Exploring Relationships among Organizational Culture, Empowerment, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the South Korean Professional Sport Industry

The purpose of this study was to examine the structural relationships among organizational culture, empowerment, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of professional sports organizations in South Korea. In particular, this study emphasized the mediating effect of empowerment on the relationship between organizational culture and OCB. Research participants were 606 employees affiliated with 42 professional sports teams. The validity and reliability of the involved measures were examined through conducting confirmatory factor, Cronbach’s alpha, and correlation analyses. A structural equation modeling analysis with maximum likelihood estimation was conducted to test the relationships among the research variables. The findings revealed that all of the sub-factors of organizational culture (i.e., clan culture, adhocracy culture, and market culture), with the exception of hierarchy culture, were positively influential of perceived empowerment, which was in turn positively influential of OCB. The path coefficients were statistically significant. The findings further revealed that perceived empowerment partially or fully mediated relationships between the sub-factors of organizational culture and OCB. Unlike previous studies, our study focused on studying organizational culture at a specific managerial level, an underdeveloped area of research in sport management. In particular, the findings of this study contribute to sport management practices by uncovering the mediating function of empowerment on the relationship between organizational culture and OCB, indicating the importance of empowering employees when managing professional sports organizations.