Attitudes of campus recreational sport employees toward LGBTQ+ participants: does targeting training make an impact?

ABSTRACT This study examined the impact of an LGBTQ+ diversity training on the attitudes of employees within a campus recreational sports setting. Diversity trainings are a common component of inclusive management, but little empirical research examining their efficacy exists. Specifically, a training program consisting of one in-person training session and four monthly inclusion guides detailing the promotion of LGBTQ+ participant inclusion was implemented and evaluated. A retrospective pretest-posttest design measured attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ population for both individuals who underwent the training and a control group of employees who did not participate in the training. Results indicate that there were significant differences in the pre- and post-training aggregated attitudinal sub-scale mean scores reported by campus recreational sports employees after participating in the training and no such differences were reported in the control group. Guided by previous research and pro-diversity theory, this study provides management implications for recreational sporting spaces.