Scheduled for Research Consortium Sport Management, Recreation and Leisure Poster Session, Friday, April 28, 2006, 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall Poster Area I


Goal Orientation and Job Satisfaction of College Coaches

James Pryor, Arizona Western College, Yuma, AZ and Jessica Daw, Northern State University, Aberdeen, SD

Collegiate coaching is an occupation that in many instances is highly visible, and coaches make up many of the employees in intercollegiate athletic programs. Recognizing that avoiding coach turnover is beneficial to an athletic program, in terms of both team consistency and the costs associated with searching for new coaches, and that previous research has identified a negative correlation between job satisfaction and coaching turnover (e.g., Meyer & Allen, 1997), Chelladura and Ogasawara (2003) highlight the importance of focusing on coach's job satisfaction in the retention of coaches. Thus, the purpose of this project was to examine coaching satisfaction. More specifically, this project used achievement goal theory as a framework, and sought to determine if a relationship exists between achievement goal orientations and job satisfaction among college coaches. Although previous research has established a positive correlation between task orientation and satisfaction among athletes (e.g., King & Williams, 1997; White, Duda, & Keller, 1998), no previous research has investigated the possibility of this relationship among coaches. Head, assistant, and graduate assistant coaches (n=238) of all sports from universities and colleges in South Dakota were sent the survey via e-mail. Sixty-six complete replies assessing goal orientations and level of job satisfaction were received (response rate = 29.4%). Thirty-eight of the respondents were at NCAA Division II and III schools, while 28 were at NAIA schools. The gender breakdown was 13% females, and 87% males. Age was collected through ordinal data, and 38.8% were in the 22-28 range, 25.3% in the 29-35 range, 13.4% in the 36-42 range, 8.9% in both the 43-49 and the 50-56 ranges, and 4.4% were older than 56. Job satisfaction was measured with the Minnesota Short Form Satisfaction Survey (Weiss, Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1967), while goal orientations were measured through a modified Perceptions of Success Questionnaire (POSQ, Roberts & Balague, 1989). The modification consisted of the stem being changed from “When playing sports, I feel most successful when…,” to “When coaching athletes and teams, I feel most successful when…” Results indicated a significant relationship between task orientation and job satisfaction (r=.252, p=.041), while no significant relationship existed between ego orientation and job satisfaction (r=, .078, p=.535). While exploratory in nature, these findings are promising, as they suggest that perhaps through goal orientation education and task orientation activation, coaches may find greater satisfaction with their job, thus reducing coach turnover.
Keyword(s): administration/mgmt, coaching, college level issues

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