The purpose of this study was to advance our understanding of the influence of subculture on building awareness of a product and ultimately a stronger connection to a product, in particular sports teams. The research questions examined in this study were to understand: 1) how one's Cuban upbringing influenced his/her values, meanings, and beliefs relative to a sport product, sport sports teams, 2) what agents influenced sport socialization for different generation and acculturation levels,3) which were the primary sport socialization agents for Cuban Americans, 4) whether level of acculturation impacts level of attachment toward a particular sport and/or team, and 5) the similarities/differences in interest in sport by generation. Given the nature of the research problem, the methodology employed the qualitative procedures and it was determined that the case study alternative was the most appropriate for this research project. Through the use of 16 in-depth interviews with participants with varying levels of acculturation, an understanding of this particular Cuban subculture emerged. The findings from this study suggest that this subculture has a strong sense of family and that the family plays in important role in not only socialization, but sport socialization. This includes the father/child attachment, retroactive socialization, and the absence of school and coaches as influencing agents. The findings also indicate that there is an attachment to the hometown team, no matter of the record. This attachment prevailed across all ages, gender, and levels of acculturation. Based on the findings, marketers should focus their efforts on understanding the role of the family and the influence on sport consumption along with highlighting the idea of supporting the hometown team when communicating with this subculture. / 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. / Fall Semester, 2008. / May 27, 2008. / Socialization, Sport, Hispanic, Cuban, Culture / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey D. James, Professor Directing Dissertation; Felipe Korzenny, Outside Committee Member; R. Aubrey Kent, Committee Member; King Beach, Committee Member.

Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTA's) are responsible for most undergraduate instruction with little or no knowledge of effective teaching practices. In general physical education programs, GTA's are likely to be the last resource for undergraduates to learn motor skills associated with life-long physical activity. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a Pedagogical Induction (IP) Program on GTA's teaching performance in a major university's general physical education program. Participants included eight GTA's teaching tennis, volleyball, basketball, soccer, and flag football and the students enrolled in those classes. There were four GTA's in the control group and four in the treatment group. The treatment group participated in an induction program that included two three-hour effective teaching modules and bi-weekly mentoring sessions. As measures of teacher performance, the Qualitative Measure of Teaching Performance Scale (QMTPS) was used to establish teacher performance values, the Games Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI) was used to establish student achievement values, and the Student Perception of Teaching (SPOT) instrument was used to determine student satisfaction with the GTA's teaching performance. Pre- and post-test data were collected on teacher performance (QMTPS), and student achievement (GPAI). The SPOT was used to measure students' evaluation of the teacher. The data indicated that the IP was successful in improving teacher performance with the treatment Group improving on the QMTPS and statistically significantly improving on the GPAI. There were no differences between the groups on student evaluations. / 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. / Spring Semester, 2006. / March 15, 2006. / Teacher Training, Mentoring, Physical Education, Tactical Game Play, Qmtps / Includes bibliographical references. / Charles Imwold, Professor Directing Dissertation; Doris Abood, Outside Committee Member; Thomas Ratliffe, Committee Member; Cecile Reynaud, Committee Member.

Sporting events are among the most popular leisure activities; however, there are inherent risks of serious injury or death associated with these activities. Prior to developing a risk management plan, it is important to clearly understand the perception of risk among laypeople. Such understanding will substantially improve communication between professionals and participants, resulting in the emergence of a better risk management plan. Despite the evident benefits of such communication, there are few studies directly addressing the perception of risk in the field of sport management. The purpose of this study is to identify how people perceive risk in sport activities, by applying the psychometric paradigm and then, more specifically, identifying the factors affecting perception of risk in football. The sample for this study consisted of 256 collegiate students and a convenient, non-probability sampling method was used. To achieve the purpose of this study, two appropriate statistical methods were employed, SPSS for the psychometric paradigm and AMOS (SEM) for factors affecting perception of risk in football. The results of this bifurcated study indicate that rock climbing and motorcycling were perceived as the most risky among the selected sports, followed by snow skiing, jet skiing, and skin/scuba diving. Aerobics and jogging/running were perceived as the least risky among the selected sports. In applying the psychometric paradigm, six risk characteristics were used, divided by the two factors of "fatality" and "known." The "fatality" factor was associated with the characteristics of chronic/catastrophic, common/dread, severity of consequences and control over risk; the "known" factor was associated with the characteristics of voluntariness and knowledge about risk. The "fatality" factor appeared in relation to high-risk sport activities, such as rock climbing, snow skiing, jet skiing, motorcycling, and skin/scuba diving. Sport activities perceived as less risky, including jogging/running, swimming, aerobics, tennis, racquetball and weight training, appear in relation to the "known" factor. Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) was used in that part of the study devoted to identifying factors affecting perception of risk in football, revealing both exogenous (knowledge, experience, perceived risk characteristic, and trust) and endogenous (perceived benefit and perception of risk in football) variables. The structure model illustrated that the paths of knowledge and experience to risk perception in football were not statistically significant. The paths of risk characteristic, trust and perceived benefit to perception of risk were statistically significant. The path of trust to perceived benefit was also significant and a new path, experience to perceived benefit, was identified as statistically significant. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Sport Management, Recreation Management, & Physical Education in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2004. / June 17, 2004. / Risk Perception, Risk Management, Sport Management / Includes bibliographical references. / E. Newton Jackson, Jr., Professor Directing Dissertation; Tonya Toole, Outside Committee Member; Jerome Quarterman, Committee Member; Michael Mondello, Committee Member.

The purpose of this research was to develop and test a model of the relationship between contact-employees and customers in a sport organization based on the balanced scorecard framework (Kaplan & Norton, 1992, 1993) and the Sears' model (Rucci, Kirn, & Quinn, 1998). Specifically, the model proposed that employee attitudes (self-efficacy, organizational commitment and job satisfaction) and behaviors (in-role job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors) impact customer level outcomes (perceived service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty). Data were collected from contact-employees (n = 112) and customers (n = 303) representing 20 fitness clubs in South Florida. Linear hierarchical regressions followed by Structural Equation Modeling analysis were performed to evaluate the fit of the model to the data. The results provided support for the proposed model as employee attitudes predicted employee behaviors, and customer perceived service quality predicted customer satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, employee variables account for 54% of the customer perceived service quality variance, and 83% of the customer loyalty total variance. Managerial implications and directions for further research are discussed. / 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. / Fall Semester, 2003. / November 6, 2003. / Self-Efficacy, Orgainzational Commitment, Job Satisfaction, Customer Satisfaction, Perceived Service Quality, In-Role Performance, Customer Loyalty, Fitness Industry, Sears' Model, Balanced Scorecard, organizational behavior, Sport Management / Includes bibliographical references. / Aubrey Kent, Professor Directing Dissertation; Akihito Kamata, Outside Committee Member; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; Michael Mondello, Committee Member.

Job satisfaction is among the most researched concepts in the study of organizational behavior, particularly because of managers' interests in the favorable consequences associated with high job satisfaction. However, job satisfaction research has largely overlooked part-time employees. This insufficiency is particularly problematic in the sport industry, which often relies heavily on part-time employees to fill specialized roles. Specifically, the university recreational sports department is primarily staffed by part-time student employees who are entrusted to fulfill a variety of responsibilities within the department's programs. The unique characteristics of student employees lead to unique challenges for administrators seeking to maximize program quality though personnel training, retention, and improvement. For managers with limited time and resources to improve staff performance, a better understanding of the factors that enhance job satisfaction is essential. This research study was developed to assess the determinants of job satisfaction among part-time student employees of a university recreational sports department. The Collegiate Recreational Sports Student Employee-Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (CRSSE-JSQ), derived from two preexisting instruments, was provided to student employees of a recreational sports department at a large, public research university located in the southeastern United States (n=135). Following an internal reliability assessment, I performed data analyses to identify: the influence of external factors such as personal characteristics on job satisfaction; variations of job satisfaction among program areas; and overall predictors of job satisfaction. Examination of this data revealed several significant associations, including those between: gender and satisfaction with pay rate; supervisory job responsibilities and good feelings about the organization; supervisory responsibilities and satisfaction with pay rate; and program area and satisfaction with pay rate (p The results of this study have significant implications for the recreational sports field. A comprehensive understanding of the factors contributing to job satisfaction provides recreational sports administrators with the necessary tools to enhance satisfaction in the student workplace. Finally, I conclude the study by offering suggestions for further research designed to overcome the particular limitations of this study as well as to address new questions raised by its results. / This study looked at the job satisfaction among part-time students who worked at a recreational sports department at a large, public research university. Using the Collegiate Recreational Sports Student Employee-Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (CRSSE-JSQ), the researchers surveyed 135, and found significant relationships between gender and satisfaction with pay rate, supervisor job responsibilities and satisfaction with the organization, and program area and satisfaction with pay rate. Statistical analyses showed that program area, the type of work, good feelings about organization, effective supervisor, relationships with coworkers, and presence of core values are all significant predictors of job satisfaction among student workers. The authors also discussed how satisfaction in the workplace might contribute to overall students’ well-being. / This is a dissertation thesis, where significant predictors of job satisfaction among students who worked in a recreational sports department at a large, public research university were identified. An article based on this work can be found in: Kellison, T. & James, J. D. (2011). Factors influencing job satisfaction of student employees of a recreational sports department at a large, four-year public institution: A case study. Recreational Sports Journal, 35, 35-44 (http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/pdf/10.1123/rsj.35.1.35). / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Sport and Recreation Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester, 2009. / November 4, 2009. / Program Quality, Job Performance, Motivation-Hygiene Theory, Student Employees, Collegiate Recreational Sports, Job Satisfaction / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey D. James, Professor Directing Thesis; Michael J. Mondello, Committee Member; B. Cecile Reynaud, Committee Member; Andy Rudd, Committee Member.

The intent of this study was to investigate the goal orientations of non-revenue producing team student-athletes and the potential correlation to sport morality levels. Student-athletes (SA's) (male n=114, female n=118) from a southeastern university, from non-revenue teams, in both semi-contact and non-contact areas, were compared and contrasted by the use of the Task and Ego Orientation Sport Questionaire (TEOSQ) and the Hahm-Beller Values Choices Inventory (HBVCI). The data were analyzed through the use of parametric statistics, specifically utilizing MANOVA and Pearson Correlation analyses. This study was an attempt to determine whether there were any sports in which sportsmanship levels or goal orientations were significantly different than in other sports. It was determined that soccer SA's exhibited significantly lower ego orientation than either golf or baseball SA's (p Another finding was that SA's in this study showed a negative correlation between ego orientation and sport morality levels as had been found in previous studies. As predicted, females exhibited a significantly higher sport morality level (p This study was intended to assist athletic administrators and coaches in determining the current state of sport morality and goal orientation levels in collegiate SA's and to inspire thoughts on whether this is a teachable area. It is hoped this research will add to the body of knowledge in this field and lay a groundwork for future study. / 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. / Spring Semester, 2006. / November 14, 2005. / Sport, Morality, Goal Achievement, Athletes / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael Mondello, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joseph Beckham, Outside Committee Member; Charles Imwold, Committee Member; Aubrey Kent, Committee Member.

The purpose of the current study was to report the current risk management practices of NCAA Division I-A football stadiums in relation to Ammon's (2001) D.I.M. Process. Along with this exploratory and descriptive investigation of Division I-A stadiums, relationships among risk management practices and selected stadium demographic data were examined. Relationships were determined using chi-square analysis. The questionnaire consisted of nine sections with a total of 95 items. The nine sections were risk management, legal aspects, alcohol policies, crowd management procedures, emergency and medical plan, parking and traffic control, demographics of the university's home football stadium, demographics of the stadium manager, and personal information. All items related to the football operations of the subject's football stadium. The questionnaire was administered via the Internet and the questionnaire hyperlink was e-mailed to the stadium managers of all 117 NCAA Division I-A member football stadiums. Seventy stadium managers returned the completed questionnaire for a 60% response rate. All of the questionnaires were usable. Overall, stadiums that hosted NCAA Division I-A football games in 2004 are following the risk management procedures that are recommended in the literature. Undoubtedly, a major influence on this is the attention that risk management received after the terrorist attacks on United States soil on September 11, 2001. However, many risk management practices are in place, not necessarily to guard against terrorist attacks but for the general safety of patrons from everyday accidents and incidents. The research found that it is very difficult to stereotype stadiums based on demographic features of the stadium. The findings did show that stadium capacity had the most relationships with risk management practices. More sound risk management practices were performed by larger stadiums than smaller stadiums. Finally, the most notable finding of the research in regards to the stadium manager demographics is the lack of diversity among persons responsible for operating collegiate football stadiums. Stadium managers are mostly Caucasian males. Another interesting finding was the degrees that stadium managers held. Younger stadium managers were more likely to have a degree in sport management. / 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. / Spring Semester, 2006. / December 2, 2005. / Risk Management, NCAA Division I-A, Football Stadiums / Includes bibliographical references. / E. Newton Jackson, Jr., Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Aubrey Kent, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Beverly Bower, Outside Committee Member; Charles Imwold, Committee Member; Charles A. Morris, Committee Member.

The need for more extensive research examining the tactical TGFU instructional model was necessary to provide teachers with adequate information to make informed decision about their selection of games instruction models. The pre-service teachers were one male and three female undergraduate students, at California State University, Sacramento. The public school students were 102 fifth grade students (55 boys and 47 girls) from four coeducational, public school classes in an urban school located in northern California. The pre-service teacher's implemented eight TGFU field hockey lessons within a two-week period to the same set of students; four developed by the primary researcher and four developed by each of the pre-service teachers. Verifying that the lesson plans represented the TGFU model required an evaluation of skill feedback, content related questions, and use of time for each lesson implemented. The pre-service teachers utilized the Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI) twice during the study; one was developed by the primary researcher and one by each of the pre-service teachers. Daily questionnaires and a post-study, semi-structured interview were used to collect the qualitative data. The planning phase results indicated that the tactical content was the most challenging aspect, as well as difficulties developing the tactical questions and the heightened frequency of student arguing. The implementation experiences included challenges with tactical questioning and content, as well as an increase in instructional and management time. The pre-service teachers reacted positively to the GPAI, but reported being challenged with the instrument, as well as not knowing how to use results. Ennis and Chen's Value Orientation Inventory – 2 (1993) provided information needed to analyze the relationship between the orientations and the implementation of the TGFU model. This evidence supported the fact that pre-service teachers who value the discipline mastery and learning process orientations have beliefs that are aligned with the goals of TGFU and therefore, may be better equipped to implement the model. Implications of TGFU as it related to value orientation are complex and need further study. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sports Management, Recreation Management and Physical Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2005. / January 14, 2005. / Teaching Games for Understanding, Tactical Model, Pre-service Teachers, TGFU, GPAI / Includes bibliographical references. / Charles Imwold, Professor Directing Dissertation; Sande Milton, Outside Committee Member; Susan Lynn, Committee Member; Thomas Ratliffe, Committee Member.

The main purpose of this study is to examine how employee job satisfaction is influenced by perceived managerial work values and perceived constructive organizational culture. Specifically, the current study model provides a conceptual framework describing interrelationships among three types of work values (i.e., Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Social Relations), four dimensions of constructive organizational culture (i.e., Achievement, Self-actualizing, Humanistic-encouraging, and Affiliative), and job satisfaction. Additionally, the author can explain the influence of perceived managerial work values and perceived constructive organizational culture on non-executive employees' job satisfaction by examining a possible mediating effect of perceived constructive organizational culture in the relationships between perceived managerial work values and non-executive employees' job satisfaction. It is expected that non-executive employees of sport organizations influenced by a desirable constructive organizational culture will have positive reflections regarding the organization (e.g., high job satisfaction). Participants are non-executive full-time employees who work at small Korean sport service organizations (e.g., fitness clubs/gyms, martial art clubs, and golf-related facilities). Compared to large organizations, adapting to change is crucial in small organizations (Hill & Stewart, 1999). More specifically, small businesses could be more heavily influenced by situational work conditions and external environment factors (e.g., labor, the economic climate, up/down sizing, government regulations, and a fluctuating marketplace) than large businesses. Thus, scholars frequently mentioned, "Small business owners and managers must have a different outlook and must apply different principles than those ordinarily used by big companies" (Welsh & White, 1981, p. 18). In particular, small businesses in the sport service industry have proven that employees are required to have various job responsibilities and duties. Employees must have thoughts and plans to keep good relationships with their customers/users. Higher customer retention rates, thus, would be the best result of the relationships. It finally causes improved profitability. Importantly, the author only used full-time non-executive employees from the sport industry in South Korea. Compared to Western countries, Korean businesses and employees in collectivistic and hierarchical culture (Hofstede, 1980) could have different management modes, leadership styles, employer/employee relationships, and organizational behavior in general. This study, thus, will be useful to examine organizational cultures and employee attitudes from a different region. The author believes that the use of full-time employees is appropriate for this study and its purposes. Organizational culture has been normally defined as the deep-rooted beliefs and understandings shared by people in the organization (Schein, 1997). Full-time employees can expect long-term employment and a stable work timetable in general so that they might successfully explore their work culture and evaluate their executives' work styles more adequately than different types (e.g., part-time employees and volunteers) of human resources. Based on the results of the structural equation modeling, the fully mediated model performed better statistically than the partially mediated model and no-mediation model. The partially mediated model, however, performed much better than no-mediation model. Specifically, the evidence for there being a non-significant path coefficient between perceived managerial work values and job satisfaction in the partially mediated model made the partially mediated model and the fully mediated model different. Additionally, the fully mediated model was more parsimonious. In conclusion, it shows that lower-level employees who positively perceive their organizational culture and their leaders' (i.e., executive employees) work attributes display higher levels of job satisfaction. In other words, it is assumed that both perceived managerial work values and perceived constructive organizational culture have a great influence on lower-level employees' satisfaction levels at work. The current study basically compared three models that combined three constructs. Also, the author planned to find which was the best predictor of job satisfaction. Finally, the fully mediated model was chosen as the most representative model. Within the current study, this model indicates that managerial work values mainly have an indirect function in employees' job satisfaction. It also means that constructive organizational culture plays a consequential role in employees' job satisfaction. The author hopes that the findings could address useful knowledge of organizational culture in organizational behavior research within the sport management literature. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport and Recreation Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2011. / March 16, 2011. / Constructive Organizational Culture, Work Values, Sport Service Organizations / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael Mondello, Professor Directing Dissertation; Tim Matherly, University Representative; Andy Rudd, Committee Member; Yanyun Yang, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to explore and determine relevant college choice factors among undergraduate Sport Management students, along with collecting specific demographic information from the respondents. Since little was known about college choice factors for undergraduate Sport Management students, this study will be exploratory in nature, and will employ a non-experimental design. College choice has been a topic of great interest in the last two decades. Numerous studies have been conducted for both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Except for a dissertation published in 2001, the most relevant study exploring college choice for doctoral Sport Management students, there was a lack of research pertaining specifically to undergraduate Sport Management students. For surveying purposes, a modified version of the questionnaire used in a college choice study of nursing majors was used for data collection. The sample population consisted of randomly selected Sport Management programs listed in a December issue of the Sports Business Journal. Parametric statistics produced analyzable results using descriptive statistics, MANOVA, and linear regression. Results revealed that there were no significant differences for the demographic variables gender and age. Race, however, produced significant differences for each of the three categories in which college choice items were grouped; choice, influence, and perception. The data also showed that the majority of undergraduate Sport Management students are choosing their university of attendance prior to choosing their major. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Sport Management, Recreation Management, and Physical Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2005. / June 22, 2005. / NASSM, Undergraduate, Sport Industry, Sport, Management, Majors, Sport Management, College Choice, Hossler & Gallagher, Marketing, Sport Marketing / Includes bibliographical references. / Jerome Quarterman, Professor Co-Directing Thesis; Aubrey Kent, Professor Co-Directing Thesis; Cecile Reynaud, Committee Member.