The organizational identification and well-being framework: theorizing about how sport organizations contribute to crisis response and recovery

During crises, sport organizations are said to play an important social role by facilitating community recovery; however, the literature lacks an overarching theoretical framework to explain how. Drawing on the social identity approach, we argue sport organizations can enhance well-being during crises to the extent that they foster shared identification among current and potential members. The Organizational Identification and Well-being Framework reflects this assertion, illustrating leadership functions to create an organization’s in-group identity that satisfies the needs of members in response to a crisis. It further outlines the SPRInT (Social support, Purpose and meaning, Relatedness, In-group norms, and Trust) pathways, which mediate the effect of organizational identification on member well-being. Our framework extends prior work examining organizational-level antecedents of identification with a sport organization by considering how identity leadership functions may foster organizational identification for individuals both internal and external to the organization. Moreover, it demonstrates how sport organizations may lead shared responses to address community needs and contribute to population well-being.Our framework helps sport organizations respond to crises.Sport organizations contribute to well-being in crises by fostering identification.Identity leadership is crucial to (re)define in-group identities in relation to crises.Identification with sport organizations increases psychological resources.Resilience and consensus about crisis response form contextual factors.