Athletic Directors Research Articles

The socially effective leader: Exploring the relationship between athletic director political skill and coach commitment and job satisfaction

Previous sport management research has demonstrated the positive relationship between political skill and personal career outcomes, but research addressing the question of how leader social effectiveness (i.e. political skill) influences the commitment and satisfaction of subordinates is lacking. This study sought to determine if leader (athletic director) political skill influences subordinate (head coach) evaluations of leader effectiveness, in turn influencing subordinate job satisfaction and commitment. Surveys were completed by interscholastic athletic directors ( n = 250) and representative subsets of head coaches ( n = 806) in the United States. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Political skill was shown to have a positive impact on evaluations of leader effectiveness. Leader effectiveness also acts as a mediator between political skill and employee job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Thus, political skill appears to be an important contributor to subordinate perceptions of leadership effectiveness, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.

Did college radio station violate coach's contract?

The plaintiff became the head women's basketball coach and assistant athletic director at Northland College in 2009.

Gain insight into preparing to manage legal, compliance issues of college esports

If you think competitive video gaming doesn't belong within the world of collegiate athletics, it just might be time for you to reconsider the way you define sports — or risk more than just failing to keep up with the times. In fact, varsity esports programs have already become established at more than 100 colleges and universities — a number that's experienced rapid and steady growth. Although some colleges and universities choose to establish esports as a club housed in student activities, other programs come under the purview of college athletics directors. And colleges and universities continue to invest an increasing amount in esports, including scholarships and aid, recruiting, coaches, tournaments, and stadium development.

If You Must Cut Athletes from School Sports Teams, Consider Best Practices

Previous and current literature tends to overlook the practice of deselecting, or “cutting,” athletes from school sport teams. In particular, the perspectives of those directly involved in the cutting process have been largely unexplored in research studies, and the practice of cutting has not been addressed in terms of which methods are best for the athletes involved. This article aims to provide an understanding of the practice of cutting from the perspectives of teacher-coaches, parents and athletes. The authors explored cutting practices and perspectives; the physical, social and emotional effect on athletes; and strategies for best practice. This process involved surveying and interviewing teacher-coaches and athletic directors, as well as interviewing student-athletes who had been cut and their parents — all with a goal to further understand the varied perspectives and effects of cutting as a practice. Finally, for those coaches who have to cut athletes from their teams, best practices will be shared. These clear and concise strategies and examples will help coaches and athletes cope with what are often difficult decisions for all involved.

Support, preparation key to successful leadership

To stretch a tight budget, Ingrid Wicker McCree, Ed.D., director of athletics at North Carolina Central University, continuously looks for creative and innovative strategies. It helps that she has surrounded herself with “really strong, really competent” staff members who know how to maximize resources, increase revenue, and manage the department's budget, she said.

Coaches Who Care: Moral Exemplars in Collegiate Athletics

This study examines moral exemplar coaches to better understand how they are able to maintain integrity in the high-stakes environment of NCAA Division-I college sport. In-depth interviews based on moral exemplar and moral identity development theories were conducted with peer-nominated, “moral exemplar” Division-I collegiate head coaches (n = 12). Interviews elicited themes of moral exemplarity, including, for example, having an internalized moral compass and engaging in ongoing personal and professional growth. Illuminating themes and mechanisms by which these coaches develop and sustain moral identity can inform applied work with coach education efforts for current and future members of the profession.Lay Summary:This study looks at coaches who are known by their peers and athletic directors as having strong morals and integrity despite the challenges they face balancing the competing values of fostering athlete well-being with winning while working in the highly competitive environment of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I athletics.

Marketing College Sports Teams – A Portfolio Approach

The case involves an athletic director at a fictitious mid-sized university (Northwestern Midwest College) who is thinking about how to enhance the productivity of the investments in the various sports programs on his campus. Using concepts from marketing, this athletic director develops a series of ideas, which could be used to reshape the allocation of resources within the athletic division at his university. Faced with the need to effectively manage enrollments, endowments and the branding of their institutions, colleges and universities are looking to successful sports programs as one way to further differentiate their institution in the marketplace. For smaller and some medium-sized institutions, it is becoming increasingly difficult to field a cadre of successful sports programs which both generate both positive revenues and national exposure for the institution. As a result, some of these schools are beginning to think more critically about the portfolio of sports teams which represent the institution, in an effort to increase the efficacy of those institutional investments.

College athletics directors’ attitudes toward spectator aggression

ABSTRACTIn 2008, former President of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Myles Brand expressed serious concern about college sport spectator aggression. More specifically, Brand asserted that many sport administrators may be “looking the other way” when confronted by spectator aggression. As a result, the following study was conducted to assess university athletic directors’ attitudes toward various form of spectator aggression using the Sport Spectator Attitude Scale (SSAS). Overall, results showed that athletic directors were unsupportive of spectator aggression. However, there were a couple of exceptions based on responses to items #2 and #7. These particular responses suggest that some, if not many athletic directors, may need to increase their understanding and valuing of sportsmanship and ethical behavior. Additional implications from the results are discussed.

Athletic Directors’ Perceptions Regarding the Value of Employing Athletic Trainers in the Secondary School Setting

Athletic Directors’ Perceptions Regarding the Value of Employing Athletic Trainers in the Secondary School Setting

Enhancing the Fan Experience at Live Sporting Events: The Case of Stadium Wi-Fi

While live sport event attendance remains a pervasive and progressing issue for university athletic programs, athletic directors should consider strategies to boost perceptions of stadium innovativeness. Professional sport leagues have pursued the adoption of Wi-Fi capabilities much more aggressively than their collegiate sport counterparts. This case introduces the Wi-Fi adoption issue for collegiate sport including a conversation surrounding the foundational technical aspects of Wi-Fi and cellular data for sport venues, the current status of Wi-Fi for collegiate athletics in comparison with professional leagues, and the benefits and drawbacks of Wi-Fi adoption. Case participants are asked to evaluate the merits of Wi-Fi adoption for a “Power Five” institution from the position of the athletic director. Participants will address adopting functional technology for the rise in college esports, Wi-Fi inclusion for indoor and outdoor venues, and comparative analyses among connected and disconnected stadiums.

Improving Concussion-Reporting Behavior in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Players: Evidence for the Applicability of the Socioecological Model for Athletic Trainers.

Few researchers have examined the views of important stakeholders in football student-athletes' spheres of influence and whether their views map well in a systems approach to understanding concussion-reporting behavior (CRB). To examine the extent to which stakeholders' beliefs about what influences football players' CRBs reflect system-level influences that go beyond individual-level factors. Qualitative study. Four National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I university athletic programs. A total of 26 individuals (athletic directors = 5, athletic trainers [ATs] = 10, football coaches = 11). Semistructured interviews with stakeholders were transcribed and analyzed using the socioecological model according to the Miles and Huberman coding methods. Stakeholders largely identified individual-level factors (attitudes), followed by exosystem-level factors (university policies and support for ATs), with fewer microsystem- and mesosystem-level factors (coach influence and communication between coaches and ATs, respectively) and almost no macrosystem-level factors (media influence, cultural norms about aggression and toughness in football). Promising evidence indicates growing stakeholder awareness of the importance of exosystem-level factors (eg, medical personnel and CRB policies) in influencing CRB rates. However, frontline stakeholders and policy makers may benefit from practices that bridge these influences (eg, coach involvement and communication), allowing for a more integrated approach to influence student-athletes' willingness to improve their CRBs.

Just How Competitive Are We? Managing Organizational Culture in a Canadian University Athletics Department

Christiaan Jacobs is the new Dean of Student Affairs at the University of South Central Ontario, which puts him in charge of the Department of Athletics and Recreation. Jacobs has learned that the hypercompetitive environment established by the athletic director, Nathan Scott, has been causing friction in many areas of the department, potentially resulting in the resignation of several long-term employees. As part of an organizational audit, he interviewed many employees and had them complete the Competing Values Framework questionnaire, the results of which were troubling. How should Jacobs lead this department forward and can he count on Scott to be supportive of the direction that he wants it to go? The purpose of this case is to introduce students to the importance of organizational culture and challenges to organizational change. Students will learn about the Competing Values Framework, change management, and have the opportunity to analyze qualitative and quantitative data in formulating responses to the case-guiding questions. This decision-focused case is suitable for use with upper division undergraduate and graduate sport management students in courses such as Organizational Behavior, Strategic Management, Collegiate Athletics Administration, and Critical Issues in Sport.

Factors Affecting Student Persistence into Athletic Training Programs

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that contribute to student persistence and gauge prospective athletic training students' perceptions of experiences that contributed to their persistence. Method: The Athletic Training Student Persistence-Revised Survey was developed to gather data about program attributes, social, academic, clinical integration, and program commitment. Institutional demographics, program demographics, and program attributes were collected during interviews. Surveys were administered online through SurveyMonkey. Survey data were returned anonymously by designated contact persons (Athletic Training Program Directors or Clinical Education Coordinators) for all freshmen prospective athletic training students enrolled in the athletic training introductory course/s. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric differences and correlations were calculated. The inductive process was used in coding open-ended data. Results: The Mann Whitney U test and Spearman Rho analysis demonstrated significant results. Program attributes along with clinical integration had the weakest correlations (r = -0.36 and r = -0.32, respectively), while academic integration and program commitment had the strongest (r = -0.58 and r = -0.76, respectively). No predictive variables were found. Qualitatively, persisters and non-persisters managed the pre-application period differently. Additionally, the rapport between athletes and athletic trainers serving as preceptors, the relationships between prospective athletic training students and extant athletic training students, and the mentorship displayed by athletic training students were all contributors to persistence. Conclusions: Communication between the athletic training program director and prospective athletic training students is vital, but the core of the study revealed that what transpires during clinical observation hours, within the introductory course/s, between athletic trainers and athletes, and between athletic training students/preceptors and prospective athletic training students are of even greater importance. The findings demonstrated that decisions to persist are the result of all parties and components associated with the athletic training program, not just one.

Athletic Training Student Perspectives on Spirituality and Spiritual Care in Clinical Practice: A Pilot Study

Context Spirituality is an important component of holistic health care. While attitudes of athletic training program directors and clinicians toward spirituality are documented, the attitudes and practices of athletic training students are unknown. Objective To describe the beliefs and behaviors of athletic training students regarding spirituality and spiritual care. Design Repeated measures cohort. Setting Online survey. Patients or Other Participants All athletic training students (n = 33) enrolled in an accredited athletic training program at a private religiously affiliated university were invited to participate. The response rate was 78.8% (males = 7, females = 19, age = 20.3 ± 2.1). Intervention(s) An email invitation to complete the online survey was sent in September and April of the same academic year. The online survey included demographic data, the Spiritual Perspectives Scale (SPS), modified Spiritual Care Perspectives Scale (mSCPS), and modified Spiritual Care Therapeutics Scale (mSCTS). Main Outcome Measure(s) Level of agreement on the mSCPS items and therapeutic action frequency on the mSCTS were recorded and compared between fall and spring using paired t tests. For both scales, all item averages were organized from lowest to highest. SPS summary score was calculated. Results The mSCPS items with the highest and lowest agreement, respectively, were “Relationships with others are important to patient's spiritual health” and “Spiritual care is only for religious persons.” The mSCTS items with the highest and lowest frequencies, respectively, were “After completing a task, remained present just to show caring” and “Offered to pray with a patient.” Only 3 mSCPS items changed significantly over time, whereas 8 mSCTS items changed significantly (all P < .05). The SPS did not change over time (P = .848; fall = 4.74 ± 0.96, spring = 4.73 ± 0.87). Conclusions Athletic training students in this pilot study believe that spirituality is an important part of health care; however, athletic training students preferred items in which patients took the lead in raising spiritual issues. Therapeutic actions that support a patient's spiritual well-being without being openly religious were preferred.

Did college radio station violate coach's contract?

The plaintiff became the head women's basketball coach and assistant athletic director at Northland College in 2009. Four years later, Northland investigated a Title IX complaint alleging that the plaintiff had made inappropriate comments to females, and decided it wasn't credible. In the fall, the plaintiff became Northland's full‐time AD.

Texas Sport Leadership Consultants, LLC: A Case of Cases

This immersive, multi-case experience consists of four distinct cases and one meta-case that require students to engage with several organizational behavior topics. First, the meta-case takes the form of Texas Sport Leadership Consultants (TSLC), a fictitious company which consults with local sport management professionals in a variety of contexts. Students participate as temporary members of the company to analyze the issues and challenges associated with working as a member of TSLC. TSLC work groups are hired by four different clients, each of whom has a unique organizational behavior challenge. These clients include: (1) a combat-oriented sport company; (2) a company that provides luxury sport experiences for business travelers; (3) Division II athletic directors; and (4) a minor league hockey team. The clients face challenges related to mission and vision, group dynamics, change leadership, and power and politics. Student groups analyze the case and provide recommendations, which are presented as the basis for discussion among TSLC colleagues.

Finding a Healthy Balance: Managerial Considerations Regarding the Work–Life Interface of Interns and Graduate Assistants Working in Collegiate Sport

Craig Johnson is an associate athletic director for marketing and promotions in an athletic department at the collegiate level. Through conversation, he has recently realized that the graduate students working in his department as interns and graduate assistants feel that balancing work, school, and a personal life is impossible. As a mentor for working in sport, as well as their direct manager, he feels something must be done to assist these graduate students in managing the work–life interface, but is unsure where to start. Drawing from research in sport management and from the general management literature, the case gives insight into the issues, outcomes, and theories that inform the work–life interface. Undergraduate and graduate students in human resource management or organizational behavior courses who work through this case will have an opportunity to contemplate, discuss, and develop strategies for managing the issues surrounding balancing work and a personal life.

Kansas Athletics: Fumbling on Football

This case focuses on the University of Kansas football program’s fall from relevance over a nine-year period and the personnel decisions that were made as it happened. The case provides a background on the competitive landscape of intercollegiate athletics, including the importance of conference affiliation, the associated revenues that stem from such affiliations, and the potential threat of conference realignment to demonstrate the importance of a competitive football program. The case then walks the reader through football-related personnel decisions, providing detailed backgrounds of the coaches to identify job-market signals and assess their fit with the job and organization. Details of raises and contract extensions made by the outgoing chancellor and incumbent athletic director are also provided to examine performance standards within Kansas Athletics. As a change in university leadership takes place, the reader is asked to consider what actions, if any, the incoming chancellor should take to turn around a struggling football program and ensure a viable athletic department.

Emergency Preparedness of Secondary School Athletic Programs in Arizona.

Schools that sponsor athletic programs have an obligation to provide a safe environment with appropriate policies for addressing emergencies. To describe the emergency preparedness of secondary schools in Arizona specific to emergency action plans (EAPs), cardiac arrest, concussion, and heat illness. Cross-sectional study. Online survey. Athletic directors from 143 Arizona secondary schools (response rate = 54%). A 6-section survey that included questions related to athletic trainer (AT) access, EAPs, automated external defibrillators (AEDs), concussion, heat illness, and other policies. Descriptive statistics were reported. Comparisons of responses between schools with and without AT access were conducted with Mann-Whitney U tests. Most respondents (81%, n = 116) indicated their school had access to an AT, and 95% (n = 125) of respondents reported their school had a written EAP. The AEDs were available at most (93%, n = 121) schools. All respondents were familiar with the interscholastic concussion policy, and 98% (n = 123) indicated they had a school-specific policy. Almost all respondents (99%, n = 121) reported being familiar with the state heat-illness policy. Environmental measures were taken before practices at 48% (n = 60) of schools. Schools with access to an AT were more likely to have an EAP, venue-specific EAPs, physician approval of EAPs, AEDs, heat-illness policies, and cold-water immersion tubs and to take environmental measures. Whereas the majority of schools reported AT access, not all schools had adequate EAPs in place. Schools would benefit from educational opportunities regarding best practices and policy development to improve emergency preparedness.

A Collective Case Study of African American Male Athletic Directors’ Leadership Approaches to Diversity in College Sport

The primary purpose of this research was to garner an understanding of how African American male athletic directors manage diversity and inclusion in their college athletic departments. The authors conducted a collective qualitative case study of two major university athletic departments that each had an African American male athletic director. The authors conducted interviews, took field notes, and analyzed relevant documents/artifacts, all of which served as data sources. Results indicate these leaders viewed diversity and inclusion as (a) increasing racial and gender minority representation in leadership positions and (b) utilizing this diversity as a mechanism for role modeling and mentoring. Differences between the leaders also emerged, as one explicitly focused on conducting an organizational analysis and on making diversity training mandatory for all employees, while the other did not engage in these activities. The authors discuss contributions to the literature and future directions for research.