ABSTRACT
This chapter explores sport scientists’ and sport medics’ attitudes towards employment. Within the management and organization studies literatures, the study of worker attitudes to their employment has been a significant area of research for over sixty years. It is therefore curious to note the relative absence of this focus within the sport psychology field despite evidence – albeit from a different discipline – suggesting its centrality to experiences of work. Although it is not possible to give an accurate, contemporary account of the number of individuals employed within sport organizations, the number and the variety of roles offered have both risen steadily over the past few decades. For example, figures from the American Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate that approximately 138,700 people work in the spectator sport industry, an increase of nearly 10 percent since 2002 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014) with the US sport industry predicted to grow by $145.3 billion between 2010 and 2015 (Belzer, 2014). In Australia, the 2011 census found that 95,590 people were employed in sport and recreation occupations, an increase of 17 percent compared to the 2006 findings (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). Although comparable figures are not available for the UK context, the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) – the professional body for sport and exercise science in the UK – has just over 2,000 members (BASES, 2015). A significant proportion of the BASES membership are students studying a range of sport science degrees with these programs having increased in the UK from around four in 1973 to over 100 in 2010 (Winter, 2010). Such figures highlight the growing and sustained attractiveness of careers within the sport context.
