Exploring employees’ perceptions of human resource practices of a sport for development organization: A case study of the Special Olympics Indiana

Sport for Development (SFD) organizations provide sport-based intervention programs to achieve outcomes such as social capital (Spaaij, 2012), and they heavily rely on paid employees as a critical resource (Clutterbuck & Doherty, 2019; Svensson et al., 2021). Prior research has revealed that SFD organizations implement diverse human resource (HR) practices to manage employees, influencing their passion and competency (Clutterbuck & Doherty, 2019). However, employees' perceptions of HR practices in the SFD context have not been fully explored. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore employees' perceptions of and experiences with HR practices within an SFD organization. Using a qualitative method, an exploratory case study, this study utilized multiple types of data through organization visits. In-depth interviews, direct observation, and documents were analyzed to better understand what kind of HR practices the SFD organization implements, employees' perceptions of HR practices, and the role perceptions play in evaluating person-organization (PO) fit and building social exchange relationships between the organization and employees. Participants identified diverse HR practices the SFD organization implemented, from recruitment to performance evaluation, and HR practices could be categorized into three bundles of HR practices: Ability-enhancing HR practices, motivation-enhancing HR practices, and opportunity-enhancing HR practices. In addition, the findings of this study showed that the organization and its employees were able to evaluate PO fit and build on the social exchange relationships through HR practices. However, depending on employees' perceptions of HR practices, PO fit and social exchange relationships could be enhanced or diminished. This study extends SFD and nonprofit sport literature by exploring HR practices and employees' perceptions of HR practices in the SFD context. Additionally, this study extends theoretical understanding of the connections between HR practices and PO fit and social exchange relationships.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Recreation, Sport, and Tourism

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Jang, Incheol

Contributors dc:contributor

• Liechty, Toni
• Sato, Mikihiro
• Jones, Gareth
• Ostler, Teresa

• Human Resource Management
• Human Resource Practices
• Employees’ Perception
• Sport-for-development Organization
• Ability-motivation-opportunity Theory
• Person-organization Fit
• Social Exchange Relationships

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Incheol Jang

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122099

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F122099