Unlocking the power of job design in sports: a systematic review and future research agenda

Figures & data

Figure 1. Conceptual framework explaining the scope of job design in sport.

Table 1. Definition and terminology of each job characteristic with an example of a sport-related job.

JCC	Job characteristics	Definition^a (the degree to which a job)	Example job: Match officiating career; example employees: Football referee^b
TC	Task significance	… influences the lives or work of others, whether inside or outside the organization.	Football referees are required to individually (i.e., task autonomy) undertake several different tasks including foul recognition, game management, player safety (i.e., task variety) and make key match decisions such as penalty, red card and offside offences that can change the results of the game (i.e., task significance) in a certain period of 90–120 minutes (i.e., task identity). The complex of the task characteristics a football referee experiences provides the individual performance in a way that gives vital information for better judgment in officiating future matches (i.e., feedback).
	Task identity	… involves a whole piece of work, the results of which can be easily identified.
	Task variety	… requires employees to perform a wide range of tasks on the job.
	Autonomy	… allows freedom in work scheduling, decision making, and work methods to perform tasks
	Feedback from job	… provides direct and clear information about the effectiveness of task performance.
KC	Job complexity	… tasks are complex and difficult to perform.	To be successful, football referees must be theoretically updated through regular reading and interpretating the laws of the game (i.e., specialisation), analysing information related to the state-of-the-art laws of the game for improving cognitive ability required in decision-making process (i.e., information process). Most often, football referees experienced players brawl or coach protest. To deal with this situation, football referees are required to use their various skills such as communication with players and coaches, game reading and psychology (i.e., skill variety), and generate ideas and implement the solutions such as general words, talking to captain, caution and sent-off (i.e., problem solving). Such sophisticated knowledge makes football refereeing a difficult job (i.e., job complexity).
	Information processing	… requires attending to and processing data or other information.
	Problem solving	… requires unique ideas or solutions and reflects the more active cognitive processing requirements of a job
	Skill variety	… requires an individual to use a variety of different skills to complete the work
	Specialisation	… involves performing specialized tasks or possessing specialized knowledge and skill.
SC	Social support	… provides opportunities for advice and assistance from others.	In case of “offside” calling, football referee’s decision depends on assistants’ decision (i.e., interdependence) to manage efficiently players, coaches, and spectators (i.e., contact with beneficiaries). Such a teamwork provides an opportunity for referees to work closely to each other (i.e., social support) and improve with one another by sharing the experiences (i.e., feedback from others).
	Initiated interdependence	… flows from one job to other jobs.
	Received interdependence	… is affected by work from other jobs.
	Contact with beneficiaries	… requires employees to interact and communicate with individuals external to the organization.
	Feedback from others	… requires others in the organization provide information about performance.
CC	Work conditions	… requires a healthy workplace	football referees need to improve their physical fitness and regular training (i.e., ergonomics) to be able to run on the field (physical demands) and use radio communication technology (i.e., equipment tools) to make a better decision under the stadium atmosphere such as spectators’ noise and players and coaches’ physical and verbal abuse (i.e., work conditions).
	Ergonomics	… allows correct or appropriate posture and movement.
	Physical demands	… requires the level of physical activity or effort.
	Equipment tools	… requires the variety and complexity of the technology and equipment.
AC	Virtual work	… requires employees to virtually contact with others (inside and/or outside the organisation), rather than face-to-face.	A job for video assistant referees has been produced to remotely (from a separate room) assist referees when they made a wrong decision (i.e., virtual work), however, they must make a correct decision in a limited time (i.e., time pressure).
	Time pressure	… requires employees to complete their tasks at a certain time.

^aDefinition of each job characteristic is compiled from Grant et al. (2011) and Morgeson and Humphrey (2006)

^bExamples are provided from Loghmani et al. (2017) and Loghmani et al. (2021).

Note. JCC=Job Characteristics Category; TC=Task Characteristics; KC=Knowledge Characteristics; SC=Social Characteristics; CC=Contextual Characteristics; AC=Additional Characteristics.

Table 2. Definition and terminology of each job crafting form with an example of a sport-related job.

Category	SC	Definition^a	Example job: Match officiating career; example employee: Football referee^b
Approach Crafting	APPTC	Actions to gain positive job resources and increase one’s challenging demands or address hindering demands and expand formal responsibilities.	Football referees actively participate in online coaching session to learn new skills (APPTC) and ask for their colleagues’ feedback about a certain match (APPRC). They may perceive their jobs as football makers and/or player savers, rather than just a referee (APPCC).
	APPRC	Actions to make a relationship that requires for gaining positive job resources and increasing challenges
	APPCC	Reframing ones’ job to gain positive job resources; Reframing one’s demands as either more challenging or less hindrance.
Avoidance Crafting	AVOTC	Actions to avoid hindering demands and aspects of the job lack positive resources	Football referees reject participating in some coaching sessions that lack helpful information (AVOTC) and avoid taking roles that are ambiguous or unnecessary such as a regular interview with media and very friendly contact with coaches or players (AVORC). A football referee tries to perceive his or her job as more about fair judgement, which is interesting to them, rather than player psychology, which is not interesting to them, or vice versa. Referees think that dealing with wrong decision of offside is not their job, as it is assistant referees’ job (AVOCC).
	AVORC	Actions to avoid people that are not important or prevent one’s progression at work.
	AVOCC	Reframing one’s job to avoid the experience of demands and aspects of the job that lack resources.
JCODs	W-LC Leisure Crafting	Crafting spatial (where to perform the job) and temporal (when to perform the job) dimensions or life spheres (work-life balance, leisure time).	Potential individuals decide to choose football refereeing career, because they can officiate football games in a time that they are available and can travel to most places for officiating the games. For this reason, they can make a balance between their work and life.

^aDefinition of each job crafting form is compiled from Lazazzara et al. (2020) and Zhang and Parker (2019).

^bExamples are provided from Loghmani et al. (2017) and Loghmani et al. (2021).

Note. SC=Sub-Category; APPTC=Approach Task Crafting; APPRC=Approach Relational Crafting; APPCC=Approach Cognitive Crafting; AVOTC=Avoidance Task crafting; AVORC=Avoidance Relational Crafting; AVOCC=Avoidance Cognitive Crafting; JCODs=Job Crafting in Other Domains; W-LC=Work-Life Crafting.

Figure 2. The SQLR steps (Pickering & Byrne, 2014) taken in this study.

Figure 3. Percentage of studies meeting each critical appraisal criterion included in CASP checklist.

Figure 4. Year of publication by number of articles.

Figure 5. Word frequency of (a) articles title; and (b) keywords.

Figure 6. Matrix of job design elements on volunteers and paid sport staff.

Note. EV=Event Volunteer; AT=Athletic Trainer; R/U=Referee/Umpire; C/I=Coach/Instructor; SM/CO=Sport Manager/Club Official

Table 3. The matrix of job design elements on position title.

Category	Study variable	Total	Position title
			Sport Manager	Coach/ Instructor PS(VO)	Referee/ Umpire PS(VO)	Athletic Trainer	Event VO
TC (n = 32)	Task significance	8	6	0(0)	0(1)	0	1
	Task identity	6	5	0(0)	0(0)	0	1
	Task variety	1	0	1(0)	0(0)	0	0
	Autonomy	9	6	1(0)	0(1)	0	1
	Feedback from job	8	6	0(0)	0(1)	0	1
KC (n = 31)	Job complexity	0	0	0(0)	0(0)	0	0
	Information processing	9	3	3(0)	2(1)	0	0
	Problem solving	9	5	0(3)	0(1)	0	0
	Skill variety	8	5	0(0)	1(1)	0	1
	Specialisation	5	1	1(0)	2(1)	0	0
SC (n = 87)	Social support	59	4	34(1)	3(1)	11	5
	Interdependence	21	6	13(0)	0(1)	1	0
	Interaction	3	1	0(0)	1(0)	0	1
	Feedback from others	4	0	2(0)	2(0)	0	0
CC (n = 44)	Work conditions	19	4	2(0)	3(3)	3	4
	Ergonomics	1	0	1(0)	0(0)	0	0
	Physical demands	21	0	1(0)	0(20)	0	0
	Equipment tools	3	0	1(0)	1(0)	1	0
AC (n = 7)	Virtual work and time pressure	7	1	1(0)	0(5)	0	0
APPC (n = 16)	Approach task crafting	2	0	1(1)	0(0)	0	0
	Approach relational crafting	12	2	3(1)	0(2)	2	2
	Approach cognitive crafting	2	0	1(1)	0(0)	0	0
AVOC (n = 18)	Avoidance task crafting	8	4	2(1)	0(0)	0	1
	Avoidance relational crafting	4	2	0(1)	1(0)	0	0
	Avoidance cognitive crafting	6	1	5(0)	0(0)	0	0
JCODs (n = 28)	Work-Life Crafting	27	4	6(0)	0(0)	17	0
	Leisure Crafting	1	0	1(0)	0(0)	0	0

Note1. TC=Task Characteristics; KC=Knowledge Characteristics; SC=Social Characteristics; CC=Contextual Characteristics; AC=Additional Characteristics; APPC=Approach Crafting; AVOC=Avoidance Crafting; JCODs=Job Crafting in Other Domains; PS=Paid Staff; VO=Volunteer.

Note2. Sport managers and athletic trainers are paid staff.

Figure 7. The top-down model of job design in sport (job characteristics).

Note. The grey shaded job characteristics directly influence the grey shaded job outcomes.

Figure 8. The bottom-up model of job design in sport (job crafting).

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