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In an attempt to promote sport employees’ well-being, the purpose of this paper is to examine the more traditional constructs of psychological capital (i.e. hope, efficacy, resiliency and optimism) and to feature the inclusion of authenticity, an often overlooked construct, among sport employees.

This conceptual paper is designed to create an expanded sport employee psychological capital construct, labeled A-HERO, and a subsequent theoretical model to improve their well-being.

In detailing a conceptual model of A-HERO for well-being, the model includes and explains the relationships among sport employee antecedents (i.e. sport employee identification, pride and passion), an organizational contextual variable (person–organization fit), and an important employee and organizational outcome (i.e. employee well-being) in contemporary sport organizations.

A-HERO offers a necessary first step for future theoretical research and empirical applications to improve sport employees’ well-being.

By elucidating the role of authenticity at work with traditional psychological capital constructs in the current sport industry, this paper stimulates sport business and management scholars to validate empirically the A-HERO construct and examine proposed relationships for an improved prediction of sport employees’ well-being.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how to generate innovative work behaviors among Millennial and Generation Z sport employees and its impact on their career satisfaction and psychological well-being.

The authors used structural equation modeling to examine the relationships among predictors of job engagement, innovative work behaviors, career satisfaction and psychological well-being. The model was tested across managerial sport employees of Division I athletics departments (N = 224).

The highlights of the study include job engagement's positive relationship with innovative work behaviors and the positive influence of innovative work behavior on career satisfaction and psychological well-being.

These findings signify the importance of considering job engagement and innovative work behaviors to develop a positive work experience for Millennial and Generation Z sport employees. Doing so is thought to be a critical step in cultivating an organizational competitive advantage via younger generations of sport employees.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between employee values and knowledge management (KM) in sport organizations.

Data (N = 234) were collected online through a structured questionnaire from employees of 33 sport organizations in Iran. To test the hypotheses, Pearson correlation test and a regression analysis was conducted.

The results from the study revealed that there were significant relationships between employee values and KM. Both instrumental and terminal values significantly influenced KM.

One limitation of this study is related to the generalizability of the results. Therefore, the current study is required to be replicated with other sport organizations in various sectors (public or private) to improve external validity of the results.

Based on this study, employees of sport organizations in developing countries tend to store knowledge more than sharing and applying it. The findings can be used by human resources and KM practitioners who are interested in developing organizational knowledge through employees’ values.

Through this study, the positive roles of employee instrumental and terminal values, as the key drivers in determining intangible assets in organizations, were found.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a foundation for future research pertaining to establishing the distinctness of the sport industry from an employee psychology perspective.

This conceptual paper is rooted in social identity theory which maintains that certain levels of self‐esteem and psychological fulfillment can be derived from one's membership in particular groups. The authors have developed a model of positive social identity in sport organizations that details the benefits and consequences of psychological fulfillment related to employment in the sport industry.

Within the proposed model, the paper outlines how particular elements of social identity derived from one's employment in sport may play an active role in particular job attitudes by enhancing the employee's self‐esteem and contributing to overall self‐evaluation. It further explains how social identity in the workplace may influence individual outcomes such as organizational citizenship, commitment, satisfaction, and job involvement, depending on the strength of the attitude. The elements of the model are explored and future research directions are given.

A key question to be addressed is whether or not sport is a distinct context within which to apply management theory. This paper proposes a conceptual model and research agenda surrounding the idea that one critical area of distinction may be the psychology of employees.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles of employees’ involvement with the sponsored sport and cause in determining their beliefs about cause-related sport sponsorship.

Respondents completed a survey that included the measures of sport involvement, cause involvement, and sponsorship beliefs adapted from previous studies. The final sample included 131 attendees who identified themselves as employees of sponsors of a cause-related sport event in a web-based post-event survey. A multiple regression analysis was performed to test hypotheses.

Despite the prevailing logic that companies can enhance the perception of goodwill by sponsoring sport that is important to their employees, employees’ sport involvement was found to have no effect on their sponsorship beliefs. In contrast, cause involvement alone explained a large amount of the variance in those beliefs.

The findings contribute to the literature by indicating that how employees evaluate cause-related sport sponsorship may be different from their evaluation process of traditional sport sponsorship without the cause affiliation. This research highlights the need to conduct further internal marketing research specific to cause-related sport sponsorship.

Physical activity (PA) has been widely studied for its individual and societal benefits, but research on how organisations can effectively promote workplace physical activity (WPA) programmes is lacking. This article aims to examine the organisational-level benefits and value drivers of corporate PA programmes whilst also exploring the factors that motivate employees to participate in these programmes.

The authors used the self-determination theory (SDT) and the Hungarian Sport Motivation Scale (H-SMS) – which was modified and validated from the original English SMS scale, which is one of the six most highly cited motivation questionnaires in sports – to assess employees' motivation towards sports. In conjunction, in-depth interviews with company representatives were conducted to create a mind map outlining the impacts and advantages of WPA programmes. The study involved interviews with 13 managers in Hungary and a survey completed by 728 employees.

The findings of the authors' study indicate that WPA programmes had positive effects on employee engagement, turnover reduction and absenteeism. However, the authors' results also revealed that employee motivation to participate in these programmes was primarily driven by external factors, such as identified and introjected regulators, indicating a low level of intrinsic motivation for sports in the workplace. It is important to classify employees based on their motivation and behaviour to design and promote effective PA programmes in the workplace and to increase participation rates.

The authors' findings indicate the importance of aligning WPA programme promotion with employee motivation. This can encourage organisations to initiate their programmes, address participation challenges and strive for higher engagement rates. Further research on employee motivation can support the development of more effective communication strategies for companies in this context.

The objective of this paper is to provide insight into how the practice of sports, commonly known as a pastime or leisure activity, highlights the human agent as an organisational resource and pulling force, and how it can lie within the framework of general employee management policies. But which functions can sport fulfil?

In order to answer this question, qualitative surveys were conducted at ten company sites in France (Adidas France, Apple, 3M, Caisse d'Epargne, Crédit Immobilier de France, Lilly France, Lohr Industrie, Nestlé France, Steelcase International, Würth France). A total of 14 interviews with decision makers on company sport policies were conducted. The empirical data were then cross‐examined in two competitor observations: Steelcase and 3M France.

The study illustrates that sport at companies can take on multiple functions and forms: structures in situ, events, company sporting associations, sponsorship, and so forth. Its functions are often interrelated and integrated into human resources management (as training and motivational tools) and both internal and external communication policies. Furthermore, they contribute to the social policy of the company. Therefore, sport in business is a contributor to defining a company's identity by highlighting intangible and human resources.

This research, completed in large manufacturing and service companies, does not mention the range of sports actions carried out within the framework of intercultural management of multinationals. It could be extended to cover small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to verify the findings. The research does not deal with the effectiveness of sports actions on employees. Only an employee investigation on accepting management practices would permit the verbalization their feeling of belonging to a company and their job involvement.

This paper describes possibilities to evolve human relations through a sporting means. Collective mobilizing around sports attracts just as much top management as “secondary executives”. It creates network relations outside traditional work circuits and helps develop governance methods, management and human resources management practices, and the nature of human relations.

This paper shows how companies – although obsessed by economic performance – give the opportunity to empower staff through the means of sporting leisure activities for the purpose of a managerial target. This study unveils the uses and functions of sport in companies, and its associated attributes. It furthermore reveals contemporary transformations in the entrepreneurial world: new management styles and re‐enchantment of the company by diffusing the image of an entrepreneurial employee. Henceforth, the man or woman in the company is more than ever considered as a social being endowed with assets in the form of available resources for the purpose of management practices.

Sponsorships targeting an internal audience, e.g. employees, are still under-researched. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how employees perceive and evaluate a sponsorship that is designed with the purpose of improving customer services and explore how the company may benefit from the sponsorship.

The study is anchored in critical realism and based on a single case study using multiple methods. The authors survey the impact of the sponsorship on employees’ (n=653) perceptions of their ability to communicate with customers, to perform their personal best, to engage in teamwork, as well as employee retention. The authors use individual and group interviews to qualify the analysis and the access to company data on customer satisfaction rates to provide an indication of the effect of the sponsorship.

Results indicate that close to half the employees respond that the campaign positively impacted their ability to communicate, improve personal performance and to engage in teamwork. The analysis also reveals that the commitment of the direct leader has an impact on employees’ interest and commitment to the campaign. Data on customer satisfaction show that reducing the number of dissatisfied customers and increasing the number of customers willing to recommend the company to others has been accomplished, thus indicating that the sponsorship has had a positive impact on company performance.

By combining sponsorship research with insights from the HRM literature, the study provides empirically based knowledge to the hitherto limited research on the internal audience of sponsorships. The study provides a plausible indication of a positive relation between a sponsorship design and company performance.

This study examines employees of Australian firms engaged in sports sponsorship activity. Where the employee is aware of that sponsorship, we consider the ways in which the general beliefs and attitudes of employees towards sponsorship link to their specific attitudes towards the sponsorship activity of their employer and whether these attitudes may influence their behaviour within the organisation. A model linking employees' attitudes towards their employers' sponsorship activity, the creation of favourable attitudes towards working for that employer and behaviours that can benefit the employing organisation is tested and supported. Implications of results include: a stronger focus on using sports sponsorship for internal marketing purposes; involvement of employees in determining the sponsored activity or organisation; and reassessing the overall benefits that derive from sports sponsorship.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how flourishing is achieved among sport employees working at intercollegiate sport organizations in the USA. To do so, a model is constructed that examines the impact of pride and path-goal leadership on job engagement and then flourishing. The model is grounded in the Human Resource Development (HRD) paradigm to extend the literature on positive performance outcomes in sport organizations.

Quantitative methods were used to analyze the data. Altogether, 282 useable surveys were completed by sport employees working in intercollegiate athletics departments. The hypotheses were examined with structural equation modeling to provide robust calculations of the relationships within the model.

The findings of this study demonstrated that both path-goal leadership and pride enabled job engagement, which in turn supported flourishing among intercollegiate athletics employees (e.g. equipment, marketing or facility/event positions). Job engagement is positioned as an important variable as it linked path-goal leadership and pride with flourishing.

This study examined mechanisms (i.e. path-goal leadership, pride) to enhance intercollegiate athletics employees' personal resources (i.e. job engagement, flourishing) through the HRD paradigm. The HRD framework posits that improved employee functioning leads to a superior organizational performance and has yet to be assessed within intercollegiate athletics. The findings add to the HRD literature by focusing on employees' workplace experiences and generating pathways to improved job engagement and the subsequent influence on intercollegiate athletics employees' ability to flourish, which is also understudied.