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.