Do Athletic Experiences Lead to Desirable Workplace Motivation? A Proposed Exploratory Framework

Abstract

With an increasing level of attention given to the concept of motivation in the workforce, anecdotal evidence suggests that many employers have a preference towards hiring individuals with athletic backgrounds. While only limited research, at best, has studied this phenomenon to demonstrate any empirically supported framework of why former high school or college athletes may be perceived as more ideal employees, the following proposes a logical path forward to begin to empirically test the accuracy of the belief that sport participants and athletes could make better employees by specifically studying the transfer of a person’s motivational outlook from the athletic experience to the workplace.