An Examination of Organizational Influences on Coach Out-of-Action Decision Making

Sport coaching is a practice that is characterized as requiring professional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal knowledge and skills. Paramount to the knowledge and skills required of coaches is the ability to make a variety of decisions as coaches are responsible for all “on- and off-field matters.” Coaches must, therefore, make both in situ and out-of-action decisions. Adopting the human factors decision-making framework, this study explored the out-of-action decision-making process of coaches, specifically the organizational influences on those decisions. Fourteen (male, n = 11; female, n = 3) interscholastic, team sport head coaches participated in semistructured interviews. Thematic analysis identified the decision-making team, parents of athletes, school administrators (i.e., principals and athletic directors), and contextual elements of the school environment as influential to coach out-of-action decision making. These findings suggest that coach developers should support coaches in enhancing competencies and skills related to communication with organizational stakeholders who may seek to influence coach decision-making efforts.