Political Skills for Sport Professionals: Theory, Research, and Career Success Implications

Abstract

Motivated by an increasing interpersonal aspect to the profession of sport coaching, the importance of being socially effective as a coach has multiplied in significance. This review specifically considers the social effectiveness construct, political skill, as a crucial aspect to career success through the perspective of a sport coaching lens. Political skill refers to the ability to effectually understand others at work, and to then use that information to influence others to behave in ways that enhance one's personal and/or organizational objective. Political skill is a means through which sport coaches may be able to build and maintain important and influential relationships with key stakeholders (e.g., athletic directors), thus improving the possibility of a successful coaching career. This article presents a review of theoretical foundations for the association between political skill and career success as well as practical applications (e.g., active listening, empowerment, volunteerism) for sport coaches when managing important stakeholder relationships. Research suggestions for the continued advancement of political skill research are also provided.

Political Skill and Career Success: Exploring the Mediating Role of Mentoring and Moderating Role of Career Adaptability

“…Researchers believe that objective success provides a base for subjective career success (Abele et al, 2015) and some of them even assume subjective career success to be a by-product of objective career outcomes (Bagdadli & Gianecchini, 2019; Nicholson & de Waal-Andrews, 2005). In a recent review about sports coaching professionals, Robinson et al (2020) provided that political skill is a means through which relationships with the major stakeholders are managed, hence, enhancing the probability for a successful career. On the basis of these theoretical arguments and empirical investigations we put forward the following hypothesis.…”