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Abstract

Research on the experiences of employees has been plentiful over the last decade; however, work examining the experiences of collegiate recreation employees is limited. In order to enhance employee well-being, it is important that management understands the experiences of their employees and can invest in job supports that best suit the needs of their employees. Therefore, this research study examined the impact of work and family conflict, workaholism, work engagement, burnout, and coping on employees within the industry of collegiate recreation. In this study, 2,474 National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) professional and student members were sent a survey in which 621 participated and 522 were analyzed. Results indicate employees with young children and those in early career positions may experience significant work–family conflict/family–work conflict and burnout.
Original Article
Examining Work Experiences
Among Collegiate
Recreation Employees
Colin Lopez
1
, Elizabeth A. Taylor
1
, Gareth J. Jones
1
, Matt R. Huml
2
,
and Daniel Funk
1
Abstract
Research on the experiences of employees has been plentiful over the last decade; however, work
examining the experiences of collegiate recreation employees is limited. In order to enhance employee
well-being, it is important that management understands the experiences of their employees and can
invest in job supports that best suit the needs of their employees. Therefore, this research study
examined the impact of work and family conflict, workaholism, work engagement, burnout, and coping
on employees within the industry of collegiate recreation. In this study, 2,474 National Intramural and
Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) professional and student members were sent a survey in which
621 participated and 522 were analyzed. Results indicate employees with young children and those in
early career positions may experience significant work–family conflict/family–work conflict and burnout.
Keywords
Burnout, work–family balance, work engagement, workaholism, coping
Although research on the experiences of campus
recreation participants has been plentiful (Buz-
zelli, 2017; Martin et al., 2019; Stankowski
et al., 2017), work examining the experiences
of campus recreation employees has been scarce.
Previous research suggests that engaged and sat-
isfied employees are the foundation for organiza-
tional success (Cooper & Leiter, 2017; Slemp
et al., 2015). Therefore, it is increasingly impor-
tant for management to examine well-being and
invest in job supports that best suit the needs of
their employees (Guest, 2017). Campus recrea-
tion employees face tremendous pressure within
the workplace to increase participation, increase
program efficiency and productivity, manage
recreation facilities, and monitor professional
and student staff members (Zhang et al., 2004).
This may create a culture similar to other fields of
sport and recreation management (e.g., intercol-
legiate sport, professional sport) that negatively
1
Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2
University of Cincinnati, OH, USA
Corresponding Author:
Colin Lopez, MA, Temple University, Speakman Hall, 1810N., 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
Email: colin.lopez@temple.edu
Recreational Sports Journal
2020, Vol. 44(1) 15-23
ªThe Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1558866120927325
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... Unlike traditional forms of work, sports work (e.g., long work hours with few opportunities to take time off) not only has negative impacts on employees but also leads employees to experience work-family/family-work conflict (Lopez et al., 2020). Therefore, this study adopts the work-family dyadic interaction perspective to explore stress in professional athlete couples, as focusing on couples as a unit instead of professional athletes alone can provide a bidirectional understanding of the professional athlete and his partner and of how stress or demands from work or home shift from one person to another and vice versa. ...
... Third, the findings show that family demands on the studied couples had created conflict and may contribute to the cross over effects experienced in these couples. These results extend previous studies regarding work and family conflicts in the sports context (Graham & Dixon, 2017;Lopez et al., 2020;Taylor et al., 2019), providing a dyadic process perspective from which to understand professional athletes' family-work conflict and its cross over effects on athletes' partners. More specifically, the professional athletes interviewed had overcommitted to their work roles to reduce the effects of their unstable work contexts and had no time to play marital or family roles to support their partners. ...
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... Employees within the sport industry often work long hours, incur significant travel for their job, and are required to work nontraditional hours (i.e., weekends; Bruening & Dixon, 2007;Graham & Dixon, 2014;Huml et al., 2021). There also is a culture within certain sport industry sectors pushing the limit of acceptable work hours and embracing the characteristics of negative work outcomes including workaholism and burnout (Carson et al., 2019;Lee & Chelladurai, 2018;Lopez et al., 2020;Reiner et al., 2019;Taylor et al., 2019). Every year, several coaches and administrators will espouse the importance of continuously committing more time and resources to their job as a necessity for having a successful program (e.g., Huml et al., 2019;Pifer & Huml, 2020;Scott, 2022). ...
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... Having younger children was assumed to be associated with higher WFC and FWC because, for example, the time investment in care is expected to be higher for younger children (Gallie & Russell, 2009). All studies included in our review uniformly pointed in this direction (Allen & Finkelstein, 2014;Erickson et al., 2010;Fettro & Nomaguchi, 2018;Gallie & Russell, 2009;Lopez et al., 2020;Nomaguchi, 2009;Nomaguchi & Fettro, 2019). Both WFC and FWC were highest among parents of young children before school age. ...
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