Voluntary occupational turnover and the experiences of former intercollegiate women assistant coaches

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Voluntary occupational turnover and the experiences of former intercollegiate women assistant coaches Lindsey Darvin SUNY Cortland, 148 Chelsea Dr. Cortland, NY 13045, United States of America

A R T IC LE I N F O

ABS TRA CT

Keywords: Occupational turnover Diversity Intercollegiate sport Sport coaching Women in sport

Women remain underrepresented in positions of leadership throughout the sport industry. This underrepresentation has been previously linked to a leaking pipeline of successful female candidates and over the past five years the proportion of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women assistant coaches has declined. Subsequently, occupational turnover intentions of women assistant coaches have been found to exceed those of their male counterparts. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of former NCAA women assistant coaches who voluntarily engaged in occupational turnover. A qualitative approach, with the theoretical underpinnings of phenomenology and hermeneutics directed the research design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants. Based on the experiences of the participants, these findings extend the body of knowledge concerned with combating the leaking pipeline of women sport leadership candidates. Implications are discussed along with future research suggestions.

1. Introduction Occupational turnover among women sport professionals has been considered a potential barrier to their leadership representation throughout the industry (Burton, 2015). While research has yet to determine a distinct proportion of women who have voluntarily left the sport industry, research has consistently indicated that within sport, women employees, regardless of rank, have higher occupational turnover intentions (Cunningham & Sagas, 2004; Sagas, Cunningham, & Pastore, 2006). These gender differentials in occupational turnover can have serious consequences for girls and women in sport as the future of equitable representation within positions of power may hang in the balance. One outcome of occupational turnover is a supply shortage of women to fill leadership positions (i.e. head coach), often referred to as a “pipeline issue.” Women assistant coaches who have left the assistant coaching occupation increase the risk of a pipeline issue (Hancock & Hums, 2016). Previous findings have identified that an underrepresentation of women occupying entry level sport industry roles (i.e. assistant coach) generates a shortage of women with the experiences necessary to one day obtain a leadership position within that same occupation (e.g. Hancock & Hums, 2016). This occurrence may also contribute to the higher proportion of women in sport with occupational turnover intentions, as role models and mentors can greatly assist with higher levels of self-efficacy and confidence to work towards career advancement (Hancock & Hums, 2016). The barriers experienced by women as they attempt to ascend towards sport leadership roles often include an unequal assumption of competence, homologous reproduction, and a lack of women mentors and networking opportunities (Darvin & Sagas, 2017; Kamphoff, 2010; Kilty, 2006; Schull & Kihl, 2018). These barriers likely limit the career mobility of women in both lateral and

E-mail address: [email protected]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.103349 Received 26 September 2018; Received in revised form 11 October 2019; Accepted 20 October 2019 0001-8791/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Lindsey Darvin, Journal of Vocational Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.103349

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vertical directions throughout the industry. Additionally, power structures found in male-dominated fields may create what women have described as a “difficulty” working in a hostile environment (Powers, Judge, & Makela, 2016). As a result, sport leadership occupations such as the head coach role are often gender typed and are frequently aligned with masculine traits (Madsen, Burton, & Clark, 2017). Within these male-dominated industries women may also attract increased attention, receive less organizational support, and be evaluated more critically, especially when new to the organization (Madsen, 2016). Based on pressures to conform to traditional gender roles, women student-athletes are more likely to consider a career in sport as masculine, leading them to devalue and maintain negative evaluations of their women head coaches (Madsen, 2016). Specific to the current investigation, findings have similarly indicated that women sport coaches, and particularly women assistant coaches, maintain higher intentions to leave the occupation than men (Sagas et al., 2006). Perhaps even more influential are findings that have determined women assistant coaches often score lower than men regarding their intentions to apply for head coaching positions in the future (Sagas et al., 2006). Based on these previous findings, it is concerning that women may be voluntarily exiting the profession at higher rates than men. Specifically, this trend can contribute to increasingly or sustained homogenous leadership representation (Darvin & Sagas, 2017). For example, according to Tsui and Gutek (1999), “small effects could accumulate and lead to non-trivial consequences. For example, a small tendency for the most different groups to leave can, over time, result in increasingly more homogeneous groups as one moves up the organizational hierarchy” (p. 40). This lack of representation of women in sport leadership roles is especially concerning once considering the influence leaders have over their subordinates (LaVoi, 2016; Nichols, 2016). Previous findings outside of sport have indicated that women are often considered more effective as leaders, as they maintain a higher proportion of the necessary leadership competencies when compared with their male counterparts (Nichols, 2016). Beyond that, LaVoi (2016) previously asserted that the current state of sport coaching may encompass narcissistic tendencies and unfavorable outcomes for subordinates. Given that the current state of sport coaching is highly male-dominated, further diversifying the occupation may generate more favorable leadership practices (LaVoi, 2016). If women in lower level roles are exiting a profession, such as sport coaching, the subsequent pipeline issue may not only result in a lack of leadership diversity, but may subsequently hinder the work-related experiences of subordinates (Nichols, 2016). Therefore, this study aimed to expand upon the previous literature by specifically focusing on the act of occupational turnover by assistant sport coaches rather than simply gauging one's intention to leave the profession. The significance of this investigation is based in its objective to connect the barriers experienced by women in entry level sport roles to the underrepresentation of women in sport leadership roles. The underrepresentation of women assistant coaches transcends each level of sport competition, from the youth to professional ranks, and many of the factors that contribute to this low proportion are underexplored (Wells, 2016). At the youth sport level, women assistant coaches are often highly underrepresented, and while the precise number of women assistant coaches within youth sport can be difficult to obtain, LaVoi (2007) indicated that for a midwestern youth league women assistant coaches represented a mere 18.9% of all assistants for both boys and girls' teams (N = 1499). Beyond the youth sport space, the largest intercollegiate sport association within the United States, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), displays similar levels of underrepresentation for women assistant coaches. The NCAA maintains three separate divisions of competition (I, II, or III), decided upon and joined by the individual college and/or university member, and based on the level of play that institution wishes to offer their current and future student-athletes (NCAA, 2017). The NCAA divisions include: (1) the division I (one) level of competition which is the most competitive, maintains mostly scholarship student-athletes, and is the most highly publicized division of intercollegiate sport, (2) the division II (two) level of competition with lower levels of competitiveness, funding, and scholarship offerings, and (3) the division III level of competition which is the least competitive division of play, with no scholarship offerings for student-athletes. Across all three levels of NCAA competition, the proportion of women assistant coaches has declined since 2014 when women represented roughly 56.7% of assistant coaches for all women's programs, to 51.1% during the 2016–2017 athletic season, to 49.4% during the 2017–2018 athletic season (Lapchick, 2018; NCAA, 2017). This underrepresentation of women assistant coaches appears to directly translate to the underrepresentation of women head coaches. Across all three NCAA divisions of play, women held only 40.8% of the head coaching roles for women's programs (Lapchick, 2018). The consequence of this decline can be further understood based on the popularity of sport at the NCAA level within the United States. Specifically, the U.S. is largely alone in this higher education structure of sport being combined with academics. For this reason, the underrepresentation of women in NCAA sport leadership roles is highly concerning as this nation-wide popularity has generated a great deal of media exposure for NCAA athletes, coaches, institutions, and administrators. If women role models are not present within these publicized spaces, the underrepresentation of women sport leaders is likely to remain intact in the future (Hancock & Hums, 2016). A lower proportion of women assistant coaches at the North American professional league level also exists as men represent 99% of the assistant coaches for male professional leagues within the United States (i.e., National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Hockey League (NHL), and the National Football League (NFL) (Lapchick, 2016). To date, studies aimed at examining the factors associated with occupational turnover of women assistant coaches have not yet examined those individuals who have voluntarily quit the profession (Cunningham & Sagas, 2004; Sagas et al., 2006). Beyond that, according to Wells (2016), while the majority of coaching literature focuses on the head coach position, research pertaining to women assistant coaches is an underdeveloped area suited for an abundance of future inquiry. Given that women assistant coaches should be a large contributor to the head coach occupation pipeline, understanding their experiences within the profession is increasingly important (Wells, 2016). This will be accomplished through an investigation of a distinct and underdeveloped barrier in sport literature, voluntary occupational turnover. It is important that the sport industry strives to better understand why women are exiting the profession prior to reaching leadership positions, as recent research has challenged the stereotypical notion that men are naturally more successful in sport leadership roles (Darvin, Pegoraro, & Berri, 2018). Darvin et al. (2018) previously determined that 2

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men did not outperform women in the role of head coach as it pertained to the individual development of their players and the wins produced by the members of their program. Based on these findings, as well as similar findings related to the effective leadership capabilities of women, additional inquiries aimed at determining why women are voluntarily exiting a profession that provides them with the necessary experience to succeed in and advance towards a leadership role should be conducted. In order to accomplish this task, the following research question directed this study: What are the lived and career experiences of former NCAA women assistant coaches who have engaged in voluntary occupational turnover?

2. Review of literature 2.1. Women and the sport industry While women remain underrepresented in positions of power in a myriad of industry segments, examining the lived and career experiences of former women assistant coaches is especially important when considering the unique state of the sport industry; an industry that maintains some of the highest levels of and reliance placed upon masculinity and male dominance (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014; Katz, Walker, & Hindman, 2018). Specifically, sport has been defined as a space whereby boys become men and men become gods through their athletic achievement, and the concept of sport as a highly gendered space has been formulated based on the exhibition of and foundation in masculinity (Anderson, 2009; Burton, 2015; Hancock, Darvin, & Walker, 2018; Katz et al., 2018; Schull & Kihl, 2018). Said differently, sport is often used to “actively construct boys and men to exhibit, value, and reproduce traditional notions of masculinity” (Anderson, 2009, p. 4). These preferences towards and the importance placed on masculine performances serves to increase the subordination of non-traditional forms of masculinity and dictates that only certain forms of masculinity (heterosexual, physically dominant) are acceptable (Madsen, 2016; Madsen et al., 2017; Schull & Kihl, 2018). The outcomes of the institutionalization of masculinity within sport are often extremely damaging. Researchers have indicated that discrimination is often compounded within male-dominated fields such as sport, as women are more likely to leave their jobs within these industries while men are more likely to see promotions and salary increases (Eagly & Carli, 2003). Additionally, occupational turnover for women within the sport industry is pervasive, and for those women who do remain findings have indicated that women in male gender-typed occupations often face penalties for their successes (Heilman, Wallen, Fuchs, & Tamkins, 2004). The lower proportion of women throughout varying levels of the sport industry, combined with the notion that sport is a hypermasculine and gendered space, may compound the lack of women leaders within these organizations, as men are given access to stronger networks and increased hiring opportunities (Fink, 2016; Katz et al., 2018).

2.2. Women and sport coaching Previous findings have established that even within entry-level roles, such as the assistant coach position, the opportunities for men and women are often enabled, shaped, and constrained by social contexts (e.g. Messner, 2009; Katz et al., 2018). These social contexts throughout sport continuously create, maintain, and subsequently recreate homogeneous hierarchies (Wells, 2016). As a result, women often have difficulty initially entering the coaching profession as an assistant, or continuing along the coaching pipeline (Wells, 2016). Many of these social contexts are applicable within a variety of sport sectors, as women are often discouraged from coaching roles even at the lowest levels of sport competition. According to Messener (2009), men hold positions as coaches more frequently within youth sport and women are more often seen in roles of team management. These gendered team assignments may subsequently set the stage for stereotypical hiring practices at higher levels of sport competition, as youth athletes are socialized to believe early on that men coach and women manage (Messener, 2009). According to Messener (2009), “the head coach, nearly always a man, is the leader and public face of the team; the team parent, nearly always a woman, is working less visibly behind the scenes, doing the housekeeping; support work” (p. 29). The preferences placed on maintaining men assistant coaches in sport competition as early as the youth level likely reinforces the gendered nature of sport along with the gender-based stereotyping that occurs within hiring practices, whether formal or informal, throughout the industry (LaVoi, 2013). According to Schull and Kihl (2018), men are often privileged in sport career settings based on gendered leadership constructs. Additionally, according to Katz et al. (2018), women largely rely on informal networks, and a reliance on informal networking likely prevents the successful achievement of sport industry careers. In further support of those findings, when questioned about the decision to appoint more men assistant coaches at the youth level, many male coaches admitted they had not considered the gendered placements and often assumed women would prefer roles as managers (e.g. Messener, 2009). Findings have further illustrated discrepancies with the distinction in athletic experience that men and women assistant coaches maintain (Wells, 2016). While women assistant coaches' transition into the profession following their elite-level playing career, men assistant coaches do not come equipped to the role with the same elite-level playing experiences as often (Wells, 2016). Further, researchers have indicated that women student-athletes do not differ in their coaching self-efficacy when compared to men studentathletes (Everhart & Chelladurai, 1998). Beyond that, women student-athletes who played under a woman head coach often express less concern with perceived discrimination in hiring or otherwise (Everhart & Chelladurai, 1998). Implying that women who have elite-level playing experiences may consider the sport coaching profession as a viable option further solidifies the importance of ensuring additional women coaches are represented for women's programs in the future.

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2.3. Occupational turnover The concept of occupational turnover is an essential aspect of the current investigation. Specifically, occupational turnover is defined as one's plan, desire, and intent to leave his or her profession (Meyer, Allen, & Smith, 1993). This process is significant due to the fact that the intention to leave one's occupation is usually extremely difficult to make, given the implications of exiting an entire occupational segment (Blau, 2007). This process is often compounded by the personal investments made to the occupation (Blau, 2007). This practice is also relatively uncommon among workers. For example, U.S. employees have a higher chance of changing their organization than they do changing their occupation (Bolles, 2006). According to Bolles (2006), the average employee under the age of 35 will search for a similar job within a different organization roughly every one to three years and an employee over the age of 35 will seek out this change every five to eight years. In contrast, a complete change in an occupation will only occur three times over the course of an individual lifetime (Bolles, 2006). Additionally, previous findings have determined that leaving one's organization is a much easier process than leaving one's occupation. This is largely due to the increased costs, such as training, human capital investments, disrupted work relationships, abandoned networks, lost time, and lost income (Blau, 2007). Thus, the process of occupational turnover is quite extreme, and investigations of this phenomenon are very rare. Specific to the sport industry, it is a discouraging phenomenon that occupational turnover may be more common among women sport coaches because, “such investments are costly in terms of time, monetary resources, and the psychological toll on the individual coach” (Cunningham & Sagas, 2004 p. 239). This conundrum is further compounded by previous findings that suggest women coaches maintain higher intentions to leave the occupation than their male counterparts (e.g. Sagas et al., 2006). The act itself is also bolstered by the concept of ‘voluntary turnover’ which differs from ‘involuntary turnover’. Voluntary turnover is under the volition of the individual coach, and therefore this individual chooses to leave the occupation on their own (Cunningham & Sagas, 2004). On the other hand, involuntary turnover suggests that a coach was forced out of an occupation in some manner, was fired, or the coach was not rehired for the following season (Cunningham & Sagas, 2004). Voluntary turnover, to this point, has not been investigated from the perspective of women assistant coaches, and in general studies on voluntary turnover are rare (Blau, 2007). Instead, much of the previous investigations have focused on occupational turnover intentions, rather than the process of leaving an entire professional segment (Blau, 2007). 3. Conceptual considerations 3.1. Role congruity theory Positions of leadership within the United States workforce are consistently reinforced as masculine spaces (Burton & Leberman, 2017). These institutionalized assumptions typically rely on the notion that successful leadership requires agentic personality traits that have been traditionally and stereotypically ascribed to men (Heilman, 2012). This belief transcends historical contexts as many theories of leadership focus on masculine qualities as prerequisites for the advancement to positions of power (Eagly, 2007). The outcomes of such processes have resulted in a lower proportion of women in leadership roles across a variety of industry segments, including the sport industry (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014; Eagly & Carli, 2007; Lapchick, 2018). For example, leadership roles at the higher education level both academically and athletically are dominated by men (Lapchick, 2018). Women represent 22% of college/ university presidents in the United States, and at the highest level of NCAA competition (division I) women only represent 9.2% of athletic directors (Lapchick, 2018). For the head coach role, women represent 40.1% of head coaches of women's programs at the NCAA division I level, 35.8% of head coaches of women's programs at the NCAA division II level, and 44.3% of head coaches at the NCAA division III level (Lapchick, 2018). Globally, Lapchick (2016) brashly surmised, “leadership in international sport is an exclusive club of men” (p. 1). While women's involvement within the workforce has increased throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, this sustained underrepresentation of women holding positions of leadership within male-dominated industries continues to highlight the barriers that women will face in reaching those roles (Turk, 2016). Therefore, role congruity theory (RCT) is a framework that assisted in the development of the current investigation as it relates to processes associated with the sport industry (i.e. winning at all costs and controlling behaviors) that may lead to the voluntary departure of women and a resulting ‘pipeline issue’ (Hancock & Hums, 2016; Eagly & Karau, 2002). Further, the tenants of RCT have been previously utilized within the sport literature to examine the underrepresentation of women within the field (e.g. Darvin et al., 2018; Madsen, 2016; Madsen et al., 2017; Schull & Kihl, 2018). RCT details the presumed incongruity or ‘lack of fit’ women may have in terms of specific occupations and levels of leadership within an organization. Specific to the current study, women are often underrepresented within the sport industry due to a perceived ‘lack of fit’ with the characteristics stereotypically assumed as essential to success. For example, sport leadership positions tend to favor men as this role is assumed to require a more agentic personality, which is often stereotypically associated with men. Women on the other hand, are stereotypically assumed to maintain traits that are more communal in nature. The assignment of these stereotypical personality traits often results in fewer women within positions of power and leadership, and women role models are severely lacking throughout the sport industry (LaVoi, 2016; Madsen, 2016). For example, traditional gender role beliefs likely contribute to the associations drawn between sport, successful leadership, and masculinity as women athletes tend to view their women coaches more negatively than their men coaches (Madsen, 2016). The stereotypes associated with the sexes, along with the stereotypes associated with specific social roles, contribute to the adverse treatment of women in leadership positions as well as their opportunities in gaining leadership roles. More specifically, RCT holds that there is a potential for prejudice when individuals hold a stereotype about a particular social group that is incongruent with the attributes considered essential to success in certain classes of social roles (Eagly & Karau, 2002). When a stereotyped 4

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individual seeks to obtain an incongruent social role, this inconsistency will often lower the evaluation of that individual (Madsen, 2016). Beyond that, and based largely on the associations drawn between RCT, incongruity, and the sport industry, women may fall victim to clustering within certain sport occupations such as coaching (Madsen et al., 2017). Specifically, previous researchers have determined that masculine traits are more commonly aligned with the head coach position than with lower level coaching roles (Madsen et al., 2017). Overall, the communal qualities people often associate with women (i.e. warmth and selflessness), habitually diverge from the agentic qualities associated with men and success in masculine spaces (i.e. assertiveness and instrumentality) (Eagly & Carli, 2007). For these reasons, the development of the industry has lent itself to specific processes that women employees may not align with or cannot find success in, such as winning at all costs and controlling behaviors (Burton & Leberman, 2017b; Schull, Shaw, & Kihl, 2013). This presumed misalignment may contribute to the voluntary occupational turnover of women sport coaches. 3.2. ‘Winning at all costs’ For the purpose of further developing the current investigation it is also important to draw attention to the current model of success within the sport industry, as it is often defined in terms of objective statistics such as win-loss outcomes and revenue generation. These aspects of the industry tend to cater towards specific sport programs that generate the highest amount of revenue (i.e. football and men's basketball) and increased visibility for an institution (Gearity, 2010). The overarching assumption through this association, and based on the tenants of RCT, is that women do not possess that correct skill set to manage those elite-level programs and teams. Therefore, the ‘winning at all costs’ paradigm likely privileges male leadership advancement as men are stereotypically assumed to possess the skill sets that are better suited to successfully manage those programs (Burton & Leberman, 2017b; Madsen, 2016; Schull & Kihl, 2018). Specifically, men are stereotypically assumed to maintain agentic traits that are considered essential in driving a winning sports program (Burton, 2015). For example, previous findings have indicated that women student-athletes may negatively evaluate their women coaches based on this perceived misalignment (e.g. Madsen, 2016). The traits stereotypically associated with sport leadership roles and the importance placed on winning at all costs may also influence the clustering of men and women within the coaching career (Madsen et al., 2017) There are also ethical implications and moral inconsistencies that emerge from the ‘winning at all costs’ paradigm that may subsequently disadvantage women. According to research conducted by the Cohn and Livingston (2016), women are rated as maintaining ethical leadership in higher proportions when compared to men. Further, Burton and Leberman (2017b) have asserted that, “with a focus on winning, often winning at all costs, leadership may take on more destructive forms that result in structures, systems, rewards, and organizational norms which value winning (and profit generation) above any other organizational goal” (pg. 151). The result of this prevailing structure within sport is that winning as a measurement of success goes unchallenged. Gearity (2010) argues, “… the winning discourse has soaked every fabric of sport, it is seemingly natural, self-evident, and accurate to use wins and losses as the measure of a coach's effectiveness” (pg. 70). These actions may take on a life of their own, as coaches, researchers, stakeholders, and the media continuously reinforce the importance of winning as a measurement of leadership ability (Gearity, 2010). This system likely disadvantages women, who more often than men maintain qualities that do not stereotypically align with the agentic and transactional nature of the ‘winning at all costs’ paradigm and who also place a higher level of importance on life-success over career-success (Schull & Kihl, 2018). 3.3. Controlling coach behaviors Given that the ‘winning at all costs paradigm’ has sustained as the dominant ideology within sport competition, this standard lends itself to numerous sources of control specific to the coaching profession (Matosic et al., 2017). Due to this system, there are certain behaviors that coaches have adopted in order to maintain or reach levels of success (i.e. more wins). “…Controlling coach behaviors are evident when coaches are authoritarian and use pressuring techniques to impose specific ways of feeling, thinking, and behaving upon their athletes' (Matosic et al., 2017, p. 254). Coaches may fall victim to these controlling behaviors if they find themselves using manipulative strategies to influence their subordinates (Matosic et al., 2017). These manipulative actions typically manifest themselves as outcome-contingent rewards, yelling, high-handed statements, contingent affections, and normative comparisons (Bartholomew, Ntoumanis, & Thogersen-Ntoumani, 2009). Furthermore, controlling coaches may employ guilt-inducing tactics in order to express disapproval, and may belittle athletes during a game or practice setting (Bartholomew et al., 2009). Previous sport management research has implemented the Leader Member Exchange Theory in an attempt to examine “in-group” and “out-group” relationships within team settings and this concept may be directly related to controlling environments (Case, 1998). Similar to the manipulative strategies implemented by controlling leaders, these findings have indicated “in-group” members have been found to receive benefits such as increased job latitude, influence with decision making, and support (Case, 1998). Further, previous researchers have situated the concept of controlling coach behaviors with a personality trait known as narcissism (e.g. Matosic et al., 2017). According to Matosic et al. (2017), there is reason to assume that the leadership qualities associated with narcissism may make this personality trait an antecedent of controlling coach behaviors and destructive leadership practices. More specifically, “narcissists often behave in an authoritarian manner, take advantage of others, are hypersensitive to criticism, and become hostile when their planned actions turn ineffective” (Matosic, 2017, p. 255). The controlling aspects previously associated with the head coach role may lend themselves to the creation of controlling environments that are aided by manipulative tactics and result in destructive leadership outcomes for subordinates (Matosic, 2017). While examinations of sport and narcissism are relatively underdeveloped (e.g. Roberts, Woodman, & Sedikides, 2018), Matosic et al. (2017), applied the concept of narcissism to the controlling behaviors of a coach. These findings indicated narcissism levels in 5

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coaches are strongly connected to outcomes of frustration, oppression, and beliefs of inadequacy in athletes (Matosic et al., 2017). Additionally, while research is indeed limited within this space, Powers et al. (2016) sought to fill this gap with an analysis of toxic leadership culture within intercollegiate sport. Findings indicated that processes such as centralized control and the absence of effective department leadership may enhance destructive consequences (Powers et al., 2016). All in all, these processes have been coined as the ‘dark side’ of leadership and are largely destructive to subordinates (i.e. assistant coaches) (Matosic, 2017; Powers et al., 2016). 4. Methods The aforementioned conceptual considerations magnify the significance of this study and detail aspects of the sport industry that may hinder the sustainment of a career in sport coaching for women. As such, an application of the previous literature and conceptual considerations were utilized within the methodological development of the study and the interpretation of the data. This section will outline the data collection and analysis procedures that were utilized in order to investigate the voluntary occupational turnover phenomenon for NCAA women assistant coaches. 4.1. Research design The theoretical underpinnings of phenomenology and hermeneutics served to guide the research design of this study and an interpretative phenomenological approach led the analysis procedures (Heidegger, Macquarrie, & Robinson, 1962). In examinations concerned with human experience, a phenomenological approach involves gathering deep information and perceptions through qualitative methods such as interviews (Creswell, 2013). Overall, the focus of phenomenological examinations is to describe, in great detail, what all of the participants have in common as each of them experiences a similar situation and/or phenomenon (Creswell, 2013). The phenomenon under investigation is the act by which women assistant coaches are voluntarily quitting the occupation in excess of their male counterparts (Wells, 2016). For the purposes of exploring this phenomenon, hermeneutics is an appropriate theoretical approach as the concept suggests that interpretations are all that we have, and the description of life experiences is in itself an interpretative process (Kafle, 2011). As such, previous literature and conceptual considerations were applied within the interpretation process. Beyond that, hermeneutics add an interpretive element to the analysis procedures as this process illuminates meanings and assumptions in the participants' texts (Ajjawi & Higgs, 2007). 4.2. Background of the researcher Under the guidance of hermeneutics and phenomenology the current research design called for a self-reflection done by the main researcher, or the individual with the most interaction with participants. Hermeneutics diverges from the other phenomenological schools in that it does not believe that personal biases, histories, or experiences can be fully and intentionally bracketed or suspended throughout the data collection and analysis procedures (Kafle, 2011). Therefore, it is important to give a brief account of my own biases as well as a brief description of my own experiences within the field of sport coaching. Creswell (2013) acknowledged that the role of the qualitative researcher is to interact with each participant in order to obtain a more in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. As such, the interactions require an acknowledgement and management of all personal views of the researcher throughout the data collection, analysis, and interpretation process (Creswell, 2013). To begin, I am a White female of United States citizenship who has previous experience as an NCAA student-athlete, high school varsity athlete, and club team member. I have been previously employed as an assistant coach at the interscholastic and NCAA intercollegiate levels of competition for a time period of roughly three years. Outside of the sport coaching profession, I have previously served as an athletic administrator and intern with NCAA intercollegiate athletic departments for roughly five years. Within my athletic administrative roles, I had consistent contact with coaches, student-athletes, officials, and athletic administrators. The experiences I maintained within the sport industry provided an avenue for me to relate with the participants and enabled me to build a rapport with each of them. According to Creswell (2013), this is an important aspect of the phenomenological qualitative approach. These previous experiences contributed to the development of the current investigation. Additionally, the network I developed while working throughout the interscholastic and intercollegiate sport industry assisted with the recruitment of participants for this investigation. 4.3. Sampling Purposeful sampling was utilized in order to select participants for this study and can be defined as the intentional selection of information-rich cases (Patton, 2002). This technique ensured that the participants maintained a high level of experience within the topic under investigation (Patton, 2002). Additionally, the sample was selected based on criterion sampling in that each individual met a specific condition required for participation, (e.g. Palinkas et al., 2015) along with a snowball sampling technique, which is often utilized when a population is difficult to identify or locate (Noy, 2008). The purposeful sampling technique began with four participants known to the researcher, and the snowball sampling technique lead to the accumulation of eight additional participants initially unknown to the researcher. All participants (n = 12) who were contacted agreed to participate in this study. The criteria for the selection of participants in this study were (1) identify as a woman, (2) must have voluntarily quit the assistant coaching profession within four years of this study, (3) served as an assistant coach at an NCAA institution, and (4) worked within the 6

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sport of women's basketball, women's soccer, women's swimming, or women's lacrosse. The four-year timeline was selected to ensure these participants had a strong recollection of their engagement with voluntary occupational turnover. The sports of women's basketball, women's soccer, women's swimming, and women's lacrosse were selected for two reasons, (1) both men and women maintain assistant coach and head coach positions of women's programs for these sports which provides an ability to interpret experiences depending on staff composition, and (2) it permits an interpretation of experiences within sports with opposing gender disparities at the level of head coach. According to the Tucker Center (2017), these selected sports represent a wide scope of gender equity for the position of head coach. The NCAA maintains three levels of competition, with the highest and most competitive represented as division I, followed by division II, and the lowest level division III. Specifically, women's lacrosse receives a grade of A for the percentage of female head coaches within NCAA DI (86.2%), DII (81.8%), and DIII (83.3%). Women's basketball received a grade of B for the percentage of female head coaches within NCAA DI (61.6%), and DIII (61.1%), while the sport receives a grade of C within NCAA DII (45%). Women's soccer receives a grade of D for the percentage of female head coaches within NCAA DI (26.2%), DII (31.3%), and a grade of C within NCAA DIII (50%). Finally, women's swimming received a grade of F for the percentage of female head coaches within NCAA DI (17.2%), NCAA DII (23.5%), and NCAA DIII (17.8%) (Tucker Center Report Card, 2017). 4.4. Data analysis At the conclusion of the interview cycle, data was transcribed through a third-party transcription service. The transcripts were then reviewed for accuracy. The interpretative element of the hermeneutics philosophy resulted in an interpretive phenomenological analysis structure (IPA), one that strives to transform the collected data into a textual product that provides each reader with contextually rich perspectives about the phenomenon of voluntary occupational turnover among NCAA women assistant coaches (Smith, 2004). Under this approach, Pietkiewicz and Smith (2014) recommend a three-step process of analysis that was utilized for this study. These steps were utilized as I analyzed the data, including: (1) multiple reading and making notes, (2) transforming notes into emergent themes, and (3) seeking relationships and clustering themes. 4.5. Trustworthiness Qualitative examinations require an establishment of trustworthiness to ensure the study is appropriately executed, and in order to do so researchers must demonstrate credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Overall, credibility was established within this current study via multiple methods such as, prolonged engagement, member-checks, reflexive note taking, triangulation, thick description, and the use of the participants own words throughout. To accomplish transferability, thick descriptions and an ample number of direct quotes have been provided so that the reader is able to make their own transfers from the report. The dependability of the results was accomplished through detailed descriptions throughout the methodology to ensure the reader can understand the research practices utilized. In order to ensure confirmability an audit trail allowed the reader to trace the course of the research in a step-by-step manner and receive a better sense of the decisions made by the researcher (Shenton, 2004). 4.6. Participants 12 former NCAA women assistant coaches participated in this study. Table 1 provides the aggregated data for the participants. Specific to the individual participants, Table 2 provides a corresponding participant number used for the results and presentation of participant quotes, along with individual demographics. 5. Results Several themes emerged as these women shared their experiences with voluntary occupational turnover. The following section will expand upon the emergent themes of: (1) recruiting toxicity, (2) destructive leadership, (3) burnout, and (4) non-nuclear family balance. Table 1 Participant aggregated demographics. Age Race Education Sexual orientation Relationship status Children Final coaching salary Previous playing experience Years in coaching

28 to 41 years (Avg. 33 years) 9 White, 3 Black 8 graduate degrees or higher 6 straight, 5 gay, 1 bi-sexual 4 married, 8 not married 2 have children, 10 do not have children $20,000 to $74,000 (Avg. $42,000) 9 Division I, 2 Division II, 1 Division III 2 to 14 years (Avg. 6.5 years)

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Table 2 Individual participant demographics. Participant

Race/ethnicity

Educational background

Sport(s) coached

NCAA Division(s)

Years as NCAA coach

Head coach gender

Final salary

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Caucasian Caucasian Caucasian Caucasian Caucasian Black Caucasian Caucasian Black Black Caucasian Caucasian

Bachelors Masters Masters Masters Masters Bachelors Masters Masters Bachelors Masters Masters Bachelors

Swimming Swimming Swimming Soccer Soccer & lacrosse Basketball Basketball Basketball Basketball Basketball Lacrosse Lacrosse

1 1 1, 1 1, 1 1 3 1 1, 1, 1,

10 15 6 4 7 4 5 2 8 9 14 6

Man Man Man Woman Woman Man Man Woman Man Man Woman Woman

$46,000 $42,000 $20,000 $30,00 $50,000 $42,000 $57,000 $20,000 $72,000 $37,000 $54,000 $38,000

2, 3 2, 3

2 3 2, 3

Note. All participants are former NCAA student-athletes.

5.1. Recruiting toxicity It became evident through the recollections of these participants that their decision to voluntarily exit the profession of sport coaching was due in part to the toxicity of the cultures they exited within. Specifically, these women detailed experiences that challenged their own ethical and moral compass. Often, this toxic culture was due to the emphasis placed on success and subsequently with the ethical/moral pressures associated with the overall recruiting process. Research has indicated that women often maintain higher preferences towards maintaining ethical and moral decision making as reported on by their subordinates (Cohn & Livingston, 2016). That being said, previous research within the sport management field has not yet specifically detailed the unethical components of sport coaching that may run counter to one's personal belief system and the outcomes therein. The trace amount of research concerned with the toxic nature of sport coaching have focused on concepts of hiring, control, and the win at all costs paradigm (Burton & Leberman, 2017; Schull et al., 2013). Specifically, scholars have attempted to challenge the winning at all costs paradigm that may disadvantage women given that with a focus on winning, cultures may take on more destructive forms that value winning and profit generation above any other organizational goal (Burton & Leberman, 2017; Gearity, 2010). Women often place a higher priority on life-success rather than career-success and therefore may have a more difficult time abiding by the normalization of winning as the measure of coaching effectiveness (Gearity, 2010). P4, a former assistant women's soccer coach at the NCAA division I level, described experiences with fellow coaches, “part of what has driven me out of coaching was the toxic culture that was on the sidelines in recruiting. I hated hearing the talk of other coaches. I just couldn't stand it.” P11, a former assistant women's lacrosse coach at both the NCAA division I and III levels, echoed similar sentiments surrounding the process of recruiting and its role in generating a toxic culture: I think the reason I said I hated it is because I saw recruiting become an ugly, ugly machine. We started to recruit kids, and when I say we I say as the whole [sports] world, [we started to] recruit kids that were way too young and the fact that programs were verbally committing eighth graders, it was unhealthy. Beyond that, P12, also a former NCAA women's lacrosse coach, recalled her experiences within the role of assistant coach and the culture surrounding the recruiting expectations: I was tired of hustling high school kids to try to come to your school… you don't want a 16-year-old committing to your program basically determining your value as an employee. It's one of those things where your job is constantly on the line because … [it's] based on performance and if you don't perform, then you're in jeopardy of losing it. We were basically on the phone with 15, 14, 16-year-old girls, trying to convince them to come to your school. Meanwhile, they were still high school freshman and high school sophomores and I didn't agree with that side of the program anymore. P5, a former assistant lacrosse and soccer coach with experience at all three NCAA divisions, felt very strongly that coaches often adhere blindly to this culture of winning at all costs and their actions throughout the recruiting process depict this adherence: … it's a verbal commitment, right, so at the end of the day that doesn't really mean a whole lot. There are a lot of coaches that were poaching other players, or players from the other school, that were [verbally] committed. You have new coaches come in, they de-commit the entire classes that were supposed to come in under another coach. Those kids are then out, left homeless. Random coaches are picking them up or no one picks them up. P5 further discussed her overall opinions towards the toxicity of recruiting as well and how that was a significant factor in her decision to voluntarily exit the profession: In my opinion, it was just wrong. I would talk to these kids over the phone. I think it was ninth grade. I don't think we were allowed to do eighth, to be honest, I think it was ninth. Anyway, they're tiny little kids. It's like, if I was to call you and say, “Hey. How's school?” “Good.” “What classes are you taking?” “Math and science.” Those are the conversations I was having. Honestly,

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that's pretty much how far I got with 60% of the kids I talked to and half of those kids were committing to play at [our school] in four years, for four years. P10, a former assistant basketball coach at both the NCAA division I and II levels, held similar opinions about the recruiting process based on her experiences: It was awful. I would never want to do it again. I didn't like the recruitment process, with deciding whether I was going to stay in [coaching] or get back into coaching that was probably one of the primary factors that made me say, ‘hmmm nope I don't like it.’ I think [club teams] have really changed the scope of athletics, [club] coaches and some high school coaches that have really good players are pre-Madonna's. And I didn't like that piece. I didn't like the politics of at all. These sentiments were further echoed by P11: This experience to me is supposed to enhance the academic experience for a student-athlete and how can an eighth grader know what they truly want to do and what institution they're going to thrive that. And I don't think that an eighth grader or freshmen can truly get on campus one time and be like, this is where I see myself growing as a young adult. So I struggled. I was in a position where my job was to recruit, and philosophically I struggled with it, because I didn't think it was healthy for those involved. And on the flip side of it too, I think with early recruiting we really saw an influx of transfers and an influx of student-athletes that were not happy with the choices [they] made… I saw the landscape of collegiate athletics changing, to very much a business model. Previous researchers have determined that the intercollegiate coaching environment often contributes to the marginalization of women coaches (Greenhill, Auld, Cuskelly, & Hooper, 2009). The sentiments expressed by the participants regarding the process of recruiting student-athletes may be a result of the NCAA takeover of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) in 1982, and the resultant culture change in women's intercollegiate sport after that point (Bell, 2007). Once the NCAA sparked the disbandment of the AIAW, an organization concerned with sustaining a more holistic academic and athletic experience for women student-athletes, the business model approach held on the men's side began to infiltrate women's intercollegiate sport. The NCAA saw the revenue potential of several women's sports (i.e. basketball and softball) and wanted to take full advantage of those opportunities (Bell, 2007). 5.2. Destructive leadership While destructive leadership styles have not been connected to the occupational turnover of women assistant coaches, previous findings concerned with sport leadership and narcissism have determined that controlling coach behaviors can negatively influence subordinates (e.g. Matosic et al., 2017). Additional research outside the sport industry has indicated that the dark side of organizational leadership has grown over the past decade (Judge, Piccolo, & Kosalka, 2009; Neves & Schyns, 2018). This dark side of leadership includes actions such as abusive supervision, bossing, and destructive and toxic leadership strategies (Schyns & Schilling, 2013). Several of the participants described their experiences with controlling environments and a few specifically mentioned actions on behalf of their head coach that generated this type of environment. P4, a former division I soccer coach shared: There's a saying in coaching that just about makes my blood boil… especially in college coaching, that, what a silly profession because we base our livelihood on the performance of 18-year-old and 19-year-old [kids]. And that makes my blood boil, because that is exactly the wrong perspective in coaching. If your value is based on how an 18-year-old performs in a sport, then you need to find a different profession, because there's so much more to coaching… Your value should lie in how you prepare an 18-year-old for performance, on and off the field. And that dichotomy to me just speaks to the personality characteristics of those who coach, because they want to have power over the people. The women also detailed destructive leadership practices that significantly impacted their decision to voluntarily exit the profession. P8, a former NCAA division III assistant basketball coach, recalled: I personally experienced some interactions with head coaches in my conference who didn't like the head coach I played under, so they ignored me even though I was coaching for a completely different program. I also witnessed predatory behaviors from head coaches of top schools in terms of head coaches praying on younger coaches, pressuring them, sexual advances, and younger coaches would basically go along with it because they wanted to further their career. It didn't settle well with me and I didn't want to be a part of that. P4, a former NCAA division I assistant coach, perceived that the destructive behaviors of coaches were based on a need for power within this role: I would just really pin it on the overall human tendency to self-inflate… aggrandize… the desire to be important, or at least act like you are. When I say it's toxic, it's not just toxic on the recruiting sidelines, it's toxic on the actual sideline. It's toxic in training sessions and in games, because of people in positions of power… It's no different than any other contest, they want to maintain and build that power. So, for perspective, on the recruiting sideline, how do you maintain and build your power as a human? You celebrate people who are at great programs and you look down your nose at people who are at bad programs. Regardless of the actual person. P8 had similar experiences during her time on the recruiting trail: 9

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It was all about status. Who you said hi to, who said hi to you. Coaches would even bring foods they thought higher-level coaches liked so they could sit with them and make conversation. It was all about who was a good connection to have. Even with recruiting, when you're supposed to be finding players for your program, coaches were looking to network for their careers. Narcissists often engage in destructive leadership practices, operate within a need for power, and coaching has been framed as a social process that is inherently laden with power (LaVoi, 2016). Previous scholars have employed the work of Michel Foucault in an attempt to understand the connections of power and coaching (LaVoi, 2016). According to LaVoi (2016), “Foucault helps to problematize the development and formation of dominant coaching behaviors that discipline, oppress, control, and negatively impact autonomy, health, wellbeing, development, and performance of both athletes and coaches” (p. 27). The experiences of the women within the current study can certainly be placed within this concept of power and can be interpreted to align with the negative outcomes of narcissistic leadership. For example, P6, a former assistant basketball coach at the NCAA division I level, described her own toxic environment: My head coach was just very degrading with words at times. [My head] coach was just not very understanding. He didn't care anything about you. He cared about winning games. And that was how it was. He didn't care how he treated the assistants. He didn't care how he treated the players. He told a player that she looked like she had cerebral palsy, because that's just what he thought was funny at the time. P6 further elaborated on the tendencies she began to develop as a result of the head coach leadership she experienced: So my first year I was a ‘yes woman’, everything was “hey can you go do this?” “Yeah, sure.” “Hey, can you do this?” “Yeah.” I'm mad at myself for that because I put myself in a position to allow his [head coach] behaviors to be the way it was, but I didn't know better. And so… those are the things that I had to do in order for my boss [head coach] to feel you know, ‘all right, I trust her.’ So, there were times when certain things would happen with the timing of the practices going over. I didn't say anything my first year. I was just like, all right, whatever that's fine, we're going over practice, it's not a big deal. But looking back, it is a big deal and it was feeding into the nastiness of who I was – who my boss was… the head coach. These experiences are not entirely uncommon, and subordinates may perpetuate unethical actions when a superior is involved (Milgram, 1963). For example, the famous Yale shock experiment provided support for the concept that leaders hold a tremendous amount of weight in morally unstable situations (Milgram, 1963). Obedience to authority is not an uncommon tenant, especially when that leader holds power over your career endeavors (Milgram, 1963). Beyond that, previous researchers have also indicated that coach ethical leadership can directly influence the ethical climate of a team or program (e.g. Constandt, De Waegeneer, & Willem, 2018). P10, a former assistant basketball coach, had similar experiences with her head coach and destructive leadership: … there were moments when players were, you know, after games it's late and coach is reaching out to us saying X, Y, Z, or telling us we need to be in the gym… and we just don't think it's appropriate for not only a coach but a male coach to be calling or sending us text messages telling us that we need to get our act together late at night and it… made them feel really uncomfortable. P7, a former assistant basketball coach at the NCAA division I level, similarly recalled aligning with destructive practices to please her head coach: I think that there was this consistent pressure on our staff to be very good because I think that my head coach knew that he wanted to get out. So there was a specific expectation any time we would play a [top] team, that we would [beat them]. So those in-state rivalries, those mattered like crazy. There were just specific things we had to do, for [our head coach] to get to the next level. And it was one of those things where it was just for [the head coach]. So there was a “I'll take you with me” kind of thing, but it was still kind of all about him. Individuals with destructive leadership tendencies often utilize individuals as resources and consider them to be an aspect of advancing themselves (Bartholomew et al., 2009). P1, a former assistant swimming coach at the NCAA division I level, described similar destructive leadership encounters with her head coach: There were points where I had to put my career on the line to say either this happens or I can't be a part of it, and that happened multiple times and that should have been a huge warning sign for me, and it was. When I put my career on the line the last time, I was ready to leave. And I don't know if I was ready to leave the previous times, but incidences happened that worked against what I believed in. I say this because there were things that were happening within the program that I did not agree with in terms of, I want to say this well, things that went against my value system. And it had gotten to the point where I did not feel like I could continue coaching at that institution if those things were to continue to [happen]. It was… giving a kid a third, a fourth, a fifth chance when they had done some things that were inappropriate or wrong outside of the hazing realm. Similar to the experiences of P1, previous findings have determined that coaches, and especially head coaches, often serve to construct their organizational values (Shaw & Allen, 2009). P9, a former division 1 coach, also had recollections of destructive leadership: I felt like my boss, instead of making [the sport] fun, or even making it something that [the student-athletes] wanted to do, it became something they dreaded doing, because all he was, was negative. He talked to them any kind of way. 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for a coach who in four years…she said, “Shit” one time. And when she said it, everybody looked at each other like, “Did she just curse?” So you can get your message across without degrading someone. And there's differences between, “Oh, shit, that was terrible.” And then saying, “You played like shit!” Those are two different statements, and they come across two different ways. And [the head coach I worked for] was more of the second way, he was like, “You're the worst fucking player on the [team], and I don't know why you have a scholarship!” You're degrading her when she already feels like the world is about to collapse on her chest. And that was a constant thing. Due to these experiences, P9 further elaborated on her emotions associated with her voluntary departure: I felt like I was getting away from who I am by staying working for him. And it wasn't beneficial at all. But it wasn't healthy for me. I felt it getting worse and worse. It wasn't going to get any better, so I just removed myself. I didn't want to be a part of a program like that. I didn't want my name attached to what was going on. We could have a losing season, but we're going to lose the right way. So it's not about the losses, it's about how we lose, and how we treat the athletes. And neither one of those were going in the right direction. I removed myself. P12, a former divisions I, II, and III assistant coach, experienced similar occurrences with her head coach, and even felt that she could not leave the program mid-season as she worried about her players and how the head coach would treat them once she departed, “I knew that some of them were not being treated very nicely and she [the head coach] would make comments about girls' weight and how they're too slow because that they need to lose 10 pounds or things along those lines. Just not a very nice [person].” Overall, the women described experiences that embodied the theme of destructive leadership. The participants noted administrators, head coaches that they worked for, as well as fellow coaches within their respective sport and division who embodied this style of leadership. Concepts associated with destructive leadership have not been lost on the leaking pipeline discussion of women head coach candidates as previous findings have detailed the industry alignment with the winning at all costs paradigm and some of the subsequent tendencies therein (Burton & Leberman, 2017b). Specifically, the outcomes of such an environment have been related to controlling coach behaviors, ethical and moral inconsistencies, and the negative narcissistic tendencies of leaders (Gearity, 2010; Shaw & Allen, 2009). That being said, to this point only a trace amount of research has been dedicated to investigating the ethical and moral implications of the sport coaching profession. The concept of destructive leadership experiences for assistant coaches is a new realm of exploration. 5.3. Burnout The women detailed occurrences throughout their tenure they felt eventually led to burnout, including the hours worked, the salary they earned, as well as the process of recruiting. Research has indicated that negative perceptions currently exist regarding the pursuit of or staying in a coaching career due to feeling underpaid and undervalued (Greenhill et al., 2009). Beyond that, some coaches have previously identified stress as a component of their burnout along with a perceived need for perfectionism within the role (Bradford & Keshock, 2009; Dixon & Bruening, 2007; Kilty, 2006). According to Kelley and Gill (1993), women typically report higher levels of burnout than men. These instances of burnout have also been encountered regardless of competition level, as Kelley, Eklund, and Ritter-Taylor (1999) determined that female coaches found the profession stressful at higher levels than did male coaches. The participants within the current study echoed these previous sentiments and recalled overall experiences that led to burnout. P7, a former basketball coach recalled, “I didn't want to be [recruiting in a remote location] in July, every July, sitting in a gym from 8am until 11pm. I didn't want to be on a court for six hours a day, I didn't want to do all of those things.” Similarly, P2, a former swimming coaching, explained: When I decided to voluntarily leave coaching… I was really burnt out. I had given everything I had, and I wanted to have my own life. That was the biggest thing. I wanted to have my own life that [didn't] revolve around 17-year-old [kids], making a decision to come and [compete] for me. P2 elaborated further on her struggle with burnout as it related to the emotional labor she was required to expend and the toll this labor took on her mentally and emotionally: I felt like I was working so many hours of the day. Yeah, I took time to physically take care of myself, but I don't think I took enough time to emotionally take care of myself, or to step away. I didn't have a good role model for that. My head coach, he was in the office 14 hours of the day. He would be there at 5:15 in the morning pretty much every day, even though we didn't have practice. He would be there early reading the papers, catching up on the news, catching up on emails, and he would be there until 7 o'clock at night. So I didn't have a good role model for taking care of myself. He didn't take very many vacations, and my vacations were pretty much always going home and seeing my family. I just got to a point where I couldn't keep going. P5, a former soccer and lacrosse coach, discussed her experiences that inevitably generated feelings of burnout. Similar to previous findings that discuss the impacts of stress as well as the concept of perfectionism aligning with experiences in a coaching role (e.g. Kilty, 2006), P5 recalled: I think it's a vicious cycle of, if the clubs were not a thing, these kids would probably go to the camps at the respective colleges. The coaches would be able to see them play there. That would be enough. The coaches would have [a] life outside of [their sport], because [right now] they're recruiting every single weekend at all these tournaments. As a coach you feel like if you miss one 11

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tournament, you might miss a kid. So it ramped up recruiting because there were more players to be seen. And then there were more events to be exposed at, so maybe 12 recruiting events a year jumped to 30 or 40. Further, P11, a former lacrosse coach, recalled a sense of burnout based on the low salary: … with coaching, if you're not one of the top tier coaches that have a program where you can financially succeed in camps and clinics pretty much by your name alone or your institution's name, it's very hard outside of your salary to make money…You can work camps and clinics, but you're working for someone else and that money is capped and it also eats up your time if it's your free time or you're trying to do it while recruiting. The salary restrictions influenced P1 as well: I can't work 90 hours [a week], I'm eight months pregnant right now, and be eight months pregnant. And make $30,000. I make double that now and I work 9 to 5 for five days a week, and it's a hard pill for me to swallow because ultimately my passion is [coaching]. Both P5, a former soccer and lacrosse coach, and P8, a former basketball coach, had similar sentiments towards the work required and the salary received. P5 stated, “financially I couldn't do it anymore. I was spreading myself thin. Since I graduated I worked two, if not three jobs. In coaching I was always working full-time making much less than people earn working part-time.” P8 recalled significant burnout based on her dual role as an administrator and assistant coach for her athletic department: It just got to this point where it was overwhelming, I was working for both the athletic director and my head coach because the assistant coach salary didn't pay enough on its own. So I had to work two full-time jobs, plus recruiting, plus the other things, and was barely making enough money to get by. That became too much for me, that's where the exhaustion set in. These dual roles are not uncommon, and coaches within smaller schools or lower level divisions often have appointments that require efforts in administration or teaching (LaVoi & Dutove, 2012). Beyond that, P3 had a unique experience as an assistant swimming coach based on her time working within each of the three NCAA divisions. This experience allowed her to reflect upon the burnout she experienced as an assistant coach overall: People learn it's a sense of pride in [NCAA] division I on how much they work, and so for [NCAA] division 1, now with some reflection, and then going back to the experience of coaching at those [other NCAA] levels, I enjoyed coaching lot more when it didn't take 80 hours of my life each week, when I could do it in 40 or 50 hours a week [at a lower NCAA division] instead of 80 hours. I was probably a happier, nicer, better coach. P6, a former division I basketball coach, echoed some of the same sentiments: It became way too demanding for me. I'm young, but I also have a very good concept of hard work and what I should do. I've been an athlete my whole life, so I don't cut corners. I made sure every day I woke up, I worked my butt off, every day. [The head coach] never had to ask me, “Hey, do you have this for me?” It was always there. But it got to a point where I couldn't do it, I couldn't keep it up anymore. Similar feelings have been expressed by student-athletes as well, substantiating the demanding nature of the industry (Brown, Glastetter-Fender, & Shelton, 2000). The burnout experienced by a few of the participants resulted in physical ailments that would occur once the season ended. For example, P2 recalled: When I was in season, it was pretty much 10–14 hours every day. I was up at 4–5 o'clock in the morning and I was getting home at 7 o'clock at night. Yes, I took a little bit of time out in the middle of the day, but I got tired. When it gets to be the off season, and probably my first three maybe even four years, I would get to the end of the season and I would get really sick. I actually got pneumonia one year. It was like I had been pushing so hard, physically and emotionally, and my body just couldn't do it anymore. I would fall down with a sickness and be sick for two or three weeks. Yes, I could still go to work, it's a cold, whatever, but then I developed pneumonia and oh my gosh, it's awful. Or a sinus infection. Sport coaching has been previously defined as a highly stressful occupation (Coupland, 2015; Frey, 2007). The psychological stress that has been associated with the role is often due to the complex demands of the position, just as these women indicated throughout their experiences (Potts, Didymus, & Kaiseler, 2018). The participants within the current study identified their experiences with burnout as a significant factor in their decision to voluntarily exit the profession. Often this was due to the time demands associated with the role, the expectations of leaders and administrations, as well as the lack of income associated with the hours worked. Previous investigations have identified that of the barriers associated with the lack of women in sport coaching, feeling underpaid and undervalued may be a significant factor (e.g. Greenhill et al., 2009). In a different vain, research has suggested that women may suffer an increased risk of burnout in sport coaching due to a perceived need to outperform male counterparts (LaVoi, 2016). While the women within this study did not explicitly identify feelings associated with outperforming male counterparts, several did identify aspects such as recruiting as highly stressful and pressured. Said differently, it was apparent that the women felt pressure associated with the recruitment process based on the competition experiences from other programs in order to land the best athletes.

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5.4. Non-nuclear family balance While previous researchers have focused mainly on nuclear families (i.e. spouse and children) within the concept of work-family balance (e.g. Dixon & Sagas, 2007), the participants identified factors outside of that traditional nuclear family structure that influenced their decision to voluntarily leave the profession of assistant coach. Previous findings have determined that family commitments can often hinder the persistence of women within the occupation of sport coaching (Kamphoff, 2010). Beyond that, findings have indicated that factors such as being single and not having children can make negotiating work-family balance easier and support a woman's persistence to remain within the field of coaching (Demers, 2009; Reade, Rodgers, & Norman, 2009). The experiences of these assistant coaches run counter to those previous findings, as several of the participants, who are single and without children, identified their lack of non-nuclear family balance (i.e. parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, friends, etc.) as a significant factor in their decision to leave the profession. For example, P7, expressed: “I wanted to be at my best friend's wedding and I wanted to be there when my sisters had kids, and just be more involved in life.” P12 shared similar sentiments: I didn't want to be six hours away anymore. I am the youngest by six years, so I have an older brother and my parents were a little bit older when they had him so my mom is currently 66 years old, but I'm not even [redacted age] yet. So my parents are a little bit older, [I] just [wanted] to be a little bit closer to them, spend some more time with my family. P6 shared similar experiences: It's the [student-athlete's] break… and my mom… it was her… birthday, and I said, “Hey, do you mind, my dad is sending my family, they are going on a trip. I would like to be there.” [The head coach] said, “Sure, that should be fine.” I said, “Okay, thank you.” My dad buys the trip. [The head coach] then contacts me, he pulled me into his office one day, maybe a week or two after we had the conversation, he goes, “I don't want you to go.” And I said, “What are you talking about? You don't want me to go where?” He said, “With your family. If the kids are on campus, you are here.” P6 expanded upon this experience further as she recalled the control her coach implemented over her: It was more of a control thing for him to make sure that I was there. And so when I started missing out on special moments with my family and my loved ones, I knew it was time for me to go, because at the end of the day that's a job. I was missing out on these insane moments with people who I can't get that time back. I can't get that moment back, and it became something where it was my job versus my family, my job versus my loved ones, my job versus myself. That's why I couldn't do it anymore. P5 held similar feelings: It just got to the point where I wasn't seeing my friends. I wasn't seeing my family. I was missing holidays. Easter, I missed things like that. Again, it can seem pretty minuscule for some people. For me, my sister started having kids. I now have three nephews. I was missing out on a lot. That's what's important in my life. P8 echoed these sentiments: I only had five days during Christmas to be with my family, two of those were flying out to them, and in the summer, I only had about a week to spend with my family because of recruiting, so that was definitely upsetting and a concern. I missed my younger sister growing up. And my friends were always super important to me, and during the season I had maybe a night every few weeks to see them and there really was never any weekend time to spend with them and I think all of that weighed on me. Previous investigations have indicated women are less likely to fall within the ‘live to work’ category and are also less likely to place a preference on work success over life success when compared to their male counterparts (Emslie & Hunt, 2009). For example, P2 recalled: I always felt like I didn't have a social life. I didn't have a life of my own. My life was finding [athletes], and my life was making [athletes] better. As a high-level assistant, my off-season was even less of a time [to] be with my family, or find a partner, or anything like that. P10 expressed similar concerns that led to her voluntary departure from the profession: Knowing that I often miss holidays and things with family, important things with my family and friends. All of those things are bubbling, right? It wasn't like, it was just like bam this last job did it, like this last job was the main reason. No, all of these things are kind of bubbling and festering. Overall, the women felt very strongly about the non-nuclear family balance they were missing within the occupation of sport coach. These women were not married, did not have children, but their parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, and friends all played a critical role in their lives. Previous investigations have been largely concerned with the concept of work-family or work-life balance, but have often overlooked the significant role family and friends play in women sport coaches' lives (Dixon & Bruening, 2007; Dixon & Sagas, 2007; LaVoi & Dutove, 2012). These experiences of former female assistant coaches indicate that individuals other than children or a spouse can generate detachment from the role and be a factor in ones' decision to voluntarily exit the profession.

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6. Discussion and implications Voluntary occupational turnover decisions of well-equipped women leadership candidates are a significant occurrence (Blau, 2007). The themes that described the participant's experiences and decisions to engage in the act of voluntary occupational turnover were (1) recruiting toxicity, (2) destructive leadership, (3) burnout, and (4) non-nuclear family balance. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature in several distinct ways. First, this study was unique as it was the first to examine the act of occupational turnover within the sport industry through the experiences of former NCAA women assistant coaches and thus extends the narrative of gender within the assistant coach and sport leadership literature (Cunningham, Doherty, & Gregg, 2007; Wells, 2016). While previous research concerned with the assistant coach role has focused largely on gender comparisons and descriptive analyses (e.g. Cunningham & Sagas, 2004; Darvin & Sagas, 2017; Sagas et al., 2006), these findings extend those investigations towards an overall understanding of the position as well as the experiences of women formerly employed within this occupation. As such, this study increases our knowledge of voluntary occupational turnover in sport for an underrepresented group. Occupational turnover is considered a significant life-event given the implications of exiting an entire occupational segment, and this occurrence is largely uncommon among workers (Blau, 2007). For this population of former women assistant coaches, very specific incidents contributed to their decision-making process, while others relied on more general synopses of their coaching tenure. Overall, it became evident that the decision to voluntarily leave the profession was a substantial one for these participants, often took years to become a final reality, and the experiences that contributed to those decisions should not be taken lightly (Blau, 2007). Second, the emergent themes did not include some of the prevailing barriers previous literature has determined are faced by women coaches and therefore extends our knowledge of the career experiences of this population (Burton, 2015; Demers, 2009; LaVoi & Dutove, 2012; Wells, 2016). The participants did not explicitly recall several of the dominant barriers that women coaches have associated with their experiences in the industry, such as stereotyping, discrimination, implicit biases, and gender-typed occupational segmentation (Burton, 2015; Madsen et al., 2017; Schull & Kihl, 2018). Instead, the participants recalled sport philosophies that generated environments of hostility and toxicity, while subsequently acknowledging a perceived lack of fit with the current culture of NCAA sport (Norman, 2010). This finding may subsequently extend the tenants of role congruity theory (RCT) as it relates to women in male-dominated industry segments. In conjunction with the ‘winning at all cost's’ paradigm, it is evident that these women fell victim to a perceived lack of fit within this industry segment due not solely to gender stereotyping, but rather more substantially due to the moral and ethical disagreements with superiors and the cultural constraints experienced within their respective programs (Eagly & Karau, 2002; Gearity, 2010). Given that all of the participants were former NCAA student-athletes and may have gained higher self-efficacy from that experience, this finding suggests a shift in the more traditional application of RCT; the application suggesting women face evaluations of incongruity in a male-dominated industry segment such as sport (Eagly & Karau, 2002; Madsen et al., 2017). Instead, the participants described moral and ethical compromises they were unwilling to make or adjust to and their incongruity with the coaching occupation was not solely based on perceived gender stereotypes. Based on these findings, it would appear a sport employee can be incongruent with a particular role based on a misalignment with an organizations moral and ethical standing. Specifically, the participants shared experiences that contributed to the toxic culture of the industry leading to a perceived lack of fit, including experiences with fellow coaches, recruiting obligations, as well as the destructive leadership style of the head coach they worked for. The recollections of the participants are similar to previous researchers' arguments that a ‘winning at all costs’ paradigm is plaguing the intercollegiate sport industry (Gearity, 2010). At times these experiences were described as unethical or immoral, and the participants indicated that the actions of the head coach or processes within the organization challenged their own values and belief systems. This finding aligns with researches who have determined the ethical leadership of a head coach can directly influence the ethical climate of a team or program (Constandt et al., 2018). Previous findings, however, have yet to explicitly outline unethical or immoral cultures within sport coaching as a barrier to career progression. According to Eagly and Carli (2007), a misdiagnosis of a problem is unlikely to lead to an effective solution. Therefore, these results suggest that perhaps the difficulty of advancing women to sport leadership careers has been previously misdiagnosed. These findings indicate that women head coaches and women assistant coaches will likely maintain different experiences with career barriers and perhaps face different career barriers altogether. Given the lack of research on both the assistant coach occupation and women's experiences within this role, the alleged barriers faced by women in sport coaching are often based solely on the head coach occupation, not the assistant coach occupation (Wells, 2016). The themes derived from the participants in the current study that relate specifically to ethical dilemmas as well as destructive leadership experiences, establish the existence of a new set of barriers that may be specific to entry-level sport roles (i.e. assistant coach) for women. As such, potential remedies to overcome these newly established barriers need to be appropriately developed. That being said, connections have been drawn, albeit to a lesser extent, between the winning at all cost's paradigm, controlling coach behaviors, and narcissistic tendencies with the outcome of a halt in career progression for certain individuals (e.g. Emslie & Hunt, 2009; Gearity, 2010; Matosic et al., 2017; Roberts et al., 2018). These previous findings have determined that women value life-success more highly than work success and the unethical actions of superiors can cause subordinates to decide they will not reach for leadership roles in the future (Emslie & Hunt, 2009; Matosic et al., 2017; Roberts et al., 2018). Those findings, in connection with the winning at all cost's paradigm (e.g. Gearity, 2010), suggest that the values associated with winning in sport may not relate as well with those of women entry-level employees. As suggested by the recollections of the participants, it would appear that these former assistant coaches did not wish to actively participate within environments that required unethical or immoral actions for the sake of winning. These toxic cultures were further associated with the experience of burnout for many of the participants and directly related to their decisions to voluntarily exist the profession of coaching. Therefore, it can be argued that the themes associated with toxic 14

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sport cultures largely relate to the aforementioned conceptual considerations (i.e. winning at all costs paradigm, and controlling coach behaviors) which have only been loosely applied within the sport literature thus far (e.g. Bartholomew et al., 2009; Burton & Leberman, 2017b; Powers et al., 2016) and subsequently extends our knowledge of the career progression barriers for women sport employees. These findings further connect the ‘winning at all costs’ paradigm, narcissism, as well as controlling behaviors more explicitly to the sport context, the coaching profession, and employee voluntary occupational turnover. These new associations may enable additional critiques and evaluations of sport work environments based on the cultural atmospheres associated with and throughout the industry for both employees and participants. Additionally, non-nuclear family balance was a distinct finding within the current study that failed to align with previous literature related to the work-family balance barrier of women in sport coaching (Dixon & Bruening, 2007). This non-nuclear family balance as a rationale for exit from the profession diverges from previous investigations and findings (e.g. Dixon & Bruening, 2007; Kamphoff, 2010). Previous investigations have indicated that women who do not have a spouse or children are more likely to persist within the role of sport coach (e.g. Dixon & Bruening, 2007; Kamphoff, 2010). In contrast, the current investigation noted the importance these women placed on their time spent with parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, friends, etc. regardless of their nuclear family structures. The majority of the women within the current study identified as single or unmarried with no children, yet they still indicated a longing to have more time to spend with family members outside of the more traditional findings of spouse or dependents (Dixon & Bruening, 2007; Kamphoff, 2010). Several participants identified that their parents, siblings, and friends were a critical aspect of their lives. The duties associated with the role of assistant coach, compounded by the controlling environments enabled by their head coaches, hindered their ability to spend quality time with these important individuals. 7. Limitations and future research This study explored the experiences of former NCAA women assistant coaches who have engaged in voluntary occupational turnover. Their experiences and exit from the profession led to the emergence of significant themes worth considering as the industry attempts to combat the underrepresentation of women sport leaders. That being said, this investigation, similar to previous studies concerned with the underrepresentation of women in sport leadership roles, was not free from limitations and therefore provides an opportunity for future research endeavors. To begin, the participants within the current study do not represent the entire NCAA structure, nor do they represent every sport or sport program. 12 women and four sports were represented in this study and that leaves a large population of former NCAA assistant coaches who have yet to share their experiences. Thus, future research should aim to include additional participants across a wider range of NCAA sports. Additionally, while the NCAA may be considered the flagship intercollegiate athletic organization within the United States, this investigation did not account for additional collegiate sport organizations across the country or internationally. Future research should examine the experiences of former assistant coaches across additional United States organizations such as the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) as well as club and professional teams at a national and international level. Beyond the demographic additions for future inquiry, given the strong connection that emerged among the conceptual considerations of the winning at all costs paradigm and controlling behaviors, future research should aim to investigate these connections more explicitly. Finally, the purpose of the current study was not to draw comparisons based on the sex of the head coach these participants served under. Future research should seek to determine how leader sex influences subordinates. 8. Conclusion This study explored the lived and career experiences of former NCAA women assistant coaches who have engaged in voluntary occupational turnover. 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