Workplace harassment in football referees

Abstract

Workplace harassment is very common in the working world. The main study objectives were to analyse whether football referees suffer harassment and if sex differences exist. The sample consisted of 183 referees from Andalusia, 94 women and 89 men. The Generalized Workplace Harassment Questionnaire (GWHQ) was used to assess workplace harassment behaviours. The results showed that most subjects had experienced workplace harassment at least once. Sex differences were seen in verbal hostility, covert hostility, manipulation, and physical hostility items. Men achieved the highest scores. Finally, age was significantly correlated with covert hostility, manipulation, and physical hostility so that the older the age, the higher the score in these factors. On the other hand, years of experience in the current category were shown to be significantly related with covert hostility and manipulation factors. In conclusion, it may be stated that men, as compared to women, recognize greater workplace harassment in the form of manipulation and physical hostility. In all other factors (verbal hostility, covert hostility, covert sexual harassment), although the sample indicates that harassment exists, as suggested by the mean score recorded, no sex differences were detected.