Job characteristics and psychological states of football referees: implications for job enrichment

ABSTRACT

A professional football referee performs their job under the public’s gaze and their performance is open to both employer and media critique. This study investigated football referee job design and its relationship to employee performance and well-being. Key job elements of football referees (n = 157) were measured using the Job Characteristics Model. Specialization and information processing were found to be central job elements. Attitudinal and behavioral outcomes of football referees were mainly achieved through skill variety and task significance. The psychological state of meaningfulness of the work was related to growth satisfaction, internal work motivation and efficiency. This research suggests that job enlargement (horizontal development) could be explored as a way to improve referees’ work satisfaction and commitment through job redesign or job crafting. The practical and theoretical significance of these results is discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Task significance
• job enrichment
• skill variety
• football referees
• job satisfaction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.