New academic research closing in on the ref

Stuart Carrington
St Mary’s University, Twickenham, UK

Sports officials are typically underrepresented in academic research. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems approach (1979) would explain this relative neglect as a symptom of a wider macrosystem, namely that societal norms see sports officials as unworthy of investigation at best, or an obstacle of the game to be overcome at worst. This view is sometimes held by elite sports officials themselves, who rationalise criticism as ‘part of the game’ or ‘coming with the territory’ (Carrington et al., 2022). Such attitudes are indicative of ‘problem-focussed’ strategies frequently adopted by officials that are understandable but not helpful. The rationale for change is significant. First, there is urgent concern surrounding decreasing retention rates of sports officials, with abuse, renumeration, and lack of recognition the pertinent causes for withdrawal (see Downward et al., 2023; Warner et al., 2013). Second, with increased financial implications for success and failure, the decision-making of officials is subject to heightened scrutiny. Consequently, this new contribution to the literature around sports officials is welcome and crucial.

In the chapter on mentoring, intentional mentoring partnerships rather than opportunistic alliances are recommended. It is through such recommendations that holistic development of sports officials, a key message of part two, is delivered.

Edited by leading authorities in the field, and their research around the impact of abuse, retention, cohesion and engagement, and gender differences is recommended reading for anyone involved with sports officials, the introduction clearly identifies not only the purpose of the book, but its target audience. This volume is of value not only to sports officials, but also to those responsible for training and developing sports officials, as well as administrators at all levels. This latter group is arguably of greater importance, not solely due to the retention crisis mentioned previously, but because of the sampling bias in extant research towards elite officials (Cunningham et al., 2022). Simply, this book makes a valuable contribution to the limited but growing corpus of evidence around the development of sports officials.

It is development that is a major theme of the book, with each chapter requiring its authors to present a case study (real or fictional) to present to the reader how the theory discussed can be applied. This is a real asset of the book as, without it, the reader may be left not knowing how to apply the research findings. For example, individuals charged with developing interactor officials (e.g., officials who are required to move and communicate extensively with athletes, such as football, rugby, and basketball referees; MacMahon et al., 2015), are encouraged in the chapter on movement, positioning and awareness, to focus on developing cognitive-perceptual skills rather than distance to the incident. In the chapter on mentoring, intentional mentoring partnerships rather than opportunistic alliances are recommended. It is through such recommendations that holistic development of sports officials, a key message of part two, is delivered.

The second part of the book, ‘Recruiting, Retaining, and Supporting Sports Officials’, is sandwiched between ‘Sports Officiating History, Governance, and Workforce’, and ‘Developing and Testing Sports Officials’ Skills.’ Each part identifies clear and relevant areas to develop the officiating population. In its review of historical and sociological perspectives on officials found in part one, for instance, increased resources are encouraged to report the obstacles faced by officials, broaden the diversity of officiating groups, and develop technological support at all levels of sport. This is enhanced in part two, with an excellent review of officiating pathways and how career progression can be improved and delivered. A key feature of this part are the chapters on community building and mentoring in sports officials and, consequently, stakeholders would do well to heed the guidance here and apply recommended action. Part three takes an in-depth look at how officials develop in the field. The value of this topic cannot be underestimated, as officiating is a ‘practice-poor’ environment due to, as the chapter on the acquisition of perceptual-cognitive skills does an excellent job of explaining, the demands on officials difficult to replicate and the lack of valid feedback during performance limiting the value of actual competition on skill acquisition. Via explanation of the decision-making process, the development of sports officials is encouraged by understanding what occurs prior to, during, and post decision to enhance expertise as much as possible. The proceeding chapter on biases demonstrates how decision-making can be impacted, while noting that increased training and experience of officials has tempered the effect of external influences, such as crowd presence and player behaviour.

The book is balanced in its review of literature. A good example of this can be found in the chapter regarding the mental health of officials, where it is recognised that a theoretical model to guide interventions to promote well-being in this population would be beneficial but is absent. In the chapter on decision-making bias, the literature review identifies ecological validity as absent in many studies, recommending increased social validation from officials to address this limitation, as well as understanding how effective officials self-regulate emotions, that has been shown to influence decision-making accuracy. Such guidance for future research is justified and valuable to the reader and stakeholders alike. Consequently, the book more than meets its aim of providing guidance and support for those invested in the development of officials. In places, greater specificity could be given to the reader who may wish to apply some of the findings. For example, while team building is recommended for officials in the chapter on group dynamics (an undoubtedly important suggestion), possible approaches that have been successfully applied in performance environments, such as Personal Disclosure and Mutual Sharing (PDMS; Slater, 2019) could have been proposed. Similarly, the final chapter on mental toughness discusses the impact of beliefs on individual resilience and the importance of minimising catastrophic thinking, without recommending a theoretical model (recommended in chapter 10) to guide intervention and support. However, it is without doubt that this volume is needed to assist in the development of sports officials and is the first to explore the officiating landscape beyond the training ground and competition environment. Accessible and comprehensive, this book is a must for all those invested in the development of this demographic at all levels.

Copyright © Stuart Carrington 2024

References

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979).  The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press.

Carrington, S. C., North, J. S., & Brady, A. (2022). Utilising experiential knowledge of elite match officials: Recommendations to improve practice design for football referees. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 53, 242-266.

Cunningham, I., Mergler, J., & Wattie, N. (2022). Training and development in sports officials: A systematic review. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 32, 654-671.

Downward, P., Webb, T., & Dawson, P. (2023). Referee abuse, intention to quit and well-being. Research Quarterly for Exercise & Sport, DOI: 10.1080/02701367.2023.2184459

MacMahon, C., Mascarenhas, D., Plessner, H., Pizzera, A., Oudejans, R., & Raab, M. (2015). Sports officials and officiating: Science and practice. Routledge.

Slater, M. (2019). Togetherness: How to build a winning team. Dark River.

Warner, S., Tingle, J. K., & Kellet. P. (2013). Officiating attrition: The experiences of former referees via a sport development lens. Journal of Sport Management, 27, 316-328.