Analysing the context-specific relevance of competencies – sport management alumni perspectives

ABSTRACT

Research question

Recent studies on occupational fields show that different competencies are considered important in different work environments. However, with regard to sport management, there is a lack of knowledge about how context matters in terms of required competencies. This study examines how specific patterns of competencies are associated with sport management alumni’s occupational context.

Research methods

142 alumni of a bachelor and master programme in sport management who already have entered professional life participated in an online survey which comprised questions on the relevance of skills/abilities related to four competency dimensions and on the occupational context. Probit models were employed to analyse the association of context factors and the job-related relevance of competencies.

Results and findings

Results suggest that ‘context’ plays a role in the sport managers’ assessment of the relevance of most competencies. For example, working in a private not-for-profit organisation is associated with rating ‘load capacity’, ‘negotiating skills’, and ‘assertiveness’ as relevant competencies, but ‘use of scientific methods’ and ‘scientific writing’ are considered less relevant. Furthermore, the work tasks ‘budgeting’ ‘coaching’, and ‘data analysis’ are associated with the most specific patterns of competency.

Implications

Organisation and communication skills contribute to general employability of graduates. Beyond that, and due to occupation-specific competency requirements, contextual frameworks of employment and the characteristics of work-related situations need to be considered, for example in teaching-learning processes.

KEYWORDS:

• Management skill
• employability
• occupational field
• professional career
• curriculum

Acknowledgements

A first version of this manuscript was presented at the 22nd Conference of the German Association of Sport Economics and Sport Management in Munich and at the 26th European Sport Management Conference in Malmö. We would like to thank the conference participants for their valuable comments. Moreover, we are grateful to two anonymous referees for their thorough reviews and insightful suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Likewise, freelance sport managers are embedded in specific networks of various (organised) customers and suppliers, and therefore act in specific functional and hierarchical relationships.

2 Any activity generating income was included, irrespective of temporary or lifetime employment, part-time jobs or freelance work.

3 Respondents taking up two or more parallel employments or freelance activities had to determine which their main job is.

4 Since there are so many different employer organisations, this information cannot be controlled in the models because of too small observation numbers. In turn, the level of the economic sports sectors (European Commission, 2013) turned out to be too aggregated for the analysis.

5 There are no findings for the following abilities/skills: organisation skills, independent working, time management, self-discipline, adaptability, communication skills, ability for taking responsibility, team skills, information management, economic and legal expertise.