Characterization and Comparison of the Quality Indicators of the Group Exercise Fitness Instructor , Considering the Intervenient , Gender and Age *

Aim: The aim of this study is to characterize and compare the quality indicators of the group exercise fitness instructor, considering the intervenient (owner/general managers; technical managers; trainers; instructors; participants), gender (female; male) and age ( 40 years old). Material and Methods: 100 interviews were applied (32,54 ± 6,36 years old) and, through the content analysis technique, was reached a theoretical categorical model with 25 categories, grouped into 4 general dimensions. After that, the Chi-square test was used to test the frequency with which the sample participants are divided into the groups of the qualitative variable (intervenient, gender and age) is whether or not identical (Maroco, 2010). Results: Considering the intervenient there are significant differences in image (Professional Quality), sympathy (Relational Quality) and fitness level (Technical Quality). In gender, the significant differences are in gaiety, empathy, availability (Relational Quality), fitness level and technical execution (Technical Quality). Finally, in age, there are significant differences in assiduity, dedication (Professional Quality) and in the empathy (Relational Quality) Conclusion: The organizations (gyms) can and should train their employees (fitness instructors), in order to establish behavioral standards, considering the participants characteristics to, by that, increase their satisfaction and loyalty levels.


INTRODUCTION
The group exercise fitness instructor, responsible for providing the service, has an important role in the participants satisfaction and loyalty (Fernández, Carrion, & Ruiz, 2012;Murray & Howat, 2002;Nuviala, Pérez-Ordas, Osuna, Grao-Cruces, Nuviala, & Jurado, 2012;Papadimitriou & Karteroliotis, 2000;Pedragosa & Correia, 2009;Theodorakis, Alexandris, Rodriguez, & Sarmento, 2004).A good instruction, be friendly or well-mannered, causes high satisfaction levels in participants (Theodorakis et al., 2004).On the other hand, an inappropriate behavior (Francis & Seibert, 2000), or not liking of the fitness instructor (Franco, Pereira & Simões, 2008), are reasons, among others, to exercise dropout.The importance of the investigation of the quality indicators of the group exercise fitness instructor is described by Franco et al. (2008), where it is recommended to gyms to implement strategies to reduce participant's exercise dropout and increase loyalty through high satisfaction levels.
The intervenient responsible for human resource management (owners, general managers or technical managers) are sensitive to relational qualities of the instructors who recruit (Mischler, Bauger, Pichot, & Wipf, 2009).Franco, Cordeiro and Cabeçeiras (2004), on a study that analyzed the preferences of participants to an ideal instructor in three different age groups (youth, young adults, and adults), have found that the most highlighted quality indicators were honesty (young), energetic (young adults) and motivation (adults), with significant differences in some indicators.Afthinos, Theodorakis and Nassis (2005), in another investigation, concluded that the preference of male participants is different from the preference of females on cordiality, knowledge and instruction.After literature analysis is possible to conclude that the quality indicators of the fitness instructor differs considering the gender and age of the participants, as it can happen with different types of intervenient (it is expectable and acceptable that the opinion of the participants could be different of the opinion of the managers).It is possible to understand that such opinion has not the same meaning for everyone, and that different intervenient associate different quality indicators to a successful group exercise fitness instructor (Filho, 2000).
By that, the aim of this study is characterize and compare the quality indicators of the group exercise fitness instructor, considering the intervenient, gender and age.The different perspectives of several intervenient (owners and/or general managers, technical managers, trainers, instructors, participants), age groups (<21 years, 21-30 years, 31-40 years, and > 40 years) and genders (male and female) will allow understand the quality concept in this specific context (the fitness group exercise), according to the different groups defined for each investigated variable.

Participants
To better understand instructor-participant relation, Franco Rodrigues and Castañer (2012) suggest applying interviews with the participants to conclude about their preferred instructor behavior.Guerra (2006) suggests the developing of a previously theoretical model, based on the literature, from which it will be defined and organized the dimensions for empirical information collect.The literature was reviewed and was created a theoretical model, which served as basis for designing the interview guide, considering five studies that present results about quality indicators of the group exercise fitness instructor (Batista, Graça & Matos, 2008;Cloes et al., 2001;González, Erquicia, & Gonzalez, 2005;Papadimitriou & Karteroliotis, 2000;Wininger, 2002).A model and an interview guide proposal were sent to two groups of four experts, for construction and validation purposes (Guerra, 2006).
A semi-structured interview with open questions was used, to the respondent have a say freely on the subject under discussion.The interview guide consists of: three closed questions fixed answer (age, gender and type of intervenient), which allows characterizing the respondent; and six open-ended questions, in which it is asked which indicators the respondents associate at the fitness instructor.
Considering the intention to listen different intervenient in the fitness area, to take a complementary perspective, were applied 100 interviews, like the suggested by Hill and Hill (2002), and divided as follows: 50 participants and 20 instructors of group exercise, 10 trainers, 10 technical managers, and 10 owners/general managers.To comply with the diversification principle (Guerra, 2006), have been sounded out instructors and participants of several activities (Aerobics, Resistance Training, Step, Hip Hop, Aquarobics) in different organizations (small-sided rural associations, small/medium-sized gyms, exclusive women's participation gyms, big-sided health clubs), from several geographic Portugal areas (Aveiro, Coimbra, Leiria, Lisbon, Porto), of both genders and from 17 to 66 years old (Table 1).The organizations where data were collected were contacted in advance.After this previous contact, it was sent a formal request for collaboration by mail, demanding cooperation in data collection process.They were informed about the subject and research object, the importance of cooperation, the intended to do (interviews), deadlines, and anonymity in the use and dissemination of the collected information.All the respondents have a voluntarily participation.

Measurements
The opinion of the 100 surveyed respondents allowed, by the statistical technique of content analysis, to draw a theoretical categorical model (Bardin, 2008) identifying 25 (twenty five) categories grouped into 4 (four) dimensions, associated to the quality of the group exercise fitness instructor (Table 2).

Punctuality
Arrives on time, or even before, to prepare the material, confirms that everything is in compliance, and/or receive the participants.
Relational Quality Gaiety Cheerful, funny, smiling person and with a positive sense of humor.

Communication
Use a proper, clear, objective and concise language, making himself understood, and that is assertive in the provided information.Cordiality Educated, courteous and with "good manners".

Availability
Accessible and available to any problems, questions and/or issues.

Empathy
Maintains an affinity, proximity and complicity relation.

Honesty
Sincere, frank, honest and frontal person in their approach.

Humility
Modest, it admits that always learn something more, and that has the ability to accept criticism and rectify their behavior.

Sympathy
Kind, friendly and welcoming, which always greets participants even when he finds them in a different context.

Fitness Level
In "good shape", with an appropriate level of physical skills.

Knowledge
Expertise in the specific fitness area and generally in sports area.

Musical Skills
With rhythmic sense, domination of the music and their beats, combining perfectly the movement with the musical beat.

Technical Execution
Good performer (exercises and postural technique correctly).

Technical Training
High training level, specific in fitness and general in sport sciences, academic or professional, certified, continuous and/or credible.

Innovation
Who innovates, it is therefore unique and creative by diversifying classes, so as not to become repetitive and monotonous.

Planning
Plan the sessions (methodical), having them always well prepared and organized, considering the participants characteristics.
Pedagogical Quality Suitability Fits the intervention according the conditions of the class, having sometimes to adjust and improvise, being flexible and versatile.Energetic Energetic, dynamic, active, and expansive.

Instruction
Who instructs correctly (adequate and relevant), observing the motor execution of the participants and corrects always when is necessary.

Motivation
Who captivates, praises and encourages the participants, motivating them to practice, creating a positive climate in the class.
The intra-coder reliability was tested by Cohen's Kappa, one of the most used (Fonseca, Silva & Silva, 2007).The obtained intra-coder agreement rate (98.51%) is excellent (Fonseca et al., 2007).Was also tested the cross-coder reliability (by comparing the analysis of 10 encoder interviews with the analysis of an expert in the fitness area) and excellent results are also obtained (97.52%).

Analysis of Data
Considering the purpose already presented, the analysis focused initially on the number of interviews, also named number of sources (NS), where each one of the 25 categories (indicators) of quality of the group exercise fitness instructor was coded, according the intervenient, gender and age (descriptive analysis).To complement the discussion, is presented the partial percentage (P%) of the NS coded by category, comparing to the number of respondents of each study group.In addition, a second analysis was intended to compare the different groups of each variable, within each one of the 25 categories.
The Chi-square test was used to test whether two or more independent groups of a variable differ in a particular characteristic.In other words, test the frequency with which the sample participants are divided into the categories of the qualitative variable is whether or not identical (Maroco, 2010).This test is suitable for the analysis but can only be applied in some conditions: n > 20; there is at least one source indicating the category analysis for all variable groups; and be at least 5 sources in 80% of the links between the category and the variable groups.Not upon the fulfillment of these preconditions, as an alternative, Maroco (2010) suggests the Monte Carlo simulation techniques or the calculation of the p value by Fisher's exact test.Such as Monte Carlo simulation cannot be applied when there are only two groups (males and females) when it was not possible to use the Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test was applied.The analysis was performed using IBM SPSS software, for significance level of 5%.

DISCUSSION
Considering the aim of this study (characterization and comparison of quality indicators of the group exercise fitness instructor, by intervenient, gender and age), for the intervenient, the owners/general managers (sympathy, image, and technical training), technical managers (empathy, motivation, and sympathy), trainers (image, instruction, communication, availability, experience, and ethics), instructors (punctuality, dedication, technical trainer, and honesty) and participants (technical training) emphasize different indicators (categories) of quality associated to the successful fitness instructor.In gender, the male respondents (dedication, knowledge, and technical execution) privileges also different indicators when compared with female (humility, punctuality, planning, technical training, availability, assiduity, fitness level, and innovation).Finally, in the age, and like in the other variables, younger respondents give primacy to dedication, energetic, motivation and humility (<21 years) and assiduity (21-30 years).By it, is possible to confirm that the quality perception is different, according to the study variables, as indicated by Afthinos et al. (2005), Campos, Simões andFranco (2015), Cloes et al. (2001) Franco et al. (2004) and Gonçalves, Correia and Diniz (2012).
The exclusive gyms for women provide them larger freedom to express their own body dissatisfaction or being less exposed to body clothing patterns and/or make-up (Frazão & Coelho-Filho, 2015).For those differences in gender, for example, in some investigations in the fitness area, women are studied considering their specific characteristics (Bastug, Özcan, Gültekin, & Günay, 2016).These examples express the importance of this study, aiming the adequacy of the service to the specific characteristics of different participants (gender or age, for example).This is extremely relevant because, as referred in Junior, Gobbi and Teixeira (2013), in addition to the excellence and competence of the instrutor, it is important that he have the knowledge of himself, participants and environment.The establishment and strengthening of positive interpersonal relations are indicated in Moutão, Alves Monteiro and Cid (2015) as one of the "keys" that should be developed to keep motivated the different participants.
In the comparison, according to the type of intervenient, there are significant differences according to: the image (Professional Quality), evidenced by the owners/general managers (90%) and trainers (90%) and less valorized by the participants (50%) (64% of all respondents refer this category); the sympathy (Relational Quality), evidenced by owners/general managers (100%) and technical managers (100%) and less valorized by trainers (60%) (77% of all respondents refer this category); and the fitness level (Technical Quality), not mentioned by owners/general managers and trainers (0%), but emphasized by the technical managers (40%) (25% of all respondents refer this category).In according to the gender there are significant differences in: gaiety, empathy (Relational Quality), and technical execution (Technical Quality), more evidenced by the male respondents (respectively, 65%, 87% and 54%) (54%, 73% and 41% of all respondents refer these categories); the availability (Relational Quality) and fitness level (Technical Quality), referenced most by female respondents (respectively 48% and 35%) (36% and 25% of all respondents refer these categories).Finally, in age, significant differences occur in: assiduity (Professional Quality), much reported by 21-30 years respondents (48%) and less valued in > 40 years respondents (7%) (27% of all respondents refer this category); dedication (Professional Quality), evidenced by <21 years old respondents (100%) (55% of all respondents refer this category); and empathy (Relational Quality), very emphasized by the <21 years (88%) and the 21-30 years (88%) respondents (73% of all respondents refer this category).It should be noted that these results supported the methodological decision to collect data in a heterogeneous sample, as indicated by Guerra (2006), for a better sense and knowledge of what is effectively the quality concept in fitness group exercise.
Knowing that, in general, the service quality attributes and well-being in a gym have a positive effect on the recommended intentions of the participants (Gonçalves, Biscaia, Correia, & Diniz, 2014), and that a negative emotion experienced by the participants impacts negatively overall satisfaction while positive emotion have a positive effect on overall satisfaction (Pedragosa, Biscaia, & Correia, 2015), this results must be considered.A gym manager (general or technical) have to collect the participants perception of the service, listen their opinions and provide regular training to staff members, in order to increased levels of overall satisfaction (Pedragosa, Biscaia, & Correia, 2015).Have also to create a pleasant environment and provide a personalized service considering the participants goals, in order to improve the well-being feeling in the gym (Gonçalves, Biscaia, Correia, & Diniz, 2014).

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
Identifying what participants want (Kim & Kim, 1995) through interviews with themselves, and what is their perception of quality of the group exercise fitness instructor, according to the gender or age, among others variables, will allow that the instructor suits its intervention in order to achieve the expected and preferred by the participants (consumers and evaluators of the provided service).In another prism, is also important to know the opinion of general managers (Johnson, Gustafsson, Andreasson, Lervick, & Cha, 2001), owners and technical managers (the intervenient involved in the management, direction and technical supervision process), persons with high levels of responsibility with the hiring of human resources and/or implementing an organizational "culture" that stimulate some behaviors in the organization.The opinion of trainers is also relevant as other intervenient because they are responsible for the technical training process (one of the indicators referred by all the 100 intervenient consulted).The knowledge of the quality indicators more emphasized by the participants, allows to the trainers "teach" the instructors considering that knowledge.That is very important because the service must be directed to the consumers of the service (the participants), allowing thereby increase their satisfaction and loyalty levels (Theodorakis et al., 2004).
Considering the perspective presented by Grönroos (2000) and Reid and Sanders (2007), organizations (gyms) can and should: train their employees (instructors) in order to establish behavioral standards in the service provision process; and measure their customers (participants) satisfaction levels through quality assessment tools (interviews and/or questionnaires, for example) and/or a system of collecting suggestions and complaints.By that, and knowing beforehand the importance of assessing the service through interviews and/or questionnaires to the consumers, is proposed in future works to build and validate a questionnaire for assessing the quality of the group exercise fitness instructor, providing an instrument that responds to the recommendations of Grönroos (2000) and Reid and Sanders (2007).

Table 2 .
Dimensions and categories (indicators)of quality of the group exercise fitness instructors ImageWith a nice look and good appearance, including the hygiene and/or clothing, appropriate to the context and participants characteristics.

Table 3 .
Number of sources (NS) and percentage value (P%) per categories: Intervenient

Table 4 .
Number of sources (NS) and percentage value (P%) per categories: Gender

Table 5 .
Number of sources (NS) and percentage value (P%) per categories: Age

Table 6 .
Significance level according the Intervenient, Gender and Age