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This chapter discusses what the working practices and professionalism of sports lecturers can tell us about the challenges of professionalism in further education (FE). This chapter draws on Jake's doctoral research in which he interviewed five sports lecturers working in FE colleges in England, about their identities and practices. In this chapter, Jake talks about his own experiences as a sports lecturer in FE and how his increasing disillusionment with his role led him to undertake doctoral research in this field. We explore constructions of professionalism within FE, and we show that through a process Jake identified and labelled as ‘competitive mediation’, the sports lecturers he interviewed used their experiences as elite sports people to navigate the highly performative environments in which they were working. The positives and negatives of using this strategy for them, their learners and wider society are explored in this chapter. We suggest that although Jake's research focused specifically on sports lecturers in FE settings, his insights can be applied more widely, we reflect on the importance of considering the impact our own diverse lived experiences may have on our sense of professionalism as researchers and practitioners.

To examine objective measures of economic job quality for a broad sample of workers in the US spectator sports industry and compare job quality in spectator sports to other industries.

Logistic and linear regressions are performed on American Community Survey (ACS) data collected from 2015 to 2019. Earnings and employer provision of health insurance are the outcomes.

Earnings and employer-provided health insurance are lower in the spectator sports industry than in other industries after controlling for relevant factors. Differences are partly explained by the occupational composition of the industry and the higher incidence of part-time work. Many but not all occupational groups have lower earnings and less employer-provided health insurance in sports.

ACS data only reports one job, so the results likely underestimate the prevalence of part-time work in the US spectator sports industry. The study finds support for a micro-class occupational composition effect and a pulsating organization effect. Some support is also found for a sports industry compensating wage differential, but the effect is not industry wide, counter to some depictions.

This is the first study to examine objective, economic measures of job quality across all occupational sub-groups in the sports industry. This is the first study to propose theoretical explanations for poor economic job quality in sport.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between “locker room” hegemonic masculinities at work and the construction of homophobia, particularly the use of the word “fag” to describe gay men – real or perceived. Although research indicates that men are more homophobic than women, examples are presented which examine some of the reasons why women use the word “fag” at work. Although equal opportunities at work have improved for sexual minorities over the past two decades, studies indicate that some forms of anti‐lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) behaviour continue, which raises the question whether a hierarchy of inequality exists in some organizations.

The data used to analyze this under‐researched phenomenon come from the author's observations working for three multinational corporations in the USA.

The paper shows how men and women engage in locker room culture to construct homophobic narratives.

The issues raised in this article will be useful for empirical studies which examine the relationship between competitive sports and sexuality in the construction of masculine hegemonies in the workplace. Additionally, research should address the workplace experiences of sexual minorities who are also ethnic minorities, and disabled.

The paper contributes to the largely invisible research on the role of sports culture, especially the locker room, and gender and sexuality in non‐sports work environments. It also contributes to the study of masculine embodiments by focussing on sports culture such as the locker room, heteronormative‐masculinities and homophobia.

Purpose – This chapter explores how various types of sports provided by the Sámi sport organisation in Norway (SVL-N) contribute to the construction of Sámi ethnic identity.

Design/methodology/approach – Analysis of policy documents and literature of Sámi sport, and field work into Sami sport contexts were conducted. Based on the theoretical framework of identity as a result of ethnic boundaries, the analysis focuses upon identity work within Sámi contexts, compared with identity work across Sámi and Norwegian contexts.

Findings – Both unique Sami sports, such as reindeer racing and lassoing, and ‘universal sport’, such as football and cross-country skiing, provide opportunities for the construction of ethnic identity. Identity work within Sámi contexts focused on the internal cultural elements, while identity work in universal sports focused on the differences in comparison with Norwegian sport. However, refinements were revealed.

Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of this study is lack of empirical evidence provided by the athletes in Sámi sports.

Originality/value – This chapter provides an overview of Sámi sports and various approaches to ethnic identification through sport. The emphasis is on how a theoretical approach focusing on ethnic boundaries is supplemented by an approach acknowledging the cultural material within specific ethnic contexts.

The purpose of this research is to examine the experiences of female CEOs in New Zealand sport using a career account approach overlaid with the Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM). This research focuses on their successful careers, rather than constraints and barriers, which is a feature of much previous research in the area.

Semi-structured interviews and analysis were informed by the principles of the KCM of career authenticity, balance and challenge. Seven chief executive officers in New Zealand sport organizations were interviewed. Data analysis was undertaken through a three-step coding process.

Respondents highlighted the importance of authenticity, balance and challenge in different ways. The KCM model is extended by identifying sub-themes within each principle. These were, under authenticity, passion and relationship-building; under balance, self-awareness and influencing the organization; and under challenge, taking opportunities and working in sport’s gendered environment. Findings indicate that a more nuanced development of KCM is required and that decision-makers in sport organizations need to be aware of the varied drivers of women’s positive experiences.

This research contributes to an understanding of successful women’s careers, rather than focusing on barriers to success. It also extends the KCM. Future research is necessary to examine the viability of our suggested extensions to the KCM.

While not generalizable, this study’s findings suggest that sport organization decision-makers would be well advised to understand the unique ways in which authenticity, balance and challenge are understood by their female employees. This may encourage organizations to look more closely at their cultures to ensure that they are more welcoming and supportive to women in a male-dominated industry.

This research contributes to an understanding of successful women’s careers, rather than focusing on barriers to success. It also extends the KCM. Future research is necessary to examine the viability of our suggested extensions to the KCM.

In this chapter, I use a critical sociological lens to look at ways sport organisations and scholars could think about and practice gender equity in institutional contexts in the United Kingdom. Sport clubs or organisations shape the participation of those involved in the sport and those working in and for these organisations as volunteer, coach, manager, referee, director, board member, etc. Differences in organisational forms and settings inform ways sport organisations think about sport, gender, race, abilities, sexuality and class relations. These ways of thinking may enhance and/or resist the use of sport equitable practices. Organisations are constructions, however, and not fixed objects but always in flux and becoming. In this chapter, I use a critical/queer perspective to make visible and question organisational processes that may contribute to the exclusion of women and minorities in sport governance. I specifically focus on the normative embodiment of leadership, dominant heteronormative practices and diversity as an organisational value. I suggest several ways in which attention to these processes could be part of a critical research agenda that focuses on initiatives that promote gender equity. I end with a few examples of what such an approach might look like.

There remains a critical issue in sport management scholarship in that the field lacks a well-defined framework for delineating practical implications in research. This research aims to answer the following research questions: (1) What types of practical implications can be identified in sport management research? (2) How can sport management research frame the practical implications of the study in a way that is both theoretically sound and useful for practitioners?

Through a scoping review and within the lens of Jaworski (2011)'s framework for managerial relevance, the study examined 427 articles from European Sport Management Quarterly, Journal of Sport Management and Sport Management Review published between 2000 and 2020.

This study presents a five-pronged framework that identifies target managers, organizational tasks, time horizons, philosophical impact and desired outcomes. Furthermore, the current research offers suggestions for how to present managerial implications in sport management research.

The findings shed light on the managerial relevance of the recent sport management body of work, developing an important framework for practical implications for the field to reflect and incorporate into future studies. With a theoretical understanding of how to frame the practical implications of sport management research, the gap between academia and industry can continue to narrow, and the relevance to the industry may be more pertinent than ever before.

The purpose of this longitudinal study is to examine the dual career and entrepreneurial experiences of professional football players and their influence on the career transition process to entrepreneurship or employment.

The study examined a Portuguese employer–employee data set from 1991 to 2017 using the logit model, a binary choice regression model that allows predicting the probabilities of two possible qualitative and binary outcomes.

Entrepreneurial experience is the key driver for retired football players to pursue entrepreneurship. Having a dual career and working during the athletic career leads to higher chances of continuing in the labor market as an employee. Higher education levels did not significantly influence the decision to pursue a second career but having secondary education increases the chances of continuing as an entrepreneur.

First, the study aims to shed light on success factors in career transition of professional football players who engage in a dual career. Second, the authors introduce sport entrepreneurship as a possible activity alongside an athletic career.

Athletes can benefit from the experience they gain during a dual career in the process of career transition. Working in the final year of an athletic career represents a promising strategy to gain work experience alongside sport without jeopardizing sporting success.

This study adds evidence to the contemporary discourse on dual career theory and career transitions and reconciles the theory of sport entrepreneurship and dual careers.

This study aims to provide an understanding of the multi-layered managerial and organizational challenges of mega sporting events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games, identify key competencies that address the complexities and uncertainties when planning and organizing the Olympic and Paralympic Games and provide a framework to classify sporting events according to their complexity and uncertainty.

This study uses in-depth semi-structured interview with key organizing actor of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016.

Planning and organizing complex and long-term mega sporting events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games require a set of key competencies, including a range of soft skills (collaboration, negotiation, communication), goal-setting, persistence and resilience, paradox thinking and timing.

Presenting the findings in an unedited and raw interview format provides practitioners and scholars alike with unfiltered and rich data that allows to choose, apply and adapt key competencies and heuristics from Rio 2016 to their own mega sporting projects or research agendas; allows to differentiate between sporting events according to their complexity and uncertainty.

This chapter introduces and sets the scene for a discussion on women's sport in a professional era. Initiated in the wake of the second-wave feminist movement in America in the 1950s with the professionalisation of golf and tennis, the move for other women's sports to be professionalised has been slow, sporadic and marred with difficulties. However, since the turn of the twenty-first century, there have been significant changes in the landscape of elite women's sport. Alongside an overview of the developments in elite level women's sport, we conceptualise the terms ‘professionalisation’, ‘professional’ and ‘professionalism’. Furthermore, the chapter identifies the scope of the book, drawing upon the importance to consider women's sport as distinct from men's sport and identifying issues that are specific to female athletes, such as maternity and the gender pay gap. We also recognise the diverse and multiple nature of women's identities, highlighting the intersectionality of female athletes in professional sport (specifically around race/ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and national identity).