analizar aspectos relacionados a los megaeventos deportivos que deben ocurrir en Brasil, con el fin de comprender sus posibles impactos. El texto señala situaciones que Brasil vive en la fase que precede a los megaeventos en lo que se refiere a las transformaciones de las ciudades, los impactos en el cotidiano de los habitantes como consecuencia de los cambios exigidos, los posibles legados y, finalmente, cómo se sitúa la educación física en este proceso. Acoger a megaeventos deportivos remite a estrategias complejas, y es de fundamental importancia la participación de la comunidad, una responsable gestión pública y estudios científicos, técnicos y operacionales que identifiquen con profundidad tales impactos.

Mulheres Tomando a Liderança ou mulheres tomando a liderança nas organizações esportivas alemãs / Women Taking the Lead / Mujeres Tomando el Liderazgo

Este artigo apresenta os resultados de três estudos empíricos, levados a cabo no projeto Mulheres Tomando a Liderança, na Universidade Livre de Berlim, na Alemanha. A pesquisa, que compreende todos os executivos, homens e mulheres, nas federações esportivas alemãs, incluiu questões relacionadas à sócio-demografia dos atores, suas carreiras como executivos nas organizações esportivas, bem como em suas próprias carreiras, tanto no esporte como nas profissões específicas. A pesquisa revela diferenças marcantes de gênero, idade, situação familiar, responsabilidades nos comitês executivos, duração do emprego e barreiras na carreira. Realizamos 23 entrevistas de profundidade, semi-estruturadas, com mulheres em cargo de liderança, a fim de explorar suas perspectivas individuais. Entrevistamos também nove homens e sete mulheres que não atuam mais no esporte, com vistas a identificar barreiras que levaram essas pessoas a interromperem, prematuramente, suas atividades em cargo de liderança. Este grupo representa informantes de elite, com excelente insight sobre suas organizações e que experimentaram barreiras, que resultaram na interrupção do trabalho. Os discursos mostram diferenças consideráveis, em relação a experiências, atitudes e avaliações de homens e mulheres

This paper presents the results of three empirical studies that have been undertaken within the project "Women Taking the Lead" at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. The representative survey of all male and female executives in German sports federations included questions concerning their socio-demography, their careers as executive members in the sports organisations as well as their careers in both sport and their profession. The survey reveals significant gender differences in terms of age, family situation, responsibilities in the executive committees, duration of office and career barriers. Further, we conducted 23 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with women in leadership positions in order to explore the women's individual perspectives. The aim of a second interview study ("drop-out" study), with 9 women and 7 men, was to identify barriers in the voluntary careers of male and female leaders who have left their position earlier than they had originally planned. These informants can be seen as experts with an excellent insight into their organisations and who have experienced barriers which caused them to "drop out". The respondents' statements showed considerable differences with respect to the experiences, attitudes and evaluations of women and men

Este artículo presenta los resultados de tres estudios empíricos llevados a cabo en el proyecto Mujeres tomando el liderazgo, en la Universidad Libre de Berlín, Alemania. La investigación, que comprende todos los ejecutivos, hombres y mujeres, en las federaciones deportivas alemanas, incluyó cuestiones relacionadas a la sociodemografía de los actores, sus carreras como ejecutivos en las organizaciones deportivas, así también como en sus propias carreras, tanto en el deporte como en las profesiones específicas. La investigación revela diferencias significativas de género, edad, situación familiar, responsabilidades en los comités ejecutivos, duración de empleo y barreras en la carrera. Se realizaron 23 entrevistas en profundidad, semi-estructuradas, a mujeres con cargos de conducción o liderazgo, a fin de explorar sus perspectivas individuales. Se entrevistó también a 9 hombres y 7 mujeres que no actúan más en el deporte, buscando identificar barreras que llevaron a esas personas a interrumpir, prematuramente, sus actividades en cargos de conducción o liderazgo. Este grupo se conformó por informantes de elite, con excelente insight sobre sus organizaciones; el grupo experimentó barreras que lo llevaran a interrumpir sus trabajos. Los discursos muestran diferencias considerables en relación a las experiencias, actitudes y evaluaciones de hombres y mujeres