An investigation over the relationship between stress level and organizational commitment for elite athletes

Today, the concepts of stress in organizational behavior and commitment are increasingly considerable to study over. Stress by Lazarus, (1980), is defined as a state resulted from the condition in which the needs of an organism exceed the sources available Organizational commitment, by Morrow (1983), is defined as the employee?s identifying himself with the objectives and values of the organization as well as his strife for being able to participate in the organization.The level of commitment of the individuals are also affected due to the presence of organizational stress. In line with the results of the studies, it is found to be a negative relationship between stress and commitment. Therefore, it is suggested that organizations specify the stress level and take actions accordingly. By doing so, the level of the employee?s commitment could be increased. By the same token, in this study the level of sources of stress and organizational commitment for the elite athletes from Professional Leagues in Turkey ( Basketball, Football, Handball and Volleyball) was made to be the focus of the investigation. In the study a) variables according to the demographic features of the subjects ; b) organizational stress and sub-dimensions of their commitment were specified; c) the relationship between the variables; gender, age, marital status, literacy level, sport age, league, branch, team experience and location were all employed to be analyzed. Also, the relationship between organizational stress and commitment was investigated.As required for the purpose of the study, as a general survey model, cross sectional method and correlational survey were applied for the analysis. The population in the study were selected from the elite athletes, almost (N=8872), who play at Football, Volleyball, Handball and Basketball Leagues 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 in Turkey. For the sampling, the subjects from this population were selected, using of `Stratified Sampling Method?, one from `Probable Sampling Methods?.The data were gathered by means of survey. An Elite Athlete Organizational Stress Scale (EAOSS) was developed for this purpose.The scale is composed of such five sub-dimensions as, management-finance, trainer attitude, spectator attitude, health-diet, and decision making involvement. The Total Cronbach?s Alpha internal-consistency level of the scale was reached as (?=0,93). Also, EAOSS was employed to reach values of organizational commitment. The Commitment Scale is made up of the three sub-dimensions such as identification, harmony, and alienation. Total Cronbach?s Alpha internal consistency value was found to be (?=0,89).For the analysis of the data, frequency distribution regarding to demographic characteristics of the athletes were acquired through descriptive statistics. Pearson Correlational Analysis was employed to investigate the relationship between organizational commitment and the sub-dimensions of the stress survey. For the difference between independent variables and organizational commitment and stress sub-dimensions, a t-test, one-way variance analysis (ANOVA) and in case of differences between the groups, Tukey Post Hoc Analyses were employed.The results of the study showed that the athletes experience the stress in terms of organizational stress, management-finance, trainer attitude and health-diet, counted among the sub-dimensions of organizational stress. Whereas, from the organizational commitment sub-dimensions,the athletes were found to show a high level of identification and harmony. As for the demographic features of the athletes, significant differences between organizational stress and sub-dimensions of commitment and the variables; gender, age, marital status, sport age, league, team experience and branch were found. Besides, a negative and (p<0,01) level-significance was found between total stress values and commitment values of the athletes. The gathered data were elaborated and interpreted within the study.Key Words: Organizational Stress, Organizational Commitment, Elite Athlete