Career Pathways of Athletic Directors: Consideration of the Impact of Diversity
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Lenora E. Armstrong, Ed.D. – Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA
AAHPERD National Convention and Expo, St. Louis, MO April 4 2013
INTRODUCTION (cont’d)
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: This study explored career pathways for becoming an athletic director (AD)
at National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisions I, II, and, III member
institutions with consideration of gender and race/ethnicity.
An Overview of Women in Collegiate Sports Administration
• While women hold a growing number of the total jobs in collegiate athletic
administration, they were not well represented in the senior positions.
Women represented over 57% of the students on campus, 34.9% of the
athletic administrative staffs, and yet only 19.3% of ADs were women in 2010
(Acosta & Carpenter, 2010).
METHOD: The study employed an exploratory, descriptive research design using a
quantitative electronic survey tapping a census of all ADs of NCAA Divisions I, II, and III.
The survey sought demographic data from which career pathways were determined.
Responses were obtained from 269 of 966 respondents for a 28% response rate.
Descriptive and Chi-square statistics were used for data analysis. Results portrayed
demographic characteristics, career pathways, and the relationship between variables
identified in the research questions and the hypotheses.
• The increase of women in athletic administration was not exceeding the
growth of the total athletic administration pool (Acosta & Carpenter, 2002).
RESULTS: Findings reinforced existing scholarship regarding the specific AD
demographics of age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, and sports affiliation, as well as
number of years in key positions. Results from the descriptive analysis indicated men
were more widely represented than women as ADs, with White men appearing in the
greatest number in this post. White women and men were not distributed equally across
the NCAA Divisions; women were more likely to serve as ADs in Division III institutions.
Other categories of race/ethnicity include Blacks/Non-Hispanics, Hispanic/Latinos, Native
Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Asian, and those who self-identified as two or more races. The
Masters was the most common highest degree earned. Education was the most common
study field at both the undergraduate level and at the level of the highest degree earned.
Across the highest degree earned, education was followed by sport administration/
management, business, science and technology, arts, communications, law, and
medicine.
An Overview of Minority Men in Collegiate Sports Administration
• The advancement of minority men in collegiate sports administration lagged
behind that of White women, albeit with similar barriers and political
constraints to advancement (Abney & Richey, 1992).
An Overview of Minority Women in Collegiate Sports Administration
• Although minority women have made strides in intercollegiate athletics, few
have achieved positions in athletic administration in general, or in AD
positions specifically. Minority women in AD roles ranged from 0.6% for
Blacks and 0.4% for other minorities in 1995-1996 to 2.1% for Blacks and
0.6% for minorities in 2008-2009 (NCAA, 2010).
CONCLUSIONS: The study underscored the low distribution of race/ethnicity and gender
among ADs across NCAA Divisions, with women disproportionally located in Division III
institutions. Those ADs who have advanced degrees beyond the bachelor’s degree are
primarily credentialed in the fields of education and sport. There were more similarities
than differences among the career pathways of ADs across the three NCAA divisions.
Five sports emerged as involving the largest number of ADs having been college athletes
and head coaches in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and
softball. The pathways indicated that team sports played and coached versus individual
sports played and coached were the key thresholds for advancement to the AD position.
The Problem and Setting:
• This study addressed the typical career pathways to the AD
position that may have hindered diversity among the personnel
in athletic administrative positions within colleges and
universities. The problem of research was that there was
limited scholarship about career pathways to the AD position,
and virtually no information about issues of gender and
race/ethnicity relating to career pathways.
INTRODUCTION
• The number of ADs has increased as more institutions have reorganized their
athletic departments under a single chief administrator. When many institutions
merged male and female sports divisions under a single AD, it was the male, and
not the female, senior athletic administrator who was most typically assigned the
coveted AD spot (Grappendorf & Lough, 2006). Thus, while the total number of
ADs has grown over time, that growth has been male dominated, and often
meant the loss of female participation.
Research Questions:
•
•
•
What were the demographic characteristics of ADs?
What were the career pathways of becoming an AD?
Was there a statistically significant relationship among the career pathways in
becoming an AD, i.e. (a) gender, (b) race/ethnicity, and (c) NCAA division?
•
•
Ho: There was not a statistically significant relationship among the career pathways
in becoming an AD and (a) gender, (b) race/ethnicity, and (c) NCAA division.
Ha: There was a statistically significant relationship among the career pathways in
becoming an AD and (a) gender, (b) race/ethnicity, and (c) NCAA division.
Problem of Practice: Lack of Diversity among Athletic Administration Ranks
Research Design
• The AD position may be one of the least diversified jobs in higher education
administration (Lapchick (2009, p. 88) called it “one of the whitest positions in all
of sport when HBCUs [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] were
excluded.”
• An exploratory, descriptive, census-based research design using a quantitative,
electronic survey-based method was the most suitable for collecting the data
necessary for answering the research questions regarding career pathways of ADs
based on gender, race/ethnicity, and athletic divisions.
• The situation regarding women is equally dire: “not only is there presentation of
women holding [the AD] position . . . limited, but that the numbers have actually
declined” (Grappendorf & Lough, 2006, p. 13).
Data Analysis
• Acosta and Carpenter (2010) showed the decline from 21.3% in 2008 to 19.3% in
2010. The literature regarding ADs has been remarkably consistent across
studies and time with regards to demographic profiles (Fitzgerald, 1990;
Goodloe, 1978; Grappendorf, Lough & Griffin, 2004; NCAA, 2007; William &
Miller, 1983).
• Data were exported from Survey Monkey into SPSS, which coded all of the variables
from the questionnaire
TEMPLATE DESIGN © 2007
www.PosterPresentations.com
RQ1:
Demographic
Characteristics
of Participants
RQ2: Career
Pathways
X
• To answer Research Question 2, descriptive statistics were used
to report the frequencies and percentages of the pathways of
becoming an athletic administrator. These percentage groups
represented career pathways for analysis. A number was
assigned to each group (e.g., 1 = group with highest frequency).
Major of Highest
Degree
X
Undergraduate
Major
X
Varsity Athlete
Varsity Sports
Coached
X
X
X
X
• To answer Research Question 3, the Chi-Square test of
independence was conducted to assess the relationship among
the pathways of becoming an athletic administrator (determined
for Research Question 2) and (a) gender, (b) race/ethnicity, and
(c) division. Gender, race/ethnicity, and division constituted
independent variables, and career path categories constituted
dependent variables. To assess the relationships among
categorical variables, this statistical test was deemed the most
appropriate. The data were cross tabulated to show a side-byside comparison of two or more survey questions to determine
how the data were interrelated (Survey Monkey, 2011). A
significance level of .05 (e.g., 95% confidence interval) was
used for this study because it is the standard in educational
studies (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2003). This probability level reflects
the maximum risk the researcher is willing to take that any
observed differences are due to chance (Creswell, 2005).
Years coached
X
X
Age of first
X
administrative job
X
Total years as AD
X
Data were collected from 269 out of 966 reachable ADs (28%
response rate), from the total population of 1090 ADs as listed
in the current 2010-2011 directory of NCAA Division I, II, and III
member institutions.
Table 1. Responses by Division and Outreach Effort
Total AD
Population
Total AD
Canvassed
Population
Response
Rates
348(32%)
Division III
Total
295(27%)
447(41%)
282(81%) 295(100%)
389(87%)
966(88%)
81(29%)
94 (24%)
269(28%)
94(32%)
1090(100%)
Table 2. Sample Excel Spreadsheet for Collecting Subject
Contact Information
Name of
NCAA
Institution Division
Name of AD
Email Address for AD
Administrative
Phone
Assistant
Email Address for AA
From institutional website
From
From NCAA
From
NCAA
website
institutional
website
website
X
NCAA Division
X
# Years in current X
position
X
# Years at another
institution
Previous positions
Age
Gender
Race/ethnicity
Barriers
Advice
RQ3:
Relationship of
Pathways to
Gender,
Race/Ethnicity,
Division
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
CONCLUSIONS
RESULTS
• Data were collected from the electronic survey that had been created with Survey
Monkey software.
• Once the surveys were completed through Survey Monkey, the data were
transferred from the Survey Monkey website and downloaded it to a SPSS 18.0
computer file, a computer program used for statistical analysis.
Table 3. Relationship of Research Questions to Survey Items
Highest Degree
Earned
Division I Division II
Hypotheses:
RESULTS (cont’d)
• To answer Research Question 1, descriptive statistics (mean,
standard deviation, and frequency distributions) were used to
provide more detailed portrayals of the samples surveyed.
Reported demographic characteristics included: age, gender,
race/ethnicity, highest degree earned and major, varsity athlete,
varsity sport coached, age upon assuming first job in athletic
administration, NCAA division affiliation, and number of years in
present position.
METHODS
The Athletic Director: An Overview
• The AD has long played a key role in athletics at U.S. colleges and universities
(Steitz, 1971). An AD is responsible for overseeing the budget, scheduling,
facilities, staffing, and compliance of the athletic department at his or her
institution (William & Miller, 1983). In a 2003 study, Parrish documented that 73.7
% of the population of ADs reported work time in areas such as development,
fundraising, marketing, or alumni relations.
METHODS (cont’d)
•The data was analyzed and the findings of the
results were discussed.
•The pathways indicated that team sports played
and coach versus individual sports played and
coached were the key thresholds for advancement
to the AD position.
•The typical career pathways to the AD position
may hinder diversity.
•The two most important qualities for success are
getting experience and willingness to try.
•Still a position worth aspiring.
REFEENCES
• American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. (2011). Retrieved from
http://www.aahperd.org.
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Unpublished manuscript. Brooklyn College. New York.
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research. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
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• Fraenkel, J. & Wallen, N. (2003). How to design and evaluate research in education (6th ed.; with CD and
workbook). New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Lapchick, R. (2010, March 11). The 2009 Racial and Gender Report Card: College Sport. Orlando, FL; The
Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. Retrieved from 2008_college_sport_rgrc.pdf.
• Nardi, P. (2006). Doing survey research: A guide to quantitative methods. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
• National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA]. (2010).
• Survey Monkey, (1999-2011). Retrieved from http://www.surveymonkey.com.