Volume 69 (2016): Issue 1 (March 2016)

Background. It is undeniable that coaches play a major role in the development of athletes. Coaches and athletes have a close relationship and share various experiences that lead to a strong bond between them, and this is of great responsibility for the coach. Therefore, the coach should maintain this bond with mutual respect and trust. Various responsibilities are progressively placed on coaches by law to prevent or minimize injuries to athletes. In other words, since a coach is placed in a position of power and trust, the duty of care will always be placed on him. If certain requirements are not met, the coach may be held financially, or even criminally, liable. In this study, the author explains and discusses coaches’ legal duties, legal liabilities, and the elements required for liability of coaches toward athletes.

This paper will illustrate the meaning and importance of human resource management (HRM), human resource planning, and strategic human resource management, which are critically important for an organization’s effectiveness and must be effectively managed (Doherty, 1998). This study used the literature review method to acquire its final results. The relevant HRM literature review was done according to the purpose of the study. It used the purposive random sample method for selecting relevant literature. This study shows the current economic environment in the sports industry; the second part of the study critically analyzes the value of the strategic management of employees for the effective and efficient operation of sports organizations. It also critically evaluates human resource planning and other pertinent issues in terms of legislation, recruitment, selection, training, induction, and reward management from different international examples in sports management. Over the past few decades, increasing competition, globalization, and continuous changes in the market and in technology have emphasized the need to rethink the management of the organization and of human resources for the sake of overcoming significant challenges (Taylor et al., 2006). Therefore, managers should use strategic human resource management to overcome significant issues and to form well-planned strategies so that the organization may succeed.

The aim of the article is to highlight the theoretical assumption that the relative competitive disadvantage between markets with different maximum sizes can be partially counteracted with strategic thinking and business-like operations. The research question presented in this article is whether there are any management tools available for clubs which they can use to improve their business competitiveness above and beyond the limitations of their maximum market size. According to the research hypothesis, there is such a tool available for clubs: the management and operation of a football club in a well-organized and business-like manner. The method of analysis is the so-called Grounded Theory (Glaser, & Strauss, 1967; Locke, 2001), which is an abstract analytical schema with a systematic data analysis process. The data collection incorporates desk research, comparative analysis, organizational review, and in-depth interviews. The results are presented according to the following dimensions: a) relevance of the research question; b) specification of groups of relevant management tools; c) the role of the national football association in the process of market development; d) the role of the owners in this process; and e) how the structure of the sector and its operating processes can guarantee the efficient utilization of all the material resources which have been plowed into the sector over the last four to five years. According to the conclusions, the creation of an operating system and club model that allows for the utilization of resources - maximized market revenues and governmental sources - in the most effective way is an unavoidable challenge. The formation of the sustainable operations of clubs is fundamentally influenced by club owners. An inspection of the interaction between club owners, head coaches, and players is a key task in the process of creating a new club model.

Nowadays, the act of taking care of one’s appearance has become a marker of a healthy lifestyle among both women and (mostly metrosexual) men. Physical activity plays a minor role, and tourist trips are more and more frequently combined with the consumption of medical services, including surgery and aesthetic dermatology. The aim of this study is to explain the phenomenon of medical tourism, particularly the specialized category of medical tourism for liposuction treatments, and its relation to the values of physical culture. The work is theoretical; it is supplemented by references to the presented issues in the form of a case study of “lipotourism” and its participants. As a result, the profile of a medical tourist has been identified against which a “lipotourist” constitutes an inimitable case. It seems that although the purpose for the travels of such a tourist is recognized, it still remains a matter of conjecture in terms of experience and behavior.

To prove the thesis that participating in tourism for medical reasons can affect one’s quality of life, certain conditions must be met: 1. The applied treatment must not cause (permanent) damage to the patient’s health; 2. Liposuction must be treated exclusively as an (invasive) aesthetic surgery and not as a method of weight reduction; 3. Regular physical activity and a healthy diet and lifestyle must be included in the process of body shaping, and 4. Health and physical education must be treated as superior values of quality of life. The existing considerations should only be regarded as preliminary.

According to the Eurobarometer (European Commission, 2010), 39% of the Estonian adult population is not physically active at all. This percentage is relatively high compared to other countries that are culturally close to Estonia; the corresponding figure of close neighbors Finland and Sweden is below 10%. The article aims to present the results of a survey of physical activity (n=1,009) conducted in Estonia in 2013 and analyzes physical activity levels across various social groups. The results of the article show that employment, age, education, and ethnicity are important factors for engaging in leisure-time physical activity in Estonia. Non-ethnic Estonians, the less educated, the elderly, the unemployed, and those on maternity leave are less engaged in regular leisure exercise than people in other social groups. The results of the article were used to develop Estonia’s Sports 2030 strategy.

The innovative behavior of individuals in the workplace is the foundation of any high-performance organization, and thus a study on the factors that motivate or enable individuals’ innovative behavior is critical (Scott, & Bruce, 1994). Therefore, the aim of this research was to find the relationship between organizational culture and innovative work behavior (IWB) in tourism enterprises that market sports services. Considering the fact that IWB is crucial for tourism enterprises, exploring the factors that influence IWB could be beneficial. Correlation analysis revealed that IWB was found to be significantly correlating with cooperativeness (r=0.442, p<0.05), innovativeness (r=0.510, p<0.05), consistency (r=0.522, p<0.05), and effectiveness (r=0.554, p<0.05). Additionally, stepwise regression analysis, which was conducted to discover whether organizational culture predicts IWB, showed a significant model: F_(2-131)=33.775, p<0.05. The model explained 33% of the variance in IWB (Adjusted R²=0.33). In general, our findings suggest that there is a relationship between organizational culture and IWB and that organizational culture significantly predicts IWB. As IWB is crucial for the enhanced performance and success of any organization, organizational culture should be organized in order to encourage employees in terms of IWB.

The significance of physical activity for mental well-being has been discussed in detail in the literature on the subject. However, a question arises concerning the relationship between motivation to exercise and psychological functioning. The objective of the present study was to test the relationship between the types of motivation for physical activity and selected indicators of mental health.

The study involved 99 men aged between 18 and 60 years old (M=28.20, SD=9.35) who were regular attendees at several gyms in Warsaw. The study used the following methods: the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28), developed by Goldberg, the Gym Attendance Motivation Inventory, developed by Awruk and Janowski, and the Personal Data Sheet.

A significant negative relationship between intrinsic motivation (to improve one’s physical performance) and symptoms of depression was observed. Significant positive associations were found between the period of training and scores on the Social dysfunction and Somatic symptoms subscales of GHQ-28. The remaining associations were found to be statistically insignificant. In addition, there were no significant differences in motivation to exercise between men with low and high levels of mental health symptoms. The motivational profiles identified in cluster analysis did not differentiate the subjects with respect to mental health indicators.