Examining the Relationship Among Miles and Snow's Strategic Types and Measures of Organizational Effectiveness in NCAA Division I Athletic Departments

Abstract

Miles and Snow's typology of strategic types — prospectors, defenders, analyzers, and reactors — was used to identify different organizational strategies within intercollegiate athletics in the United States. Specifically, in order to examine the relationship between strategy and organizational outcomes, namely, (a) athletic achievement, (b) student-athlete graduation rates, and (c) compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Division I athletic directors ( N = 172) were surveyed by mail. The majority of the departments (55.8%) used an analyzer strategy. Analyses indicated that prospector departments had the best athletic achievement, prospector and defender departments had higher graduation rates than analyzers, and defender departments were most compliant with Title IX. Results demonstrate the importance of examining the multidimensional nature of organizational effectiveness in relation to organizational strategy.