acase@tulane.edu / 1 / Abdi Farah

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of congruence of leadership behaviors on motivation, commitment, and satisfaction of college tennis players. Respondents (n = 245) included collegiate tennis players from all NCAA division levels (I, II, and III). The athletes were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire, the preferred and perceived versions of the Revised Leadership Scale for Sports, Sport Motivation Scale, Sport Commitment Model Scale, and Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire. The responses were collected in an online format. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each of the demographic variables. Alpha (Cronbach) coefficients were calculated for the components of each measurement scale to verify internal consistency. Multivariate multiple regression analyses were utilized to determine the effect of demographic variables on leadership behavior preferences. In order to avoid the potential problems associated with the use of difference scores (Peter, Churchill, & Brown, 1993), a regression technique was applied to evaluate the leadership congruence hypothesis. The base scores (i.e. preferences and perceptions) were entered first followed by their interactional term (preferred x perceived). Two sets of multiple regression equations were calculated. In the first set, preference scores were entered first followed by the perceptions and the interaction term, and the second set followed a similar format but reversed the order of the preference and perception terms. The congruence hypothesis was accepted if the interaction significantly increased the amount of variance explained. The results of this study indicated that neither gender nor ability level were predictive of preferred leadership behavior. Furthermore, the congruency of certain preferred and perceived leadership behaviors predicted intrinsic motivation to know, intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation, extrinsic motivation identified, amotivation, sport commitment, sport enjoyment, individual performance satisfaction, personal treatment satisfaction, team performance satisfaction, and training and instruction satisfaction. The findings are discussed in the context of Chelladurai's (1999) Multidimensional Model of Leadership. Future research suggestions are forwarded. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management, Recreation Management, and Physical Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2004. / Date of Defense: August 3, 2004. / Tennis, athlete, leadership, commitment, satisfaction, motivation, NCAA / Includes bibliographical references. / Aubrey Kent, Professor Directing Dissertation; Pamela Perrewe, Outside Committee Member; Jeffrey James, Committee Member; Michael Mondello, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to examine Senior Woman Administrators (SWAs) perception of organizational commitment. Three types of organizational commitment were surveyed: affective, normative, and continuance commitment. This study was delimited to Senior Woman Administrators (n=66) at National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division IAA member institutions across the country. This study used the Organizational Commitment Scale(s) to examine Senior Woman Administrators (SWAs) perceptions of organizational commitment. The study examined the relationship between the demographic variables of ethnicity, marital status, current annual salary, age, years in present position, highest degree earned, and alumni status and organizational commitment. The study also examined the significant differences between the demographic variables and organizational commitment. The results of this study revealed the demographic variables of current annual salary, age, and alumni status were significantly related to affective organizational commitment, ethnicity was significantly related to normative organizational commitment and alumni status was significantly related to continuance organizational commitment. The results also revealed that there were significant differences in mean scores for SWAs perception of affective organizational commitment according to age and alumni status and there was a significant difference in mean scores for SWAs perception of normative organizational commitment according to alumni status. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management, Recreation Management, and Physical Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: November 6, 2006. / Female Sport Managers, Woman Sport Administrator, Organizational Commitment, Senior Woman Administrator, Female Athletic Administrators, Women Sport Managers / Includes bibliographical references. / Jerome Quarterman, Professor Directing Dissertation; Maxine D. Jones, Outside Committee Member; Aubrey Kent, Committee Member; Virden Evans, Committee Member; E. Newton Jackson, Jr., Committee Member.

The mega-event, or large-scale mass event, has held an enduring level of popular and political support in modern society since their creation in the late 19th century. In the current period of intense globalization, the importance placed on mega-events by national governments and global corporations has increased considerably—with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on both the bid process and the marketing, advertising, and branding of a given event. Mega-events also provide people with unique opportunities to participate in collective projects of urban regeneration, identity formation, and conspicuous consumption. This dissertation is situated within a focal area on the global phenomenon of sport mega-event. Here I draw from an interdisciplinary perspective to demystify the popular discourse on the even legacy and its related political economy implications associated with the two Olympic Games in Beijing. So far, legacy has been gaining wider currency vis-à-vis the hosting of mega-events, and there has been increased scholarly focus on related topics such as the governance, evaluation, and leveraging of legacy. In this dissertation, I examine legacy as both substantive element (e.g., urban renewal project & facility construction) and discursive discourse (e.g., the public pedagogy underpinning the circulation of certain ideological values and meanings). Being the first city ever to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, the idea of fully capitalizing on the legacy of the previous 2008 Olympics for the future 2022 Winter Olympics has been repeatedly addressed by Beijing throughout the bidding and planning process thus far. A comprehensive evaluation of the legacy of the 2008 Olympics is beyond the remit of this project; however, by attending to the primary, publicly-promised legacies of the 2008 Olympics, an important context for post-2008 mega-events can be revealed. Thus, in this study, I consider numerous features of legacy discourse of the Olympic Games as sensitive indicators of shifting interests, power relations and ideologies at micro, meso, and macro levels in contemporary China. To do this, I structure my project within a modified “circuit of culture” model, which focuses on the articulations of interrelated moments of production, representation, and consumption (Hall, 1980; Johnson, 1986; du Gay et al., 1997). Such a framework thus provides a heuristic model to stress the situational particularities inscribing and deriving meanings and values in and through legacy discourse. As such, the analysis of each moment will be situated within a broader context of the post-2008 Olympics era and the correlative political economic landscape. In this project, I find legacy discourse as an evolving and dynamic concept that is both context-specific and influenced by multiple social actors. It is simultaneously ascribed with a variety of explicit or implicit political and economic interests. Grounded on qualitative analysis at the three moments of the circuit—representation, production and consumption—both commonalities and contradictions of the legacy discourse encountered and understood by different social groups (e.g., residents, government, and corporate) are identified. With regard to the popular legacy discourse of the 2022 Winter Olympics, an emerging neoliberal paradigm is further unveiled, which provides a viable arena to examine the political economy of sport mega-events in a post-2008 era and the associated interplays of market capitalism and state socialism in contemporary China, which have been in a state of transition. Based on the findings of this study, the appeal of mega-events to the state of China is not only underpinned by the pursuit of symbolic politics, it further entails a form of shock of spectacle that relies on the “dramatological” and “exceptional” features of modern mega-events to legitimate and further a broad spectrum of state agendas and policies (e.g., urban regeneration, economic growth, & environmental governance). Compared to the identity-politics-driven 2008 Summer Games, the legacy discourse surrounding the 2022 Winter Games is also found to be embodied with more complicated while explicit economic interests. And such economic interests are situated within an intimate interaction with consumerism, developmentalism, commercialism, with an emphasis on the rule of market. This marks a significant transition, as the previous nation-building function of the Olympic Games, appears to be complemented by, if not replaced by, a new market-building goal in the case of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. This study therefore contributes to an indigenous and more comprehensive understanding of sport mega-events in China, particularly the interactions between the global capitalism and local politics as manifest in the dynamic legacy discourse. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 11, 2017. / Beijing 2008, Beijing 2022, Legacy, Mega-events, Olympic Games, Political Economy / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael D. Giardina, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jennifer M. Proffitt, University Representative; Joshua I. Newman, Committee Member; Jeffrey D. James, Committee Member.

As efforts to promote greater participation in physical activity among adults have focussed on targeting childhood patterns of physical activity, it is important to evaluate the assumed relationship between childhood and adulthood patterns of physical activity. In the studies in this thesis an examination was made of whether adult motivation to engage in physical activity is influenced by the perceived quality of experiences with sports participation in childhood and adolescence. In a pilot study, a measure of perceived quality of childhood and adolescent sports participation experiences was developed. Young adults were asked by questionnaire to rate their childhood and adolescent sports participation experiences on a variety of items. From these responses, measures of the quality of childhood and adolescent sports participation experiences were validated with confirmatory factor analyses. In the main study, the measure of adolescent sports participation experiences was incorporated into a second questionnaire along with other measures of adult motivation towards, and participation in, physical activity. The theoretical framework of Personal Investment Theory (PIT, Maehr & Braskamp, 1986) guided the design of this study. PIT proposes that individuals are motivated to participate in physical activity based on what they hope to gain from participation, their beliefs about themselves and their perceptions of opportunities for participation. This motivation is, in turn, influenced by a number of other personal and situational factors, such as prior personal experiences with sports participation. The results of correlation and structural equation modelling analyses suggested that the direct influence of the perceived quality of adolescent sports participation experiences on the level of adult involvement in physical activity is relatively weak. Structural equation modelling analyses indicated that this relationship is mediated by some of these other motivational variables in PIT. These were individuals. perceptions of their physical competence and personal control over their physical activity behaviour, as well as the tendency to set physical activity goals and to seek intrinsic motives for physical activity, such as skill improvement or enjoyment. Although the quality of sports participation experiences also influenced perceptions about the impact of potential barriers on activity in adulthood, such perceptions did not relate to the actual level of activity of these adults. The perceived quality of adolescent sports participation experiences also influenced the type of physical activity engaged in as an adult, with more negative memories of sports participation being associated with taking part in non-sport-related physical activities in adulthood. In conclusion, application of PIT, along with the use of structural equation modelling, provided valuable insight into how the quality of adolescent sports participation experiences influences adult physical activity behaviour.

<p>   </p><p>Kroppens syreupptagningskinetik innebär hur snabbt syreupptagningsmekanismerna i kroppen ökar mängden upptaget syre (O₂) vid ett påbörjat arbete. Detta påverkar oss dagligen genom att en snabbare reaktion leder till en mindre syreskuld efter arbetet. Syftet med studien var att jämföra VO₂-kinetiken mellan ett arm- och benarbete och ett rent benarbete och försöka hitta skillnader mellan dessa. Åtta måttligt tränade försökspersoner (sex män och två kvinnor) rekryterades och fick genomgå tre tester på en specialbyggd arm- och bencykelergometer. Testerna bestod av ett VO₂-maxtest (kombinerad arm- och benarbete), ett submaximalt arm- och bentest (AB) och ett submaximal bentest (B) på samma absolut arbetsintensitet (65 % av VO₂max) där VO₂-kinetik mättes under fyra minuters arbete. Tiden att nå 50 % av VO₂-platå (tVO₂50) var lika mellan AB och B-test (p=0.70). Tiden till VO₂-platå var 19<strong> %</strong> kortare under arm- och benarbete (AB 82 ± 32 vs B 101 (± 24) sek; p=0.02). Förbrukat O₂under testtiden var större under AB test jämfört med B-test (AB 41 ± 4 vs B 38 ± 4 ml · kg^-1; p=0.004). Enligt dessa resultat var syrekinetiken under arm- och benarbetet snabbare jämfört med bara benarbetet, vilket betydde i detta fall att syreskulden i början av arbete under kombinerat arm- och benarbete blev mindre.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

No description available.

Purpose: To assess whether the provision of a pedometer and exercise diary could significantly increase the activity levels of phase II cardiac rehabilitation program patients on the days they did not attend the program. Methods: Seventy patients (53 males, 17 females, age of 68 plus/minus 9 yrs, BMI 29.0 plus/minus 6.1 kg/m2 participated in the study. During their first visit to a phase II CRP, patients were assigned to one of two groups. Control patients were given a blinded pedometer (n = 34), while experimental subjects received a pedometer that they could view (n = 36) as well as an exercise diary to record their daily step counts. Control patients wore the pedometer during all of their waking hours throughout phase II CRP enrollment and were encouraged to increase their overall activity levels in accordance with standard level of care. The baseline activity patterns of were determined during their first week of phase II CRP enrollment. Patients in the experimental group were encouraged to gradually increase their step counts on the days (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; i.e., non-CRP days) they did not attend phase II CRP gradually until they were accumulating 2,000 steps/day above their baseline levels. Two sample t-tests were used to compare the baseline physical characteristics between genders as well as the control and experimental groups. Mean weekly step counts for both groups were compared based on overall and aerobic steps counts accumulated on CRP and non-CRP days using 2 times 7 repeated-measures ANOVAs. Results: At baseline, men took more overall steps than women and all patients took more steps on days they attended the phase II CRP, versus days they did not. There was a significant effect (p < 0.0001) of group assignment and time for overall and aerobic step counts on non-CRP days; as the experimental patients took significantly more steps and increased their step counts at a faster rate than the control patients. There was no significant interaction on CRP days as both groups significantly increased their overall and aerobic steps counts. Conclusion: Phase II CRP patients who used a pedometer and exercise diary significantly increased their overall and aerobic steps counts on CRP and non-CRP days, to a greater extent than patients who received usual care. Thus, pedometers can be used to increase the physical activity levels of phase II CRP patients.

The purposes of this study were to examine coaches’ perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice regarding current resource distribution systems in intercollegiate athletics in terms of sport types (high profile sports vs. low profile sports) and gender of players (male participant sports vs. female participant sports) and the impacts of direct or indirect organizational justice on coaches’ attitudinal (job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment toward organization and supervisor) and behavioral (organizational citizenship behavior for organization and supervisor) outcomes through the mediating effects of met expectations, outcome satisfaction, and social exchange relationships (perceived organizational support and leader-member exchange) via a multifoci perspective. The data were collected through online surveys of 260 coaches among 1,200 coaches contacted at NCAA Division I, II, and III institutions. The survey questionnaire consisted of demographics, organizational justice, met expectations, outcome satisfaction, leader-member exchange (LMX), perceived organizational support (POS), job satisfaction, employee commitment (organizational commitment and supervisor commitment), and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB to benefit an organization and OCB to benefit a supervisor). Descriptive statistics were incorporated to provide demographic information of the sample and means and standardized deviations for each construct. Cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated and reported for the components of each measurement scale to verify internal consistency. MANOVA were utilized to explore differences of perceptions of organizational justice in terms of gender of sport and type of sport. Finally, SEM was incorporated to examine the measurement model by conducting a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and to test the proposed structural model of this study. The results of this study provided some important information. First, coaches of all groups based on gender of sports and type of sports reported below the scale’s midpoint and there were no significant differences among the groups. Second, the proposed mediating effects of met expectation of organizational justice were not supported. Third, procedural justice indirectly influenced attitudinal outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction and organizational commitment), while distributive justice did not directly or indirectly influence those outcomes. Finally, procedural justice eventually influenced organizational citizenship behaviors through the mediating effects of POS and coaches’ job satisfaction and commitment.

Sport participation is a significant aspect in many people’s lives. The experiences they accumulate in sport are shaped by a variety of factors. A combination of personal factors (e.g., demographics), social factors (e.g., socializing sources and the support they provide), and structural factors (e.g., costs and accessible programs) uniquely shape each individual’s experience. Since a variety of factors can shape that experience, it is useful to examine perceptions of the factors were significant in the creation of an individual’s participation opportunities and experiences in sport. The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) to gain insight into the personal, social, and structural factors participants perceived were significant on their sport participation experiences throughout various stages of their lives; (b) to gain insight into the personal, social, and structural factors participants perceived were significant upon their children’s sport experiences; and (c) to illustrate differences that exist among participants’ own and their children’s sport experiences. Eleven participants were involved in this study. Participants had firsthand experience in an organized sport during their youth and/or adolescence. Participants also had at least one child under the age of 13 who was active in an organized sport at the time of data collection. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Variety in participants’ gender, race, age, household income, education, and occupation were present. Difference in participants’ and their children’s sport experiences emerged and were reported in five themes. Those themes are: Sources of Socialization, (b) Gendered Constructions Shaping Sport Experiences, (c) Parental Presence in Youth Sport, (d) Self-confidence and Skill, and (e) Structural Constraints upon Participation. These themes reflect variance in the sport experiences among this group of participants and their perceptions of their own and their children’s experiences. The framework of this study utilized descriptive and hermeneutical inquiry. The descriptive element was expressed through a realist approach that relied on information learned from the participants (Creswell, 2007). Hermeneutical inquiry, which is concerned with interpretive understanding and context surrounding engagement in the particular act, was reflected through participants’ assessments of their experiences.