Job satisfaction and job commitment of Greek tennis, table-tennis and badminton coaches

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate job satisfaction and job commitment of coaches of the three major racket sports in Greek tennis, table-tennis and badminton. One hundred and ten (N = 110) tennis (NT= 61), table-tennis (NTT = 31) and badminton (NB = 18) coaches responded to the Coach Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ), an eleven-factor instrument which assesses coaches’ job satisfaction and to the Occupational-Organizational Commitment Scale, a six factor questionnaire which evaluates the different forms of occupational and organizational commitment. Forty six of the coaches were full-time (NFT = 46) whereas of the rest, sixty four were part-time (NPT = 64). The results of a series of t-tests, ANOVAs and correlation analyses revealed various significant differences and relationships. Some of the most important are that: a) tennis coaches and full-time coaches were more satisfied in most of the job satisfaction dimensions, b) significant correlations were noticed between “job satisfaction” and “organizational commitment” variables, c) “autonomy”, was a predictor of “organizational affective commitment”, d) “satisfaction with coaching job” was the unique predictor of occupational affective and “occupational normative commitment” and e) “team performance” was the only predictor of “occupational continuance commitment”. Most of the results are in accordance with the existing job satisfaction literature however, further research is needed on human relation practices of National Federations and/or sport clubs associated with them, in order to have a better understanding of how certain practices and policies lead to higher levels of job satisfaction, organizational and occupational commitment among racket sport coaches.