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

Using a Systematic Quantitative Literature Review (SQLR) approach, this article consolidates studies on the job characteristics (top-down process of job design) and job crafting (bottom-up process of job design) components of sport-related jobs. The SQLR maps the emerging research topic of job design in sport and provides a research direction agenda to guide scholarship. Out of 5,974 retrieved documents, a total of 187 academic articles published in English journals between 1988 and 2021 matched the selected terms in title or abstract or keywords. Following a deductive coding process using NVivo 12, the results demonstrated that previous research has been undertaken mainly over the last 15 years with a focus on job characteristics (77%) compared with job crafting (23%). The emphasis in prior research is placed on: (1) sport managers’ “task” and “knowledge” job characteristics; (2) coaches’ “social” job characteristics; (3) referees’ “contextual” job characteristics, and (4) athletic trainers’ “work – life crafting”. Findings were used to develop two models representing the top-down and bottom-up processes of job design in sport. The top-down model illustrates that: task and knowledge job characteristics influence attitudinal and behavioural outcomes; contextual job characteristics build only well-being outcomes; and social job characteristics predict a wide range of job outcomes. The bottom-up model highlights the significance of approach relational crafting, avoidance task crafting and work – life crafting in shaping behavioural and well-being outcomes. The most understudied area is job crafting among sport volunteers, a gap worth examining further in future research.