Leadership literature suggests that positive organizational culture is a key to effective organizational and individual performance. The leader plays an important role in the organization and how its culture is created and managed. Sport management researchers have also shown a positive relationship with leadership and culture in sport organizations. The purpose of this research was to gain insight regarding the impact of leadership on organizational culture at NCAA Division III institutions a context otherwise ignored in the literature.
Method
Questionnaires were distributed to 100 NCAA Division III athletic directors and 8 of her or his coaches. The overall response rate was 45%, which included 62 athletic directors and 341 coaches. The sample selected for this study, however, needed to consist of an athletic director and at least two coaches from the same institution. Fifty-four athletic departments met this criterion for a final sample of athletic directors and coaches. The instrument measured perceptions of athletic director leadership behaviors through the Leadership Practices Inventory, developed by Posner and Kouzes, that was given to athletic directors and coaches. Organizational culture was measured by the OCTAPACE Profile, which measures ethos (the fundamental character or spirit of a culture) and was only given to the coaches.
Analysis/Results
Multiple regression analysis revealed leadership as a significant predictor of ethos, explaining 52.1% of the variance. Inspiring a Shared Vision had a significant negative relationship with Authenticity, indicating that coaching staffs may have difficulty obtaining a shared vision with the athletic director regarding the athletic department. Modeling the Way surfaced as having strong relationships with three OCTAPACE subcategories, Proaction, Authenticity, and Trust. This could be an indication of how important setting a good example or being a good role model is for athletic directors.
Conclusions
The findings from the coaches' data set and the combined data set are encouraging for athletic directors as managerial leaders because it indicates that their behavior does influence the organizational culture, more specifically, ethos. It also supports the literature that leadership has a positive relationship wit organizational culture. Future research could focus on leadership development within the athletic departments. It would be prudent for NCAA Division III athletic directors to analyze their leadership behaviors regarding their athletic departments to see if personal improvements could be made for the enhancement of the institution.