When coaching is a calling: A moderated mediating model among school sports coaches

Introduction Drawing on the Job Demands-Resources Model, the present study examined the relationships among the job control, calling, work engagement, and job performance of sports coaches. Methods With a cross-sectional study design, we enrolled 278 school sports coaches as participants and adopted questionnaires to collect data. Self-reported data on demographics, job control, calling, work engagement, and job performance were collected from participants. We posted recruitment posters at the sports seminars/workshops for coaches and distributed an informed consent form and a questionnaire to coaches who were willing to participate in our study. Participants received an NT$100 gift voucher after they had filled out the questionnaire. Descriptive analyses (e.g., means, standard deviations, and correlations among focal variables, etc.), reliability and validity analysis, and a series of hierarchical regression analyses to test the hypotheses were adopted in this study. Results Job control is positively associated with job performance through work engagement. Further, the moderated mediation model demonstrated that job control has a stronger positive correlation with work engagement and job performance, especially when sports coaches possess higher levels of calling. Conclusion The current findings suggest that job control is a critical antecedent of job performance through work engagement and that a higher level of calling strengthens the relationship. We suggest that crafting an autonomy-supportive working environment will help empower sports coaches to set goals and become involved, which in turn supports sports coaches in achieving their goals and produces better individual/team performance.