Strengthening referees’ psychological well-being through engagement and authenticity

Engaged employees are able to effectively deal with work demands and flourish. To illuminate the importance of this for referees, this study was designed to examine the relationships among referee retention, authenticity at work, referee engagement, and psychological well-being. The authors recruited 410 currently registered referees in the United States and utilized a structural equation modeling to test a hypothesized research model. The results indicated that administrator consideration, intrinsic motives, sense of community, and authenticity at work positively influenced referee engagement. Both authenticity at work and referee engagement were positively associated with the psychological well-being of referees. This empirical evidence provides new insights on referees’ well-being. Thus, sport managers should consider ways of enhancing engagement and authenticity as well as provide positive officiating experiences to ensure that sport referees flourish.We examined how sports referees’ engagement in officiating and psychological well-being can be strengthened.Three referee retention variables and authenticity at work positively influenced referee engagement.Referee engagement and authenticity at work enhanced their psychological well-being in the interscholastic sport context.This study provides a new perspective on sport referees’ well-being, which can be achieved through positive officiating experiences.