Organizational commitment (OC) is a key antecedent variable impacting on employees’ behaviors and decision to stay the organization (Akroyd, Jackowski & Legg, 2007). Only a few of studies regarding intercollegiate athletics directors (ADs) of NCAA member institutions and OC have been conducted (e.g., Andrew, Kim, Todd, & Stoll, 2011; Kent & Chelladurai, 2001; Richardson-Touson, 2011). Therefore, this research was designed to explore the perceptions of OC of ADs of member institutions of the FCS and the non-football institutions of NCAA Division I.
Method:
Data were collected by means of a mailed questionnaire with two sections: Section I contained 17 items about the three components of OC: affective commitment (AC, 7 items), normative commitment (NC, 5 items), and continuance commitment (CC, 5 items) based on the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Meyer & Allen, 1997). Section II contained items for collecting demographic data. A total of 131 ADs out of 215 completed survey and returned the questionnaire (60.9% response rate; n=75 in FCS, n=56 in non-football institutions).
Analysis/Results:
Data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 20. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed three dimensional model of the commitment and internal consistencies (i.e., Cronbach’s α) of each dimension was .82 (affective), .79 (normative) and .72 (continuance). A series of one-way ANOVAs were performed to investigate the effect of race, gender, generational age, alumni status, and types of institutions of ADs on the level of AC, NC, and CC. Significant group differences were found in AC by types of institutions [F(1, 123) = 16.180, p < .001] and alumni status [F(1, 123) = 9.351, p < .01]. Specifically, ADs working in private institutions (M = 42.94, SD = 5.17) reported higher level of AC than ADs in public universities (M = 38.37, SD = 7.04) and alums (M = 43.88, SD = 4.99) had strong AC than non-alums (M = 39.46, SD = 6.77). Regards to NC, there was a statistically significant group difference at the p < .01 level by alumni status [F(1, 124) = 7.412, p < .01]. Alums (M = 26.23, SD = 5.78) had higher level of NC than non-alums (M = 22.43, SD = 6.48).
Conclusions:
The current investigation cannot offer definite conclusions, however, it does imply the ADs of NCAA Division I generally identified with relatively higher levels of affective and normative commitment. Additionally, types of institutions and alumni status were factors causing differences of commitment of ADs.