Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

Research on organizational justice in sport has evolved during the past fifteen years. Much of that research has focused on the perceived fairness of equity, equality, and need when making resource distributions (distributive justice) in intercollegiate athletics. Generally, those involved with intercollegiate athletics believe resource decisions based on equality and need are the most fair, but decisions appear to be based on different principles. Scholars have also begun examining the fairness of decision-making processes (procedural justice) and the communication of those decisions (interactional justice), and how organizational justice impacts organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction. Additionally, research has expanded to include sport settings beyond intercollegiate athletics. This article summarizes the state of research by first reviewing the general organizational justice literature to conceptually describe the constructs of interest before providing a detailed examination of sport management specific research. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research on organizational justice in sport management.

The purpose of this study was to measure U.S. National Governing Body (NGB) administrators' perceptions of fairness of financial resource allocation within the U.S. Olympic Movement. This study extends previous research on distributive justice in the sport industry by examining a new setting and controlling for the potential moderating effect of procedural justice. Presidents and executive directors responded to a survey containing three resource allocation scenarios. Study participants most often identified need to be competitively successful as the most fair distribution principle, but believed equity based on medals won was the most likely to be used. Results also indicated significant differences in the perceived fairness of distribution principles based on the budget size of the NGB, the membership size of the NGB, and the NGB's success in the Olympic Games. These results have implications for the evolving priorities of NGBs, how these priorities are being addressed, and possible reactions to resource distribution decisions.

The purpose of this study was to examine customers of an emerging spectator sport, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Whereas conventional sport spectator motivation research has typically examined motivations of spectators attending established team sports, this study is distinctive in that it applies motivation research to an individual sport rather than a team sport and to an emerging sport rather than a more established sport. The following ten motives were identified based on a review of the current literature: drama/eustress, escape, aesthetics, vicarious achievement, socializing, sport interest, national pride, economic factor, adoration, and violence. Participants attended a local amateur event, held in June 2006, in a mid-sized Midwestern city. Overall, sport interest and drama were the highest rated motives. There were gender differences in motives, with males indicating that sport interest, economic, and violence were significantly stronger motives. Two backward deletion linear regression analyses indicated that sport interest, vicarious achievement, and national pride were significant predictors of media consumption for males, while sport interest and drama were significant predictors of media consumption for females.

As the discipline of sport management continues to encompass an increasing array of concentrations, discussions about required core curricular components in concentrations such as sport finance have become more important. However, there appears to be little consensus on how a sport finance course should be delivered. This study’s purpose was to examine syllabi from sport management programs across the United States to determine how sport finance content is being delivered. Analysis of 47 syllabi indicated that instructors favored the use of article reviews, case studies, and corporate profile analyses as assignments, and most preferred using one of two textbooks.

While Weese recently recommended that JSM and NASSM become more practitioner-oriented, Cuneen and Parks argued that JSM and NASSM need to maintain a more theoretically-oriented approach. Further, Cuneen and Parks agreed with Weese's suggestion that a new practitioner-oriented journal could be developed in order to meet the current needs of practitioners and to provide opportunities for both types of research. The authors of this paper would like to go further and suggest that ills important to allow for both types of research within the various content areas. However, despite the popularity of sport marketing in North America. there is currently only one practitioner-oriented journal specializing in this area. The authors of this paper believe that there is an immediate need for a theoretical sport marketing journal that, together with the Sport Marketing Quarterly, will contribute to the development of this content area.

Weese (2002) recently expressed concerns about the faculty job market in sport management. The purpose of the current article is to examine and discuss both the number of doctoral students being produced and the adequacy of their preparation for faculty positions. The authors surveyed doctoral-program faculty and reviewed advertised open positions to provide the basis for observations regarding current and future issues relative to this job market. Whereas the authors found that approximately 70 jobs are advertised each year in sport management, doctoral programs produce only about 15 graduates annually, suggesting that the numbers produced are clearly insufficient. When examining the adequacy of the students' preparation, the authors found research preparation is considered to be most important. Doctoral programs in sport management, however, also place high emphasis on teaching preparation.

Based on organizational justice research, Hums and Chelladurai surveyed college athletic personnel to determine which distributive justice principles these leaders believed were most fair. Their results indicated that the principles evaluated highest by all subgroups—National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) divisions, position, gender—were equality of treatment, need, and equality of results. The present study extended the work of Hums and Chelladurai and examined NCAA Revenue and Expense Reports for 1973-1993 to determine whether there was evidence to suggest that equality and need were the main principles affecting distributions. The authors also analyzed the impact of legislation and court decisions on distributions. Based on the analysis of the NCAA reports, distributions appear to be greatly affected by equity related to revenue production and spectator appeal.

Prior research has found that coaches and administrators at NCAA institutions believed distributing resources equally or based on program needs was fairer than distributing them based on program contributions. The current studies build on these findings by examining the views of fairness among college athletes and other college students in a hypothetical intercollegiate athletics setting (N = 150) and a hypothetical sport business setting (N = 150). In both settings, equality of treatment and need are most likely to be chosen as the fairest allocation methods. Although there are no group differences in the sport business setting, chi-square analysis and analysis of fairness ratings indicate some group differences in the intercollegiate athletics setting. Women are stronger supporters of equal distributions and equal reductions, whereas men are more supportive of making decisions based on need and contribution of the program.

This article chronicles the positive and negative consequences of televising interscholastic athletic events. The study further explores the extent and range of television coverage for each of the 51 state high school athletic associations within the United States through 26 collected responses (51.0%) from athletic association executive directors. Specifically, the questionnaire addressed or focused on (a) how extensive television coverage of state association sponsored regular seasons games (e.g., High School Game of the Week) were in their respective state and (b) whether or not states reached an agreement to broadcast championship games/events. Overall, this study suggests a great opportunity exists for those institutions and organizations interested in broadcasting high school sport but suggests schools recognize the need to responsibly managing those broadcasts because of the age group involved. Finally, this paper offers several topics related to television and high school sports we should consider studying more closely in the future.

Within the general field of consumer behavior, a subset of research has emerged in recent years to examine consumer behavior relative to the unique products and services offered in the sport industry. Wells's (1993) discovery-oriented approach is utilized to critique prior sport consumer behavior research and discuss possible directions for scholars in the field. This critique illustrates that research and writing could benefit by a)exploring multiple aspects of the consumer decision-making process, b) greater attention to methodological issues, c) utilization of neighboring concepts, data, and problem solving strategies, d) development of holistic lines of research, and e) conducting research that generates questions, not just words to publish and investigating for the sake of investigating. We hope this broad critique, along with the other articles in the special issue, contribute to this growing subdiscipline and provide some frameworks for our ongoing effort to discover and understand.