Organizational Commitment in Sports Clubs

Abstract

It is thought that the sustainability of organizations is closely related to the fact that management levels have up-to-date knowledge specific to their respective fields and their ability to conduct their activities in the best possible way. It is believed that what creates the power of this focal point is the sense of belonging to the institutions. The aim of this study is to determine the level of organizational commitment of managers in sports clubs through seven different variables. In this study, the Meyer–Allen (1984) organizational commitment scale was used. The translation of this scale was compared to several scale translations, and no difference in meaning was observed. The scale consists of 18 questions with three sub-dimensions, namely emotional commitment, continuity dependence, and normative commitment. Questions 1–6 were related to emotional commitment, 7–12 dealt with continuation commitment, and 13–18 dealt with normative commitment. The scale is structured according to 5-point Likert scale. While preparing the personal information, support was provided by psychosocial academicians of sports. The study sample involved eleven sport managers from the Super League clubs, eleven from the first league teams, nine from the second league teams, nine from the third league teams, fifteen from the Regional Amateur League (RAL) league teams, and nineteen from the amateur sports clubs. Thus, a total of 74 sports managers participated in the survey. The surveys were constructed in the sports club buildings and in the presence of the managers. The questionnaires were conducted by the footballers who were serving in the sampled clubs. The SPSS 21 package program was used to analyze the data obtained. The Explore test, Mann–Whitney U test, and the Kruskal–Wallis test were employed for the analyses of the variables. At the end of these analyses it is understood that the age of the employees in the clubs, the term of duty, the wages they receive and the age of the club do not significantly affect the level of organizational commitment. Besides, It has been seen that the league, where the club is located, the level of duty of the managers, and having a regular time in the club affect the level of organizational commitment.