There has recently been a marked increase in the number of reported cases of corruption in international sport. As such, a growing number of sponsors have taken remedial action in order to protect the reputation of their brand. This study has been designed to analyse how sponsors respond to the threat of corruption in sport and to identify the contextual factors that influence such a response. Maennig (2005) identified two forms of corruption – ‘management corruption’ and ‘competition corruption’. It is the latter, defined by Gorse & Chadwick (2010) as “any illegal, immoral or unethical activity that attempts to deliberately distort the outcome of a sporting contest (or an element within the contest) for the personal material gain of one or more parties involved in the activity” that provides a focus and context for this study and includes such behaviour as doping, tanking, match fixing and spot fixing. In order to identify how sponsors respond both to the threat of being associated with a property affected by this type of behaviour, also referred to as sporting transgression in this study, and to analyse instances of actual corruption, a four-stage research methodology has been employed. A database of cases of sporting transgression was created to provide contextual background and further rationale for the focus of this study; a series of preliminary interviews were conducted with professionals in and around the sponsorship industry to highlight the potential implications of corruption for sponsors; and a number of case studies were developed, recognising the key stakeholders in sponsorship management. A series of in-depth semi-structured interviews were then conducted with multiple stakeholders in the sport industry - sponsors, legal professionals with expertise in sponsorship and commercial managers in governing bodies of sport. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and then analysed using grounded theory coding techniques, allowing for key themes to emerge and responses to corruption in sport discussed. Analysis of the interview data indicates that sponsors adopt a ‘wait-and-see’ approach when dealing with the potential impact of corruption, relying on a number of factors to decide upon remedial courses of action. These factors have been conceptualised and a Sponsor Response to Sporting Transgression, or SRST, Model is proposed.

Smith (2003) suggested in an influential review paper that behavioural observation and sociometry were two potentially useful but under-utilized methods for the study of peers in youth sport. Despite this call, the methods used to study peers in sport remain largely focused on athletes’ perceptions through questionnaires and interviews (Murphy-Mills, Bruner, Erickson, & Côté, 2011). Thus, the purpose of this project was to examine sociometric status, competence, and athlete behaviour in a youth sport context using an observational coding system. Female volleyball players (N = 28; Mage = 15.94) from three competitive teams completed the sport competence and peer connection inventories (Vierimaa, Erickson, Côté, & Gilbert, 2012), and each team was videotaped during three practices. An observational coding system was developed and used to code athlete behaviours in a continuous, time-based manner and this data was compared across sociometric status groups. The results reinforce past research that suggests that sport competence is an important factor in gaining peer acceptance among youth (e.g., Weiss & Duncan, 1992). Behavioural profiles were constructed for each sociometric status group, which revealed differences between groups in relation to interactions with peers, coaches, and overall sociability. Rejected and neglected athletes appeared to be less sociable than average, interacting less with peers and coaches. Coaches also appeared to spend more time interacting with popular athletes who they viewed as more competent, and less with rejected and neglected athletes who they viewed as less competent. Thus, sociometry appears to be a useful approach with which to study young athletes’ behaviour in sport. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-12-20 13:50:52.64

According to the 2008 Statistics Canada report on the extracurricular activities of Canadian children and youth, approximate 76% of Canadians under the age of 17 participate in sport. As such, sport represents a significant developmental experience in many young peoples’ lives. Whether this experience is positive or negative depends on a number of factors related to the specific context in which sport participation occurs. In particular, interpersonal interactions are known to be a significant influence on athlete development and may vary greatly across sport contexts. In youth sport, there are two primary contexts of participation: coach-driven organized sport and youth-driven informal sport play. The purpose of the present program of research was to examine the predominant interpersonal interactions occurring in organized sport and informal sport play contexts and their relationship to athlete development. Study 1 was methodological and presents the development and validation of an observational coding system designed to capture the motivational tone of youth sport coaches’ interactions with their athletes. Motivational tone represents a theoretically relevant but previously unexplored dimension of coaches’ interactive behaviour. Study 2 used the newly developed coding system from study 1 to examine the motivational tone of coach-athlete interactions in competitive youth volleyball, an organized sport context. Using a person-centred analysis approach, these coach-athlete interaction were then linked to athletes’ longitudinal development trajectories over the course of the competitive season. Results revealed significant differences in the coach-athlete interaction profiles of athletes on a negative developmental trajectory compared to athletes on a positive developmental trajectory. Study 3 was an exploratory observational examination of peer interactive behaviour in an informal sport play context. These interactive behaviours were examined with respect to athletes’ developmental outcomes. Results pointed to the social nature of participation in informal sport play contexts and the critical relationship between athlete competence and peer interaction tendencies. Overall, the results of the three studies comprising this program of research offered new information to further our understanding of interpersonal interactions and athlete development in different youth sport contexts but also identified several avenues requiring further research. / Thesis (Ph.D, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-27 14:27:49.668

This dissertation builds on Wenner's (Wenner, L.A. (1989). Media, Sports and Society: The Research Agenda. In L. A. Wenner (Ed.), Media, Sports and Society (pp. 13-48). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.) claims about how the culture of sport is changed as it is mediated by examining the mediation of sport through four digital sports games produced by Electronic Arts--Fight Night Round 2, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, MVP Baseball 2005, and John Madden Football 2005. Following the example of digital game scholars, I employ a multi-level method of textual analysis in engaging the representation and gameplay of these respective titles. The dissertation uses three case studies to tease out the ideological implications of these games as they position their users. The fourth case study examines how the digital sports game audience responds to the ideologies and positioning identified in the textual analysis sections. In responding to the broader optimism of new media theorists, I argue for a consideration of the specific context of the digital sports game as a way into measuring the validity of their positions. In looking at the mediation of the body in Fight Night Round 2, golf and its attendant culture in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, the ubiquitous quantification of MVP Baseball 2005, and audience responses to John Madden Football 2005, I argue that the potential freedom certain strands of new media theory proclaim is constrained by the ideologies resident in the texts examined here and the ways in which these digital sports games position their users. As such, scrutinizing these specific new media contexts reveals we should ultimately be cautious about the degree to which they offer the kinds of progressive freedoms advocated by celebratory new media scholarship.

Författare: Lars Jennfors Titel: Sport Managers, Vad gör de? - En studie kring de arbetsuppgifter som innehas och de kvalifikationer som krävs för att arbeta som sport manager Innehåll: Sport Management är ett förhållandevis outforskat område i Sverige. Därmed är det inte alldeles självklart vilka personer som har ett arbete som kan kallas sport manager. Definitionerna som därmed blir av central roll i studien är idrottssektorn, idrottsorganisationer och sport manager. Att ta del av dessa definitioner är viktigt för att kunna ta till sig av det resultat som framkommit. Syftet med undersökningen är att ta reda på vilka kvalifikationer som krävs på idrottens arbetsmarknad inom yrket sport manager, samt vad en sport manager har för arbetsuppgifter. Detta utforskas genom två skilda men samtidigt kompletterande delstudier. Detta leder till följande två frågeställningar: • Vilka kvalifikationer efterfrågas hos den jobbsökande och vilka arbetsuppgifter anger idrottsorganisationerna att den jobbsökande kommer att få i sin managertjänst? • Vilka arbetsuppgifter och kvalifikationer krävs i det vardagliga arbetet för de personer som har managertjänster inom idrottssektorn? I delstudie ett har 25 jobbannonser undersökts för att ta reda på vad idrottsorganisationer betonar gällande arbetsuppgifter och kvalifikationer. I delstudie två har intervjuer gjorts med tio sport managers för att få deras bild av vilka arbetsuppgifter man har och vilka kvalifikationer som behövs. Resultatet från delstudie ett visar att man som sport manager framförallt jobbar med/behöver kvalifikationer inom följande femton områden: planering och organisering, leda, erfarenhet, kunskap kring idrottssektorn, ansvar, personalhantering, ekonomi, utbildning, utveckla, projekt, intresse/engagemang, samarbetsförmåga, kontakter externt, initiativrik och kunna kommunicera. Resultatet från delstudie två visar att man som sport manager framförallt jobbar med/behöver kvalifikationer inom följande tio områden: ekonomi, personalhantering, externa kontakter, projekt, utveckling, överblick över alla delar, leda, kunskap kring idrottssektorn, utbildning och erfarenhet. Ingenting från de två studierna motsäger varandra. Båda studierna visar att som sport managers anses det viktigare att ha kunskap kring idrottssektorn än att ha en formell akademisk utbildning. Samtidigt framhävs just generalistkunskapen för sport managers, dock i olika stor omfattning beroende på vilken chefsposition som besitts. Vissa sport managers kan dessutom behöva specifik kunskap inom något område.

<p>Författare:</p><p>Lars Jennfors</p><p>Titel:</p><p>Sport Managers, Vad gör de? - En studie kring de arbetsuppgifter som innehas och de kvalifikationer som krävs för att arbeta som sport manager</p><p>Innehåll:</p><p>Sport Management är ett förhållandevis outforskat område i Sverige. Därmed är det inte alldeles självklart vilka personer som har ett arbete som kan kallas sport manager. Definitionerna som därmed blir av central roll i studien är idrottssektorn, idrottsorganisationer och sport manager. Att ta del av dessa definitioner är viktigt för att kunna ta till sig av det resultat som framkommit.</p><p>Syftet med undersökningen är att ta reda på vilka kvalifikationer som krävs på idrottens arbetsmarknad inom yrket sport manager, samt vad en sport manager har för arbetsuppgifter. Detta utforskas genom två skilda men samtidigt kompletterande delstudier.</p><p>Detta leder till följande två frågeställningar:</p><p>• Vilka kvalifikationer efterfrågas hos den jobbsökande och vilka arbetsuppgifter anger idrottsorganisationerna att den jobbsökande kommer att få i sin managertjänst?</p><p>• Vilka arbetsuppgifter och kvalifikationer krävs i det vardagliga arbetet för de personer som har managertjänster inom idrottssektorn?</p><p>I delstudie ett har 25 jobbannonser undersökts för att ta reda på vad idrottsorganisationer betonar gällande arbetsuppgifter och kvalifikationer. I delstudie två har intervjuer gjorts med tio sport managers för att få deras bild av vilka arbetsuppgifter man har och vilka kvalifikationer som behövs.</p><p>Resultatet från delstudie ett visar att man som sport manager framförallt jobbar med/behöver kvalifikationer inom följande femton områden: planering och organisering, leda, erfarenhet, kunskap kring idrottssektorn, ansvar, personalhantering, ekonomi, utbildning, utveckla, projekt, intresse/engagemang, samarbetsförmåga, kontakter externt, initiativrik och kunna kommunicera.</p><p>Resultatet från delstudie två visar att man som sport manager framförallt jobbar med/behöver kvalifikationer inom följande tio områden: ekonomi, personalhantering, externa kontakter, projekt, utveckling, överblick över alla delar, leda, kunskap kring idrottssektorn, utbildning och erfarenhet.</p><p>Ingenting från de två studierna motsäger varandra. Båda studierna visar att som sport managers anses det viktigare att ha kunskap kring idrottssektorn än att ha en formell akademisk utbildning. Samtidigt framhävs just generalistkunskapen för sport managers, dock i olika stor omfattning beroende på vilken chefsposition som besitts. Vissa sport managers kan dessutom behöva specifik kunskap inom något område.</p>

Despite the lack of clarity on how sport delivers the benefits intended, sport continues to be positioned as a panacea for social disparities (Coalter, 2010). The inconsistent and sometimes nonexistent evaluation of sport has raised doubt about sport’s capacity to deliver the benefits desired (Broh, 2002; Chalip, 2006; Coakley, 1979; Coakley, 1993). In worse cases, sport has been considered complicit in reinforcing the same oppressive social structures that created the initial need for its intervention (Hartmann & Depro, 2006; Hartmann, 2003; Shaw, Frisby, Cunningham, & Fink, 2006; Spaaij, 2009). The belief that sport can provide benefits stems from the recognition that there are two groups of people: the empowered (i.e., those who employ sport for development), and the disempowered (i.e., those who are targeted to participate in these programs). Darnell (2007) asserts that “within the development through sport movement, a well-intentioned and benevolent ‘mission’ of training, empowering, and assisting is not only based upon, but to an extent requires, the establishment of a dichotomy between the empowered and the disempowered, the vocal and the silent, the ‘knowers’ and the known” (561). The crux of this assertion lies in the notion that the benefits provided through sport serve as social control mechanisms by reifying the values of the empowered as those that should be desired and reinforcing the social hierarchies that oppress the disempowered through the controlled (unequal) allocation of resources. Latent in the intent of these sport-for-development programs is the need to continually identify and socially anchor the historically disempowered. Social myths about their inferiority overshadow how social class, further distinguished by race and gender, was historically fashioned by the unequal distribution of resources and overpower the voices of those who are marginalized through this process. Therefore, what is considered “beneficial” becomes a contest between which group can put the most resources behind their ideals as opposed to the expressed needs of the participants (Coalter, 2007; Darnell, 2007; Spaaij, 2009). To better understand what shapes perceptions about the benefits obtained from sport participation, the purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to determine what players and coaches perceive as the benefits obtained by players through basketball and what benefits they perceive to be important; (2) to determine whether players and coaches perceive that players obtain benefits to the same degree that they feel they are important; and (3) to understand the differences in these perceptions based on gender, race, SES, and role (i.e., player or coach). Upon receiving IRB approval, a pilot study was conducted on high school athletes (N= 450) to ascertain the benefits they obtained from high school basketball. In SPSS, exploratory factor analyses with varimax rotation were conducted on 109 benefits identified in the literature to determine which groups of benefits were salient to high school basketball players. From the initial factor analysis, 23 factors emerged. In addition to feedback from sport-for-development researchers, coaches, and players, a second pilot study (N= 69) was conducted to refine the categories of benefits players obtained. The final instrument contained 41 items in ten categories of benefits: Academic Resiliency, Self-Expansion, Self-Discipline, Analytical Thinking Skills, Moral Value Development, College Preparation, Leadership Training, and Relationships with Others, Sense of Community, and Career Development. Cronbach’s alpha was used to test reliability of each category and all were found to be acceptable for this study Nunnally (1978). The instrument was available in paper form and electronic form for players and coaches to complete in a four-week period. The final sample included 237 high school basketball players and 164 high school basketball coaches from Texas. First, two MANOVAs (one for benefits obtained and one for importance) were conducted to examine the potential interactions among gender, race, SES, and role in perceptions of benefits obtained and the importance of those benefits. Results of the MANOVAs were considered significant at α = .10. Next, paired-sample t-tests were conducted to determine whether players and coaches perceived that players received the same benefits that were deemed important. Finally, one sample t-tests (against the neutral point of the scale, 4) were used to determine which benefits were perceived to be obtained and which were considered important by players and coaches. T-tests were considered significant using Bonferroni criteria. The results of the MANOVAs included a three-way interaction between race, gender, and role that was significant in determining the perceived benefits obtained through sport. These results reinforce the need to analyze sport from a transdisciplinary lens to understanding the personal and structural factors shaping the needs of sport participants and subsequently creating culturally responsive sport component to provide the desired benefits. SES was used as a proxy for social class, more specifically, for one's access to resources, and was not found to be significant in determining the perception of benefits obtained from sport. This finding suggests that people marginalized by class differences may have a false consciousness about the benefits sport can provide despite the evidence that these individuals are not receiving benefits at levels comparable to more privileged groups and even worse, that sport participation can be detrimental to their development. In light of the findings that African-American women perceive more strongly that they obtain benefits from sports than do their male counterparts, further exploration is needed on how the experience of sport is influenced by hegemonic structures based on race and gender. To this end, practical implications for implementing sport-for-development programs including promoting culturally responsive training and implementation of programs (Ladson-Billings, 1990) that employ the resources available to foster the intended benefits and more importantly, to create more sustainable programs. Another key finding was that race, gender, role, and SES were significant in influencing the benefits perceived to be important. While the results showed that "sport is good" for providing the benefits observed, the differences in how well these benefits are obtained by race and gender suggest that further investigation is needed in understanding what are the mechanisms that allow sport to be "good" in providing these groups with benefits and in determining how athletes perceive sport as the channel for receiving benefits. Both findings push for more organic and long-term studies in the benefits of sport participation. Using the tenets of Critical Race Theory, theoretical implications include employing a socioecological approach to understanding how needs and benefits are conceptualized, the use of more emic approaches to studying these concepts, and providing more agency to the individuals in researching and understanding their needs and the benefits they desire from sport (along with the potentially negative implications of sport participation). The results promote the need to look specifically at one's access to resources, race, and gender in determining the components necessary and sufficient to providing benefits through sport. The concept of hegemony posits that these factors are not conditions inherent to an individual but identities and social positions constructed by the larger society. Therefore, sport researchers must create concepts of researching "needs" and "benefits" that are reflective of the individual as well as cultural and environmental factors that shape sport participation. These concepts must also be organic, taking into consideration that factors influencing the needs of participants are changing in concert with social norms and their effects on one's identity and access to resources. The results of this study also provide practical implications for recognizing that sport does not exist in vacuum and to be effective in providing participants with the intended benefits, sport must be culturally responsive (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1992). To this end, sport administrators should be mindful of the cultural and structural factors that shape the students’ environment and consequently their identities and needs, by implementing sport components that work on multiple levels. Administrators and participants should also examine the ways that sport may impact them in negative ways, particularly if those negative impacts are masked by potential benefits (Bruening, 2005; Glover, 2007; Harrison, Sailes, Rotich, & Bimper, 2011). Giving voice to the participants, engaging school and community officials in providing access to resources, and using goal-setting to help students exercise more agency in shaping their sport experience were also practical implications from this study. / text

Zugl.: Köln, Dt. Sporthochsch., Diss.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 377-398).

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