American Journal of Medical and Physical Education Vol.7, Issue 3; May-June 2022; 1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE; mail: topacademicjournals@gmail.com 1 | A m e r i c a n J o u r n a l o f M e d i c a l a n d P h y s i c a l E d u c a t i o n | https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT AS A STRESS BUFFER FOR COLLEGIATE COACHES' WORK STRESSORS AND TURNOVER INTENTIONS 1Elodie Marie Wendling, 2John David Smith, 3Sarah Ann Williams 1PhD - Adjunct Instructional Professor, University of Florida 2Professor of American History, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences 3International Human Rights Analyst, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law Abstract The competitive nature of sports coaching exposes coaches to numerous stressors, including long hours, non- conventional work schedules, and travel demands. These stressors can lead to work-family conflict, which can in turn increase turnover intentions. This study examined the buffering effects of job resources (i.e., social support, supervisor support, and role clarity) on the relationship between work-family conflict and turnover intentions in collegiate coaches. The results showed that job resources buffered the negative relationship between work-family conflict and turnover intentions. Keywords: Sports coaching, Work-family conflict, Turnover intentions, Job resources, Social support, Supervisor support, Role clarity. Introduction Given the fiercely competitive nature of sports coaching, elite coaches are exposed to numerous stressors and unique challenges in their occupation (Olusoga et al., 2009). In addition to normal life-stressors, being a collegiate coach is known for long hours that regularly extend into nights and weekends (Graham & Dixon, 2014). Operating in a performance-oriented environment with non-conventional work schedules and unique lifestyles with extensive travel demands, coaches may be at risk of mental health concerns and high turnover rates (Frey, 2007; Taylor et al., 2019). The stressful working environment and low job security can in fact contribute to coaches’ illbeing (Olusoga et al., 2009; Stebbings et al., 2012) and lead to burnout (Karabatsos et al., 2006), decreased life and job satisfaction (Dixon & Sagas, 2007), and higher rates of turnover (Frey, 2007; Knight et al., 2015). Given the importance of work in people’s lives, challenges encountered at work may spillover into their personal life, which may considerably influence their well-being and quality of life (Bowling et al., 2010). Indeed, coaches have reported ample times how the demands of their job interfered with their family life, making workfamily conflict one of the most significant strains experienced by coaches (Stebbings et al., 2012; Taylor et al., 2019). Furthermore, the interference of work on their family may cause them to leave the Athletic department they work for (Inglis et al., 1996) or even their coaching career altogether (Bruening & Dixon, 2007; Frey, 2007). Although significant research has focused on stress and work-family conflict in the coaching profession, the examination of stress protective mechanisms that are grounded on a well-established stress theory and that would serve as buffers against the negative influences of work-family conflict on turnover intentions remains scant and is of primary focus in this study. mailto:topacademicjournals@gmail.com American Journal of Medical and Physical Education Vol.7, Issue 3; May-June 2022; 1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE; mail: topacademicjournals@gmail.com 2 | A m e r i c a n J o u r n a l o f M e d i c a l a n d P h y s i c a l E d u c a t i o n | https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE As a seminal theory of stress, the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989) has been prominently used to examine work-family role conflict in the organizational psychology literature (Grandey & Cropanzano, 1999; Halbesleben et al., 2012; Jawahar et al., 2007). The Management of resources is critical to experiencing stress in the COR theory, given that the fundamental principle of this theory is about the gain and los of key resources, the latter of which may trigger stress (Hobfoll, 1989). Four types of resources were identified as key to acquire, maintain, and protect, including objects (e.g., housing, transportation, luxury clothes), conditions (e.g., marriage, seniority, status), personal characteristics (e.g., self-esteem, mastery), and energies (e.g., time, money, knowledge). The availability of these resources is essential to survive, define one’s self, achieve our goals, and gain more resources. Thus, the actual or potential loss of valued resources or the lack of expected resource gain after investing in one’s own resources would be experienced as stressful (Hobfoll, 1989, 2002). According to COR theory, certain resources, such as social support and psychological resources, may have stress- buffering properties that serve to protect existing resources from being lost and even enable resource gain, which would enhance individuals’ stress resiliency (Hobfoll, 2002, 2011). While we intended to examine how collegiate coaches’ stress related to their work and ensuing work-family conflict affect their turnover intentions, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which organizational support served as a buffer against turnover intentions caused by role conflicts. Despite the importance of social support in managing role stressors and acting as a stress resiliency, social support was not included in any of the four categories of resources in COR theory due to the external nature of this resource that, although valuable to acquire and retain other key resources, individuals cannot directly possess (Hobfoll, 2002). Thus, investigating the moderating effect of a key type of workplace social support by examining the extent to which perceived organizational support is a useful external resource when coaches are faced with workfamily conflict may be critical toward helping coaches develop a sustainable and successful career with enhanced well-being in their lives. In addition, managerial implications of this study are of crucial importance to athletic departments that are concerned about the well-being of their coaches and the organizational costs associated with coaches leaving their universities (Dixon & Bruening, 2007; Ryan & Sagas, 2009). Acquiring a better grasp of the mechanisms contributing to and alleviating employees’ turnover rates can help organizations reduce the loss of human expertise, experience and relationships, as well as the time, money, and effort required to recruit and train new employees (Mitchell et al., 2001). Given the importance of coaches’ interpersonal influence on their athletes (Lee &Chelladurai, 2018), this study may also benefit the development of athletes, as coaches experiencing lower work-life conflict have better interpersonal behaviors toward their athletes (Stebbings et al., 2012). Finally, fewer changes on coaching staffs can enhance the stability and quality of Athletic programs (Raedeke et al., 2002; Zoroya, 2020), which in turn facilitates athletes’ recruitment and development (O’Connor & Bennie, 2006; Shipherd et al., 2019). 2. Theoretical Framework 2.1 College Coaching Work Stressor-Strain Relationship in COR Theory COR theory posits that stress is not solely caused by the actual loss of valued resources, but also by the potential loss of resources or lack of resource gain after using one’s own resources (Hobfoll, 1989). Working in a culture emphasizing sacrifice and dedication, elite coaches can experience various job stressors, including extreme pressure to win and related job insecurity, excessive and nontraditional work hours, significant time and emotional demands, media attention and community involvement, the scarcity of coaching job openings and increased competition for jobs, just to name a few (Graham & Dixon, 2014, 2017; Schenewark & Dixon, 2012; Taylor et al., 2019; Weight et al., 2015). As stated by Dixon and Bruening (2007), the coaching profession is a “multi- mailto:topacademicjournals@gmail.com American Journal of Medical and Physical Education Vol.7, Issue 3; May-June 2022; 1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE; mail: topacademicjournals@gmail.com 3 | A m e r i c a n J o u r n a l o f M e d i c a l a n d P h y s i c a l E d u c a t i o n | https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE faceted, high paced work setting full of practices, recruiting, off-season workouts, administrative duties, and teaching responsibilities [that have] created an environment where only those willing to work twelve hours days, six days a week, for fifty weeks a year can thrive” (p. 384). These extensive job expectations combined with toxic working conditions are ripe for increasing job stress that may compel coaches to prioritize their work over their family, triggering higher work-family conflict. As defined by Greenhaus and Beutell (1985), work-family conflict is “a form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect” (p. 77). In an attempt to fulfill their work-related responsibilities, coaches may not only experience work role stress caused by the actual loss of valued resources, but they may also feel the pressure to invest more of their already fewer resources to adequately fulfill their family role. Often times, trying to meet the obligations of both roles seems to be unrealistic due to the incompatibility of these expectations (Graham & Dixon, 2017). In addition, coaches may experience work role stress due to the potential loss of their job, which strongly depends on the success of their team. They may also not garner the resources they expected after using their own valuable resources. The sacrifice of personal and family relationships coaches are willing to make to meet the demands of their team does not guarantee them to have a success on the field or court. Such resource drain may leave coaches with fewer resources available to meet family demands (Schenewark & Dixon, 2012). Hence, based on the COR theory and previous findings (Boyar et al., 2003; Eby et al., 2005; Grandey & Cropanzano, 1999), work role stress is expected to relate to work interfering with fulfilling family demands. As a result, the following hypothesis was tested: Hypothesis 1: Work role stress experienced by coaches directly and positively relates to their work-family conflict. Being unable to satisfy family demands, coaches may decide to change their situation to protect their family role. As valued resources are lost while juggling both work and family roles, college coaches’ resources may end up being so depleted that they may indeed decide to leave their athletic department or career to protect or replace threatened resources. Additional loss of resources caused by work-family conflict may cause the resources of coaches to become so scarce that leaving the university they work for or even renouncing their coaching career may be the only option to eliminate this resource drain. Previous organizational studies demonstrated support that work-family conflict is linked to turnover intentions (Boyar et al., 2003; Carr et al., 2008; Eby et al., 2005; Greenhaus et al., 1997, 2001; Hewlett & Luce, 2005; Karatepe & Azar, 2013; Netemeyer et al., 1996). Similarly, research examining the work-family conflict coaches experience found evidence of coaches’ intentions to leave the athletic department they work for (Bruening & Dixon, 2007; Dixon & Bruening, 2007; Inglis et al., 1996) or even leave their coaching career altogether (Bruening & Dixon, 2007; Dixon & Bruening, 2005, 2007; Frey, 2007; Schenewark & Dixon, 2012). The following hypotheses were advanced based on this literature and theory, as coaches experiencing work-family conflict may seek to eliminate resource depletion by exhibiting the intentions to leave their organization and/or the occupation of coaching: Hypothesis 2a: Coaches’ work-family conflict directly and positively relate to their intentions to leave the athletic department they work for. Hypothesis 2b: Coaches’ work-family conflict directly and positively relate to their intentions to leave their coaching career altogether. Drawing on Hobfoll’s (1989) COR theory, we will review in the next section the moderating effect of organizational support on the relationship of work-family conflict and turnover intentions. mailto:topacademicjournals@gmail.com American Journal of Medical and Physical Education Vol.7, Issue 3; May-June 2022; 1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE; mail: topacademicjournals@gmail.com 4 | A m e r i c a n J o u r n a l o f M e d i c a l a n d P h y s i c a l E d u c a t i o n | https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE 2.2 The Stress-Buffering Role of Perceived Organizational Support in COR Theory One’s social relations may have stress-reducing and resistance properties (Kenrick et al., 2010). Not only can these key social resources serve as an instrumental function of protecting existing resources and obtaining additional resources, but they can also act as a self-defining function of protecting and maintaining one’s identity (Hobfoll et al., 1990). While a supportive work environment can diminish resource loss caused by work-family conflict, such a support can also enable resource gain by alleviating the source of stress and facilitating goal achievement (Hobfoll, 2002, 2011). Indeed, individuals’ perceived organizational support may have neutralizing effects that can contribute to individuals’ stress resistance, which would enable employees to better withstand resource loss caused by work-family conflict. In this study, perceived organizational support was defined as the extent to which employees perceive that “the organization values their contributions and cares about their well- being” (Eisenberg et al., 1986, p. 504). In addition to employers’ appreciation of their employees’ contributions and care for their employees’ well-being, we included the financial component of supportive resources for work including the financial support athletic departments provide in terms of not only the financial budget assigned to the team but also the compensation provided to coaches. Existing organizational studies have shown the critical role of organizational support in lessening workfamily conflict (Allen, 2001; Byron, 2005; French et al., 2018; Kossek et al., 2011; Mesmer-Magnus & Viswesvaran, 2005; Michel et al., 2011). While evidence that a supportive organizational culture helps decrease work-family conflict has been observed numerous times in the existing literature, the mitigating impact of organizational support on the negative effects that work-family conflict has on organizational outcomes is less prevalent. Previous organizational research on work-family conflict has tested the moderating effects of social support or organizational support on various stressors-strain relationships. For instance, Frese (1999) found that the relationship between various work stressors and psychological dysfunctioning was weaker at higher levels of social support. In addition, previous work observed that supervisor support moderated the effect of working hours on workfamily conflict (Fox & Dwyer, 1999; Fu & Shaffer, 2001). On the family side of the work-family interface, Aryee and colleagues (1999) found that spousal support weakened the relationship between parental overload and family-work conflict. Finally, Jawahar and colleagues (2007) observed that perceived organizational support mitigated the negative effect of role conflict on emotional exhaustion. Within the coaching literature, Dixon and Sagas (2007) demonstrated the importance of providing organizational support to college coaches to help diminish the negative effect of work-family conflict, while Kim and Cunningham (2005) found that college coaches perceived organizational support had a moderating effect on the relationship between work experiences and jobsatisfaction. Despite the dearth of empirical evidence testing the stressbuffering role of perceived organizational support, Hobfoll (2002, 2011) clearly delineated the critical role of social resources on individuals’ stress resiliency and thereby, this important moderating relationship merits attention. Serving as a stress resiliency resource, the support provided by the athletic department may help coaches cope with stress and minimize resource loss because it can help lessen the occurrence of and perceived severity of work-family conflict. Such a support may counteract the diminishment of resources that coaches invest in to satisfy the demands of their job and family, enabling them to preserve or even gain valuable resources. Given that organizational support can assist coaches with acquiring the necessary resources to recover from resource depletion resulting from workfamily conflict, we developed the following two hypotheses, as we expected that increases in coaches perceived organizational support would buffer against increases in turnover intentions when experiencing increased workfamily conflicts: Hypothesis 3a: The expected positive relationship between work-family conflict and organizational turnover intentions is moderated by organizational support, such that higher levels of support from the athletic department mailto:topacademicjournals@gmail.com American Journal of Medical and Physical Education Vol.7, Issue 3; May-June 2022; 1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE; mail: topacademicjournals@gmail.com 5 | A m e r i c a n J o u r n a l o f M e d i c a l a n d P h y s i c a l E d u c a t i o n | https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE are expected to weaken the relationship between coaches’ work-family conflict and their intentions to leave the department. Hypothesis 3b: The expected positive relationship between work-family conflict and occupational turnover intentions is moderated by organizational support, such that higher levels of support from the athletic department are expected to weaken the relationship between coaches’ work-family conflict and their intentions to leave their coaching career. Given that coaches have limited control over how much support they can receive from the athletic department they work for, this study aims to highlight the important role athletic departments have in improving coaches’ retention and supporting their coaching staff by buffering the negative effects of work-family conflict on turnover intentions. Establishing a supportive organizational culture can enable athletic departments to avoid incurring replacement costs and ultimately improve the quality of the athletic programs they offer to their athletes (Ryan & Sagas, 2009; Shipherd et al., 2019). 3. Methods 3.1 Participants and Procedures Data for this study was collected utilizing a survey design as a part of a larger ongoing study that has aimed to assess the quality of employment of college coaches. The larger study selected participants using a stratified random sample of 800 NCAA head coaches across all three NCAA Divisions (400 from men’s teams and 400 from women’s teams). For this study, we used 253 completed surveys from respondents who reported to be married or live with a significant other and/or had at least one child living with them under the age of 18 years old to ensure of the relevance of the work-family conflict measure. Two rounds of data collection were conducted and resulted approximately in a response rate of 43%. In testing for any possible response biases between the first round and second round of respondents, we found no significant mean differences between the two groups on any of the variables of interest. In terms of demographics, the average age of the participants was 43 years old, and the median age was 42 years old, ranging from 23 to 73 years old. Further, the sample was comprised of 76% male respondents (n=192) and 24% female respondents (n=61). The racial and ethnic composition of the sample was composed of 92.5% Whites, 5% African Americans, 1.3% Hispanics, and 1.2% Others. To measure the level of education, we asked the coaches to self-report their “highest level of education” ranging from a high school education to a doctorate. Most of the participants had a master’s degree and/or doctorate degree (59.3%) or a bachelor’s degree (36.4%). 3.2 Measures All four variables were measured using existing scales and rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The measures for this study were as follows: Organizational and occupational turnover intentions. We used the six items developed by Meyer and colleagues (1993), of which three items were modified to measure coaches’ intentions to leave their athletic department and the other three items were also adapted to assess coaches’ intentions to leave the coaching profession. Sample items include “I will likely search and apply for a job with another team in the next year” for organizational turnover intentions, and “I frequently think about leaving the coaching profession” for occupational turnover intentions. Work-family conflicts. A five-item Work-Family Conflict scale developed by Netemeyer et al. (1996) was used to measure the amount of interference the coaching job puts on coaches’ home life. This measure has been previously used in numerous studies and has demonstrated satisfactory validity and reliability (see Fields, 2002). mailto:topacademicjournals@gmail.com American Journal of Medical and Physical Education Vol.7, Issue 3; May-June 2022; 1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE; mail: topacademicjournals@gmail.com 6 | A m e r i c a n J o u r n a l o f M e d i c a l a n d P h y s i c a l E d u c a t i o n | https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE Sample items include “Things I want to do at home do not get done because of the demands my job puts on me” and “The amount of time my job takes up makes it difficult to fulfill family responsibilities”. Work role stress. Four items from the Job Stress scale (Parker & Decotiis, 1983) was used to measure work role stress, including “I have too much work to do and too little time to do it in”, “I feel like I never have a day off”, “My job gets to me more than it should”, and “Sometimes when I think about my job I get a tight feeling in my chest”. Perceived Organizational Support. The moderating variable, organizational support considered as a key job resource in the theoretical model, was measured with eight items including four items from the Perceived Organizational Support scale (Eisenberger et al., 1986) that were modified to assess support from the athletic department administration. In addition, we measured the financial support for their team by creating two items that assess coaches’ satisfaction with their budget for the team, and we adapted two items from the satisfaction with pay developed by Chelladurai and Ogasawara (2003). Items used for this study were as follows: “My athletic department administration would ignore any complaints from me” (reverse-coded item), “My athletic department administration really cares about my well-being”, “My athletic department administration cares about my general satisfaction at work”, “My athletic department administration takes pride in my accomplishments at work”, “I am satisfied with how my teams budget compares to the budgets of similar teams at other colleges/universities”, “I am satisfied with the adequacy of the budget for my team”, “I am satisfied with my pay compared to the amount of work I do”, and “I am satisfied with how my pay compares with those with similar jobs at other colleges/universities”. 3.3 Data Analysis Descriptive statistics were obtained using SPSS Statistics 25, and measurement and hypothesized models were tested via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using the SmartPLS (version 3.3.2) software. This well-established analytical method has been conducted in the psychology literature (e.g., Westman et al., 2017), and in career-related research (e.g., Hsieh & Huang, 2014; Ren & Chadee, 2017; Waters, 2004). As a nonparametric method, PLS-SEM is recommended for testing continuous moderator influences (Hair et al., 2017), as is the case here. A two-stage analytical procedure was followed as delineated by Hair and his colleagues (2017): (1) We tested the measurement model to assess the psychometric properties of the measures used in this study; (2) We analyzed the structural model to test our hypotheses and determined the significance of path coefficients performing a bootstrapping method with 5,000 resamples. We controlled for the exogenous effects of age and gender, given that previous research demonstrated their direct effects on work-family conflict, occupational and organizational turnover intentions (Cunningham & Sagas, 2002; Griffeth, Hom, & Gaertner, 2000; Parasuraman, 1982). 4. Results 4.1 Measurement Model Means, standard deviations, loadings range, composite reliability, and average variance extracted (AVE) for each study variable are reported in Table 1. The internal consistency of the measures was assessed using the composite reliability values, which all exceeded 0.70 and thereby demonstrated satisfactory reliability of the measures (Hair et al., 2017). We evaluated the convergent validity of the variables using the loadings of the items and AVE values. The loadings of 17 items out of the 23 items used in this study were higher than 0.70, and the other six items exceded the value of 0.60, which is still adequate to retain for the análisis (Chin et al., 2008). In addition, all AVE values mailto:topacademicjournals@gmail.com American Journal of Medical and Physical Education Vol.7, Issue 3; May-June 2022; 1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE; mail: topacademicjournals@gmail.com 7 | A m e r i c a n J o u r n a l o f M e d i c a l a n d P h y s i c a l E d u c a t i o n | https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE exceded the recommended threshold of 0.50, which showed satisfactory convergent validity of the variables (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). Table 1. Descriptive statistics and psychometric properties of the constructs Constructs Number of Items M SD Loadings Range CR AVE 1. Work Role Stress 4 4.03 1.30 0.68-0.79 0.84 0.56 2. Work-Family Conflicts 5 4.72 1.41 0.86-0.93 0.95 0.80 3. Organizational Turnover Intentions 3 2.67 1.48 0.86-0.87 0.90 0.76 4. Occupational Turnover Intentions 3 2.85 1.49 0.72-0.91 0.88 0.72 5. Organizational Support 8 4.04 1.19 0.60-0.84 0.88 0.50 Notes: Scale reliability: Composite Reliability (CR)> 0.70; Convergent validity: AVE > 0.50 and loadings> 0.60 Discriminant validity of the variables was examined using the Fornell-Larcker criterion analysis and the heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) analysis. In Table 2, we reported in bold and placed on the diagonal the square root values of the AVE of each variable, and the bivariate correlations of the variables are presented in the off-diagonal. Following the Fornell-Larcker criterion analysis, we were able to demonstrate adequate discriminant validity given that each variable shared more variance with its corresponding items than with any other variables used in the model. Furthermore, the results of the HTMT ratio of correlations, presented in Table 3, provided additional evidence that each variable in this study was empirically distinct, given that all HTMT values did not exceed the conservative threshold of 0.85 (Henseler et al., 2015), and the confidence interval results of HTMT statistic from the bootstrapping did not contain the value of 1 for all combinations of variables. Therefore, the measurement model used in this study showed satisfactory reliability and validity. Table 2. Fornell-Larcker criterion analyses for discriminant validity and correlation matrix Constructs 1 2 3 4 5 1. Work Role Stress 0.748 2. Work-Family Conflicts 0.692** 0.894 3. Organizational Turnover Intentions 0.340** 0.387** 0.872 4. Occupational Turnover Intentions 0.292** 0.338** 0.534** 0.849 5. Organizational Support -0.276** -0.293** -0.501** -0.342** 0.707 Notes: Bold-faced numerals on the diagonal represent the square root of the average variance extracted while the off-diagonal values are correlations. Discriminant validity: Square root of the AVE values are all greater than correlation coefficients. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01 mailto:topacademicjournals@gmail.com American Journal of Medical and Physical Education Vol.7, Issue 3; May-June 2022; 1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE; mail: topacademicjournals@gmail.com 8 | A m e r i c a n J o u r n a l o f M e d i c a l a n d P h y s i c a l E d u c a t i o n | https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE 4.2 Structural Model First, we verified whether collinearity issues were not present in this model. The variance inflation factor (VIF) values of all the items used in this study did not exceed the threshold value of five (Hair et al., 2017), which confirmed that this model did not have collinearity issues. We then tested the statistical significance of hypothesized direct and moderating effects using the bootstrapping method of 5,000 iterations. In addition, we assessed the effect size of the relationships using 𝑓2as recommended by Hair et al. (2017), given that some path estimates may have small effects in spite of being statistically significant, which would not merit much practical implications. We used Cohen’s (1988) guidelines to determine the effect size of the direct effects. As expected, the relationship between work role stress and work-family conflicts was significant and had a large effect size ( = 0.696; p < 0.001; 𝑓2 = 0.924). Thus, hypothesis 1 was supported. Statistically significant relationships were found between work-family conflict and organizational turnover intentions as well as betweenwork-family conflict and occupational turnover intentions, and an effect size in between small and medium effects was observed for both relationships ( = 0.265; p < 0.001; 𝑓2 = 0.103; = 0.259; p < 0.001; 𝑓2 = 0.076, respectively). Thus, these results provided support for hypotheses 2a and 2b. 4.2.1 Moderation analysis The two-stage approach as delineatedby Chin and colleagues (2003) was followed to test the moderating effects. A significant and negative interaction effect of organizational support on the relationship between workfamily conflict and organizational turnover intentions was found ( = -0.095; p < 0.05), supporting hypothesis 3a. The effect size of this interaction term was considered between a medium and large effect (𝑓2 = 0.018), as indicated by Kenny’s (2016) guidelines. This result demonstrated that higher levels of organizational support weaken the relationship between work-family conflict and organizational turnover intentions, while lower levels of organizational support strengthen the relationship between work-family conflict and organizational turnover intentions. Finally, the moderating effect of organizational support on the relationship between work- familyconflict and occupational turnover intentions was not significant. Thus, hypothesis 3b was not supported. Results of the structural model are summarized in Figure 1. In addition, we reported the predictive accuracy ( ) and relevance (𝑄2) of the predictors on the endogenous variables. The 𝑅2 for work-family conflict was moderate with 49.4% of the variance being explained by work role stress. A moderate predictive power was also observed for organizational turnover intentions, with 40.5% of the variance being explained by all the other variables in the model, except occupational turnover intentions. Finally, 22.9% of the variance in occupational turnover intentions was explained by all the other variables in the model, except organizational turnover intentions. In terms of the predictive relevance, the Stone-Geisser’s 𝑄2 values for the dependent variables (Geisser, 1974; Stone, 1974) were generated using the blindfolding procedure for an omission distance of seven. Results yielded 𝑄2 values of 0.389 for work-family conflict, 0.285 for organizational turnover intentions, and 0.149 for occupational Table 3. Heterotrait - monotrait (HTMT) analysis. Constructs 1 2 3 4 5 1 . Work Role Stress 2 . Work - Family Conflicts 0.835 3 . Organizational Turnover Intentions 0.417 0.426 4 . Occupational Turnover Intentions 0.373 0.382 0.635 5 . Organizational Support 0.352 0.334 0.592 0.416 Note: Shaded boxes are the standard reporting format for HTMT procedure. mailto:topacademicjournals@gmail.com American Journal of Medical and Physical Education Vol.7, Issue 3; May-June 2022; 1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE; mail: topacademicjournals@gmail.com 9 | A m e r i c a n J o u r n a l o f M e d i c a l a n d P h y s i c a l E d u c a t i o n | https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE turnover intentions, which are all higher than the threshold value of 0, demonstrating acceptable predictive relevance for all 5. Discussion While the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of coaches’ stress related to their job and ensuing work-family conflict on turnover intentions, this study also extended previous coaching research by providing support for the stress-buffering effect of perceived organizational support. Given the importance of the coaching staff in achieving collegiate athletic departments’ goals, and the numerous work-stressors attached with the coaching profession, it is critical to identify stress protective mechanisms that are drawn from a seminal theory of stress such as COR to alleviate stress and role conflicts and improve coaches’ retention. Not only did many of the present findings support Hobfoll’s (1989) COR theory, but they also provided empirical evidence to the existing literature that coaches experiencing job stress and conflicts between work and family may decide to leave the athletic department and/or their career as a coach altogether. More importantly, the result of the moderating effect of perceived organizational support highlighted the critical role athletic departments have in either contributing to or alleviating coaches’ turnover rates. Indeed, when coaches believed that their athletic department valued their contributions, cared about their well-being, and that they were provided with satisfying financial support, they were less likely to look for another collegiate coaching job even though their work interfered with their ability to fulfill family demands. Conversely, if these beliefs of being valued, cared for and financially supported were not present, coaches’ intention to leave their athletic department was enhanced when they were unable to fulfill their family role(s) because of the demands of their job. Given that the stressful nature of the coaching profession may be difficult to change and that the extensive demands of their job would likely interfere with family duties (Knight et al., 2015), it is crucial that athletic departments show their appreciation for the sacrifice coaches make for their team, show concern for the well- three dependent variables (Hair et al., 2017). Notes: Moderating effect; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001 Figure 1. Structural model. mailto:topacademicjournals@gmail.com American Journal of Medical and Physical Education Vol.7, Issue 3; May-June 2022; 1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE; mail: topacademicjournals@gmail.com 10 | A m e r i c a n J o u r n a l o f M e d i c a l a n d P h y s i c a l E d u c a t i o n | https://topjournals.org/index.php/AJMPE being of their coaches and provide satisfying team budget and compensation to coaches. Doing so would help reduce the loss of key human resources in athletic departments and the related costs of recruiting and training new coaches. It would also help maintain stability in an athletic program (Raedeke et al., 2002), improve interpersonal relationships between coaches and athletes (Jowett & Poczwardowski, 2004; Knight et al., 2015) and enhance athlete psychosocial development (Shipherd et al., 2019). Interestingly, perceived organizational support did not significantly weaken the impact of work-family conflict on coaches’ intention to leave their career as a coach. Such a result can be interpreted from a theoretical standpoint using Cohen’s and Wills’ (1985) buffering hypothesis and Frese’s (1999) extension of this hypothesis. Cohen and Wills (1985) argued that social support may serve as a buffer when there is a “reasonable match between the coping requirements and the available support” (p. 314). Frese (1999) further extended this buffering hypothesis conceptually and empirically to dependent variables. Testing the buffering effect of social support, his findings demonstrated that “the social types of dysfunctioning (i.e., social anxiety and irritation/strain) were more highly affected by the buffers than were psychosomatic complaints and depression” (Frese, 1999, p. 187). Thus, there may have been a lack of relevance of the type of supportive resource we used in this study to help neutralize stress and protect existing resources to better withstand resource loss caused by coaches’ workfamily conflict. In other words, appreciating coaches’ work, caring for their well-being, and providing satisfying financial resources may not be pertinent when coaches decide to leave their coaching career due to their work interfering too much with their family life. Such a support may not be instrumental when coaches intend to renounce their coaching career to eliminate the resource drain caused by juggling work and family roles. Given that, in this scenario, coaches are quite willing to lose their coaching role to protect their family role, such a support being related to their work may be perceived as having less utility when mitigating resource depletion related to their family life. This finding implies that the type of support athletic departments provide to their coaching staff must be expanded beyond work to also include family obligations. Indeed, family-friendly athletic administrations that offer flexible work arrangements can help reduce work-family conflict (Bruening & Dixon, 2007), but they can also encourage coaches to develop a sustainable career with enhanced well-being in their lives. 5.1 Limitations and Future Research This study is not free from limitations and as such, care should be taken when interpreting the results. The sample, although deemed representative of the population under study, was collected as part of a larger study and through a cross sectional survey design; thus, the temporal nature of the relationships between job stress, workfamily conflict, and perceived organizational support is unknown. Further, bias could have been present in that is likely that some of these coaches responded to this questionnaire during their primary season while others were in their off-season. Additional work utilizing standardized timing of data collection and longitudinal design across a coach’s season could thus be fruitful and more explanatory than the present contribution. Additional avenues of future research are also merited based on the unique findings of the study. For example, the significant moderating effect of organizational support on the relationship between work-family conflict and organizational turnover demonstrates the importance of support in facilitating coaching retention. Given the abundance of literature that has demonstrated the relationship between perceived organizational support on a number of important employees and organizational level outcomes (e.g., see Rockstuhl et al. 2020 for a recent review), additional work analyzing the role of support on similar outcomes of importance in the coaching profession seems justified. For example, further work examining the role that organizational support for coaches (individually and collectively as a staff) can have on other critical outcomes such as affective organizational commitment, psychological well-being, and even performance, could prove fruitful to the coaching science literature. 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