Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2010

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department (Legacy)

Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Human Resource Education

Committee Chair

Hums, Mary A.

Author's Keywords

Intercollegiate athletics; Organizational justice; Job satisfaction; Organizational commitment

Subject

Coaches (Athletics); College sports

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship among organizational justice components, overall job satisfaction, and organizational commitment within the intercollegiate athletics setting. Perceptions of three organizational justice components (procedural, distributive, and interactional), overall job satisfaction, and organizational commitment were gathered from head and assistant coaches of NCAA Division I and III baseball, men's basketball, and wrestling programs. Findings indicated the following: (a) significant interactional effects were found between sport type and NCAA Division, (b) a significant interactional effect was found between sport type and job title, (c) no significant differences were present on perceptions of overall job satisfaction or organizational commitment, (d) different organizational justice components contributed uniquely to predicting both overall job satisfaction and organizational commitment among all sport types, and (e) while sport type did not significantly moderate the relationship between distributive justice and overall job satisfaction, marginal means plots did indicate interactions to be present. The discussion of the findings centers on three points. First, perceptions of organizational justice components among male sport coaches predict overall job satisfaction and organizational commitment differently. While the focus of intercollegiate athletics typically hovers around the topic of resource distribution, the present study found perceptions of overall job satisfaction and organization commitment of non-revenue-generating coaches is predicated by procedural and interactional justice. Second, interactional justice was supported as an independent component of organizational justice in the sport setting. Athletic decision makers have the ability to change perceptions of fairness with little organizational change. However, challenges do exists as some athletic decision makers do not have the ability to change their interactional approach. Finally, sport type did interact in the relationship between organizational justice and both overall job satisfaction and organizational commitment. This finding challenges athletic decision makers to seek the use of decision making models that affect all sport types in a positive manner. Suggestions for practical application by athletic department decision makers, including: (a) focus on interactions with coaches, (b) develop a scoring or tracking system of organizational justice components, and (c) segment sports based on revenue generation. Finally, the present study provides three suggestions for future research: (a) expand the literature of interactional justice, (b) further define of sport type based on revenue generation, and (c) examine these variables outside of intercollegiate athletics.

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