Psychological collectivism,felt obligation,affective commitment,and retention intention among coaches: Symmetric and asymmetric modeling approaches

Abstract

The current study investigates the determinants of retention intentions among coaches. The study focuses on the effects of individual factors, namely psychological collectivism, felt obligation, and affective commitment, on retention intention and configurational combinations of individual factors causing high retention intention among coaches in Taiwan. Data were collected from 200 Taiwanese coaches through a questionnaire and subjected to partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) while complemented with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results of symmetric analysis (PLS-SEM) show that psychological collectivism positively influences felt obligation and affective commitment and indirectly influences retention intention through felt obligation and affective commitment, whereas both felt obligation and affective commitment are significantly associated with retention intention among Taiwanese coaches. The results of asymmetric analysis (fsQCA) provide five configurational models that explain the high levels of retention intentions, while felt obligation and affective commitment are found as necessary conditions in all five models. Meanwhile, psychological collectivism's four out of five sub-dimensions are considered both core and peripheral conditions depending on configurations, somewhat contrary to the prior studies. Most interestingly, the absence of goal priority, one of psychological collectivism's sub-dimensions, is considered a core condition for four of the five identified solutions. As such, fsQCA may allow us to capture the complex casualty that symmetric modeling may not capture. The complementary analysis between symmetric and asymmetric findings provides more insightful information about the effects of psychological collectivism, felt obligations, and affective commitment on retention intentions.