An Examination of Administrative Positions in Physical Education and Sport Using the Job Characteristics Model

235 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988.The design of the administrative positions and the nature of the work experiences of physical education and sport administrators was the focus of this investigation. The job characteristics model developed in the 1970's by Hackman and Oldham provided the theoretical foundation for this study. According to the model, five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback(job) can create three critical psychological states: experienced meaningfulness; experienced responsibility, and knowledge of results. These psychological states can lead to positive affective responses: satisfaction, internal work motivation, and growth satisfaction. The relationships between the core dimension, psychological states, and affective responses are moderated by individual differences in growth need strength and context satisfaction.The Job Diagnostic Survey, developed by Hackman and Oldham, was used to collect data from a sample of physical education and sport administrators from selected institutions of higher education in Canada and the State of Illinois. This study investigated administrators' perceptions of their positions and their reactions to these positions and compared these perceptions and reactions to those of the general working population as assessed by Hackman and Oldham. The influence of various demographic, organizational and positional factors on these perceptions and reactions was then considered. Finally, the appropriateness of the job characteristics model and the Job Diagnostic Survey for this sample of administrators was examined.Three major conclusions were drawn from the results of the investigation. (1) This sample of physical education and sport administrators perceived their positions as more complex, experienced higher psychological states, exhibited more positive affective responses, had higher growth needs, and were more satisfied with the context of their positions than the general working population. (2) The main effects of the demographic, organizational, and positional factors considered in the study exerted very little influence on the administrators' perceptions and reactions to their positions. (3) In general the job characteristics model and the Job Diagnostic Survey appeared to be applicable to this homogeneous sample of physical education and sport administrators. However, some relationships involving internal work motivation and the moderator variables were not as predicted by the model. Recommendations for further research emanating from this study focused on three major issues: the theoretical model, the instrumentation, and the sample.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD