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Excerpt: Hiring innovative employees and promoting an innovative workplace culture is often cited as critical to organizational success (Evangelista & Vezzani, 2010; Rubera & Kirca, 2012; Sapprasert & Clausen, 2012; Walker et al., 2010).

<p>This capstone project lays the groundwork for launching a non-profit soccer club in East Los Angeles focused on using soccer as the motivation to develop student athletes academically and as leaders in their school, home, and community. There is a need for sport opportunities in underserved neighborhoods, many benefits that being a part of a sports team can have, and sports development programs currently operating that are doing it well. Elite youth soccer in the United States is available only to those with money and parental support. East Los Angeles is barren of any such opportunity with poor local fields, gang violence, single-family homes, less than ten percent of residents with a bachelors degree, and roughly one-third below the poverty line. This club will work to overcome these obstacles by providing opportunity for elite soccer, mentoring, and tutoring in a safe, fun, and respectful environment.

The leadership role of sport administrators in South Africa is of prime importance as the local sports industry in South Africa is worth in excess of R2 billion annually. The most important variable in explaining sport administrators' success becomes leadership style. Sport administrators' roles are vital to the sporting industry and therefore the degree of job satisfaction they experience is of prime importance. The key objectives of the study were to determine the different styles of leadership available in sport administration departments, to identify factors affecting the progress and status of transformation in sport administration departments, to examine the factors affecting the progress of gender equity at tertiary institutions, to identify factors which influence job satisfaction or lack of it among sport administrators and coaches employed at tertiary institutions and to determine the organizational effectiveness of tertiary institution sport departments. The questionnaire was administered to 300 coaches who had to rate their sport administrators' leadership style and 140 sport administrators. A response rate of 78% (n=109) was obtained from sport administrators and 76% (n=227) were received from coaches. The data were analysed using the computer package SPSS. From the research the following conclusions can be drawn with respect to job satisfaction and leadership among sport administrators and coaches. The overall majority of the tertiary institution sport administrators adopted a transformational style of leadership. There was a lack of transformation in the industry and gender equity in the industry. There were reasonable de grees of satisfaction in the profession, however certain variables were more pronounced than others. The study proposed the following recommendations: Those sport administrators that are still practising a more transactional and laissez-faire approach to leadership should start adopting a more transformational approach to leadership. More females need to be placed in leadership positions at tertiary institution sport departments. With regard to transformation higher management at tertiary institutions should strive to create diversity by employing individuals from other race groups to ensure transformation at institutions of higher learning. This will also serve to rectify the imbalances of our past. Management at tertiary institutions should also strike a balance with regard to gender equity. With regard to improving coaches and sport administrators' job satisfaction higher management needs to adopt a policy of open communication between staff employed at the tertiary institution sport departments and themselves. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

<p> The purpose of this study is to determine if a league guided sportsmanship program will have an effect on the sportsmanship behaviors of youth sports athletes. The sample will draw from 8-14 year old participants in an 8-week volleyball program in a Southern California School District's youth volleyball program. The study will assess whether there will be measurable change in the sportsmanship behaviors including: respect for the game, rules, opponents, authority, playing fair, leadership and personal conduct.</p><p> An observational study methodology will be used with a modified version of the Sportsmanship Observation Sheet. Observers will use the adapted sportsmanship observation sheet to measure the sportsmanship behaviors of the players during the first week of the season. Observations and implementation of the league guided sportsmanship curriculum will take place during the first week of the season. A second day of observations will take place the sixth week of the season and data will be collected and analyzed to examine if the sportsmanship curriculum had an effect on the sportsmanship behaviors of the players, parents, and coaches.</p>

<p> Primary purpose of this project was to address lack of resources for the special needs population pertaining to sports and recreation. Well known organizations within the special needs community, Special Olympics and Boys and Girls Club, provide programs for the population with intellectual and developmental disabilities but can only provide so much when it comes to additional resources. For our able bodied athletes, millions of dollars throughout each year are spent in order to make sure that elite athletes in top professional sports organizations are well taken care of. From million dollar stadiums and practice facilities to knowledgeable sports medicine staff and certified conditioning coaches, professional athletes seem to have a wealth of resources. This project proposes the creation of a facility that would provide the same resources as those of the professional athletes to those with special needs. </p><p>

<p>Abstract Many secondary administrators, coaches, and security personnel have advocated for an intervention method to curtail the swell of referrals, ejections, and violence from the spectator sections in attendance at these events. The spirit of Olympism and sportsmanship is considered a core element of these events. The problem was that many of the events have seen a rise in these incidents. There is a correlation of the infusion of these elements, and the atmosphere at these events. The purpose of this experimental study was to explore whether a spectator covenant of behavior, would help to bind the parties to adherence to upholding these standards in a Central Arizona high school, located in the East Valley of Phoenix. This could help the administrators, coaches, and school personnel as an ancillary benefit, to the obvious decrease of these referrals. The analysis of archival against real-time data were based on the increase or decrease of said incidents, before the covenant was in place and while the covenant was in effect. These records are kept every year, and in each event. The implications of this study are that use of this type of intervention may be successful in similar situations and events. Recommendations for practice are for covenants to become a standard practice at sporting events. Recommendations for future study include conducting subsequent studies in several different areas of the country with varying crowd sizes. A future case study could be designed using parents who volunteer to sign an agreement and stay true to the binding covenant.

<p> The purpose of the present study was to explore the influence of trust, help seeking/help giving, and relation-inferred self-efficacy on the onset of flow experience in a dyadic relationship between an elite athlete and their coach. The social cognitive theory of triadic reciprocal determinism was used to examine the relationship of the elite athlete and their trusted coach in a high-pressure athletic environment as it related to the ability of the elite athlete to achieve a flow state. Using a multiple case study approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five coach-athlete dyads. Data were analyzed using thematic network analysis (i.e., looking for thematic ties to established theory, as well as emerging themes). Prior research has focused on flow as a personally experienced phenomenon arising due to constructs that are largely self-controlled (e.g., loss of self-consciousness, merging of action and awareness, autotelic nature, centering of attention, feeling in control). Findings of this study, based on the triadic reciprocal determinism model, showed support for a more expansive model for flow in elite sport dyads, including behavioral, personal, and environmental influences, particularly in the area of trust. Based on findings of this study, recommendations are made for further research, including the necessity for sports flow research to move to a more applied focus using social cognitive theory. Implications of this line of research include uncovering the method by which an elite coach might create an environment in which flow experiences and improved performance outcomes might ideally occur for the athlete. </p><p>