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Purpose The value of the events industry is increasing worldwide. An essential component for successful events is creating a unique experience by offering gamification. A conceptual model is proposed, exploring pre-event game communication and its effect on attendees' value perceptions, willingness to participate, word of mouth intentions and emotional commitment during gameplay at conference events. Design/methodology/approach Analysis of variance and structural equation modeling were employed to test the model using data collected from 177 attendees recruited from hospitality and tourism association network listservs and online research company. Findings Results reveal that perceptions of event gamification increase word of mouth intentions, willingness to participate and emotional commitment. Practical implications The study contributes to the knowledge of conference events with recommendations for incorporation of game elements for meeting planners to enhance attendee behaviors at the event. Originality/value This study is among the first to examine positive behavioral outcomes of using games at conference events.

Purpose: The relationship between leadership style and employee outcomes is well established. However, organizational management research lacks an understanding of the dyadic relationship between supervisors and employees and volunteers at music festivals. This study examines a mediation model in which leader–member exchange (LMX) affects leadership style and organizational citizenship behavior. Additionally, the study examines a moderating model in which dependence on the leader moderates relationships between leadership style and leader–member exchange. Design/methodology/approach: Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling and conditional process analysis were employed to test the model using data collected from 97 supervisors, volunteers and employees who worked at an annual large-scale music festival staged in Costa Rica. Findings: Results reveal that leadership style relates positively to LMX and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Simultaneously, the mediating effect of LMX and moderating effect of dependence on the leader was not significant on the leadership style and OCB. Research limitations/implications: Given the small sample size and accessibility to one music festival, caution should be taken in drawing causal conclusions from the results. Practical implications: The study contributes to the knowledge of event and festival management with recommendations for leadership training initiatives for supervisors and employees/volunteers. Originality/value: This study is among the first to examine the mediating role of LMX between leadership style and OCB, moderating the role of dependence on leadership style and LMX with music festival supervisors and employees/volunteers. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

As the popularity of music festivals increases worldwide, an essential component for successful festivals is creating an exceptional guest experience. A conceptual model is proposed, positing that experience economy has a positive effect on loyalty, word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions, and sustainability behaviors of event attendees at a music festival that focuses on sustainability. Multiple regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed to test the model using data collected from 216 attendees at an annual music festival staged in Costa Rica. Results reveal that experience has a positive effect on sustainability behaviors. Additionally, some dimensions of the experience economy have a positive impact on WOM intentions and loyalty. Lastly, WOM intentions have a positive effect on sustainability behaviors. The study provides vital contributions to planning and managing sustainable music festival events. Music festival planners and marketing teams are recommended to offer activities that provide an overall positive experience.

The pandemic created obstacles for our therapeutic recreation students who could not find or participate in an in-person internship. The only viable option was to create a virtual internship experience that still met NCTRC standards for national certification. This learning activity details the steps taken to create the experience, what was successful, and lessons learned.

Adolescence is an important time for addressing health, including mental health, obesity, substance use, and food insecurity. As the myriad health and wellness needs of community members expands, it becomes increasingly difficult for one profession alone to address these needs. The park and recreation field was founded to address the health and wellness needs of people, and much of their programming is focused on youth. Thus, municipal park and recreation departments are becoming increasingly involved in collaborative partnerships with other health-serving agencies within their community. This study explored park and recreation directors’ experiences in collaborating with health agencies to better address health and wellness factors that affect the youth in their communities. This phenomenological qualitative study employed in-depth interviews with park and recreation directors and used thematic analysis. Nine interviews were conducted from four of the six New England states. The most common health concern seen by the directors was mental health, primarily behavioral health challenges. Parks and recreation collaboration with public health organizations ranged from none to close collaborations; directors regularly spoke about wanting to strengthen their collaborations. Public health and park and recreation staff have similar challenges with staffing and resources; additionally, they have complimentary skills with regard to planning and implementing health-related programs. For that reason, creating purposeful collaborative partnerships between public health agencies and park and recreation departments, focused on measurable outcomes, may increase benefits to the health of youth in a community.

Locus of control is a personality variable that manifests itself through an individual’s perception of the reinforcement he receives. This belief system is based on a continuum ranging from the perception that rewards are completely contingent upon one’s behavior to the belief that only luck, chance, or fate control one’s life. This construct has received considerable attention within the realm of psychology, but is conspicuous by its absence in sport and physical education literature. The purpose of this study was to compare the locus of control of highly skilled Dutch (N = 35) and American (N = 44) women softball players. The Rotter internal-external locus of control scale was utilized to determine internal-external orientations of the subjects. Data were analyzed by using ANOVA and product moment correlations. Statistically significant (.01 level) differences in locus of control were found. American women softball players were significantly more internally oriented than were their Dutch counterparts. © 1977 Taylor 8 Francis Group, LLC.

The purpose of this study was to compare the skeletal ages and various physical and motor factors with the pubescent development of 10, 13, and 16 year old boys. The findings of this study indicated that physical maturation was differentiated most effectively at 13 years of age, although it was not so sensitive to maturational changes as was skeletal age; at 16 years, maturational differentiation was much more limited; and at 10 years, little or no value can be attributed to this method. The 13 and 16 year old boys who were advanced in pubescent development had higher mean scores on all physical and motor tests studied with few exceptions; generally, the differences between the means were significant. In terms of physique types, the only significant difference was found at 16 years of age, where a greater percentage of ectomorphs was found in pubescent group 4 than in group 5. © 1962 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Residents (N = 32) of 3 skilled nursing homes participated in a study designed to document the nature of the stressors they experienced and the coping mechanisms they used. Medical issues were the most common stressors. The most common coping responses were prayer, reading, watching television, listening to music, and talking to friends and family. © 2009 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved.

Schools and education in general have made an implicit and, we would assert, explicit promise to society to educate all the children in their care. Unfortunately, there are achievement gaps that illustrate how schools have broken this promise. Teacher evaluation and other accountability measures have been heralded as the answer to this problem. Educator ego threat impedes the implementation of goal-driven teacher evaluation models and, thus, ethical questions arise. To realize the noble goals of educator evaluation, leaders must attend to ethical concerns and to the human aspects of ego threat.