Student Employees and Recreational Sports Administrators: A Comparison of Perceptions

Abstract

This study evaluates the differences in perceptions between student employees and recreational sports administrators over a consistent set of work tasks and responsibilities typically done by student employees in a recreational sports setting. The focus of the study was to provide a method of improving the effectiveness and efficiency by which recreational sports programs deliver their services and programs. Nine of the 11 schools in the Big Ten Conference participated in the study with a total of eighty-five participants taking part. Concept mapping, a multivariate statistical approach using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis was used to analyze the data. Ninety-five work tasks were sorted for similarity and rated on scales for importance toward attaining recreational sports goals and frequency of performance. Cluster maps, ladder graphs and go-to-zones were developed from the data defining the results of the analysis. Results were presented in a composite form for the nine schools participating in the study with the intent to provide comparison between individual schools and the conference composite as requested. Cluster maps illustrated the levels of importance among the six clusters, ladder graphs demonstrated the differences between the student employees and the recreational sports administrators and go-to zones broke out the individual tasks into areas of alignment, gap zones where either importance or frequency were below the mean, and a “?” zone where neither importance nor frequency rose to the mean rating on that scale. The results allow administrators now to compare, examine, and make decisions based each of the 95 work tasks in a guided manner.