Investigating the Relationships among Motivation, Negotiation, and Alpine Skiing Participation

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the negotiation strategies used by recreational skiers to overcome constraints' influences, and to test the degree to which negotiation acts as a mediator of the relationship between motivation and intention to continue participation. Two hundred and twenty (N = 220) recreational skiers completed the intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions of the Sport Motivation Scale (Pelletier et al., 1995) and a fifteen-item negotiation scale. Five negotiation dimensions were revealed by an exploratory factor analysis: “improve skiing knowledge,” “adjust lifestyle,” “acquire information regarding resorts,” “time management,” and “find partners.” The results indicated that: (a) both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation had statistical significant associations with intention to continue skiing, (b) the “time management” and “improve skiing knowledge” dimensions offered significant contributions to the prediction of intention, (c) the negotiation dimensions partially (not fully) mediated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and intention. These results provide support for the negotiation proposition, developed by Jackson et al. (1993), and further explain the relationships among motivation, negotiation, and an individual's leisure behavior.

KEYWORDS:

• Motivation
• negotiation
• recreational skiing