Research exploring employee-level job attributes, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention, has been carried by researchers in various organizational management areas. Most of these studies have examined the psychological perceptions of members and employees of service-oriented sports organizations, reflecting the primary service encounters in sports settings (Cho & Kwon, 2015; Gray & Wilson, 2008; Han & Choi, 2007; Jung, 2014; Kim & Lough, 2009). Coaches, instructors, and trainers are among the primary employees of many sports organizations in Korea. Job satisfaction within various sports disciplines has been widely studied; it is acknowledged to be the main predictor of the psychological and affective status of employees and members in delivering assigned tasks. Employees of sports organizations are expected to deal with highly diverse stakeholder groups and clients; there is no doubt that their work involves a significant amount of stress. As consequence, retaining reliable employees and maintaining their commitment to organizations and occupations has become the top priority of sports organizations (Chelladurai & Ogasawara, 2003). Organizational commitment in sports organizations have been positively related to levels of retention. That is, job satisfaction is a key manifestation of organizational commitment (Chelladurai & Ogasawara, 2003). The general findings of a number of studies indicate that job satisfaction is negatively associated with employee turnover intention in most sports organizations (Choi, Soo, Lim, & Kim, 2013; Chung, 2006; Kim, 2017; Kim & Cruz, 2016; Terranova & Henning, 2011). For instance, organizational level of job attributes such as commitment, satisfaction, and turnover intention have been most widely studies constructs within the domain of sports organizational theory (Cho & Kwon, 2015; Choi et al., 2013; Jung, 2014). However, focal focuses of previous studies in South Korea were heavily linked to verifying relationships among those job attributes and organizational tasks assigned to employees and members of sport organizations (Brief & Weiss, 2002; Choi, Song, & Park, 2012; Han, D.W., 2012; Kellison, Kim, & Magnusen, 2013; Kim & Jang, 2004). That is, very little is known about the influence of moderating variables—such as gender ratio, regional data characteristics, and types of sports organizations—on employee-level organizational outcome attributes (including job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention) within sports settings. This study therefore aims to identify the effect sizes of study variables, while considering the influence of moderating variables. The following research questions have guided this meta-analytic review of relevant literature: (1) What are the effect-size (ES) estimate scores for the relationships between study variables? (2) Do differences exist in the effect-size (ES) estimates of relationships between study variables based on, (a) data gender ratios, (b) types of sports organizations, or (c) regional characteristics of data? Figure 1 presents the conceptual model for this meta-​analytic review.

Among various perspectives on organizational change and dynamics, potential antecedents or the reactions of members to organizations with which they are officially involved have been widely accepted as employee-​level attributes for organizational level outcomes (Kellison et al., 2013). Scholars and practitioners in the global sports industry have attempted to better understand the factors that contribute to desirable outcomes at both the individual and organizational levels (Choi et al., 2012; Han, K.S., 2012; Kellison et al., 2013; Kim & Jang, 2004). Within the domain of organization theory, the issue of job satisfaction has generated a voluminous body of literature, becoming one of the issues most frequently studied to achieve organizational level outcomes. Brief and Weiss (2002) have described job satisfaction as, “an evaluative judgment about work as well as a work-related attitude with both affective (emotional) and cognitive components” (p. 64). Theoretical models that describe organizational outcomes generally invoke the concepts of job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Gray & Wilson, 2008). Such basic assumptions can also be applied to sports organizations, as a way of understanding the work-place psychological attitudes and attachment of staff members at various levels. Throughout the last decade, there has been an increase in the volume of scholarly publications on employee-level organizational outcome attributes (Choi et al., 2012; Han, K.S., 2012; Kellison et al., 2013; Kim & Jang, 2004; Won & Hur, 2017; Yoon & Kwak, 2009). In other words, job satisfaction, turnover intention, and organizational commitment have long been understood to be significant variables that affect employees’ psychological aptitude and attitudes to work (Bartlett & McKinney, 2004). The relationships between variables have shown relatively consistent patterns in the findings of relevant studies. For instance, the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment has generally been reported to be positive; by contrast, job satisfaction and turnover intention are negatively correlated across the studies (Bartlett & McKinney, 2004). Viewed in more detail, organizational commitment is comprised of three sub-​dimensions: (1) continuance commitment, (2) affective commitment, and (3) normative commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1997). Turnover intention, the unexpected departure of employees leaving voluntarily, has always been a critical issue. Scholars and practitioners in the global sports industry have focused on ways of reducing the negative effects of turnover intention. In fact, overall performance and productivity have been essentially grounded in human resource management and practice for most sports organizations (including elite teams, commercial sports centers, and sports programs funded by government agencies).

As an initial step in the meta-analysis process, it is critical to assess heterogeneity to determine the variability of the data for further meta-analysis (Higgins et al., 2003; ; Hunter & Schmidt, 2000; Kim & Cruz, 2016; Jung & Kang, 2013). Providing more detail, I² index metrics can reveal the existence of heterogeneity throughout the ES indexes, producing comparatively high heterogeneity results (I²=95.153~96.393), based on Hunter and Schmidt’s (2000) criteria. With respect to the overall effects among underlying study interests, satisfaction was positively associated with organizational commitment (95% CI=[0.368, 0.435], ES=.298, p<.05) and the effect size was interpreted as moderate in accordance with Borenstein et al.’s (2005) criteria. Satisfaction was negatively associated with job turnover intention (95% CI=[-0.180, -0.082], ES= -.275, p<.05), as supported by the selected studies (Table 2).

To further examine the relationship between satisfaction and both organizational commitment and job turnover intention, the present study adopted gender ratio (the gender ratio of data for each study), type of sports organization (taekwondo, commercial sports centers, government-funded sports programs, and elite sports teams), and geographical location (data collection sites) as the moderators for this meta-analysis.

In assessing the effect sizes of the relationship between satisfaction and organizational commitment, the sample ratio of the female-high group was considered large (95% CI=[0.492,0.660], ES=0.582, p<.05)—​higher than that of the male-high group (95% CI=[0.292,0.431], ES=0.364, p<.05). However, it is important to note that only one study was coded for the female-high group in this analysis. For effect-size estimates of the relationship between satisfaction and job turnover intention, both the female-high group (95% CI=[-0.260,-0.046], ES=-0.155, p<.05) and the male-​high groups (95% CI=[-0.316, -0.053], ES=-0.188, p<.05) had negative effect-size scores; those effect sizes were considered of small relevance in this case (see Table 3).

Table 4 presents the effect-size estimates of the relationships between underlying variables, based on regional characteristics. The selected studies were categorized into two different groups, “Seoul-metropolitan” and “other city/province,” after screening the geographical locations where data were collected. Further analysis of the effect-size estimate of the relationship between satisfaction and organizational commitment indicated that the effect-size scores of other cities/​provinces (95% CI=[0.380,0.533], ES=0.460, p<.05) were large and higher than those that of Seoul/​metropolitan areas (95% CI=[0.168,0.386], ES= 0.281, p<.05). In the relationship between satisfaction and job turnover intention, satisfaction was negatively associated with job turnover intention. The effect-​size score of Seoul-metropolitan area (95% CI=[0.168, 0.386], ES=0.281, p<.05) was relevantly (negatively) higher than that of other city/province (95% CI=[0.168, 0.386], ES=0.281, p<.05).

Table 5 presents a summary of the effect-size estimates of the relationships based on sports organization types. Further analysis of the relationship between satisfaction and organizational commitment found that the group of sports (95% CI=[0.433,0.585], ES= 0.513, p<.05) for all programs had the strongest relationship with organizational commitment followed by elite sports teams (95% CI=[0.380,0.552], ES= 0.470, p<.05), commercial sports centers (95% CI=[0.326,0.450], ES=0.390, p<.05) and Taekwondo centers (95% CI=[0.031,0.346], ES=0.194, p<.05). The effect-size scores ranged from .194 to .513, indicating moderate to very high effects. For the effect-​size estimates of satisfaction and turnover intention, the commercial sports center group (95% CI=[-0.529, -0.311], ES=-0.133, p<.05) had the most negative effect-size score, followed by elite sports teams (95% CI=[-0.490,-0.272], ES=-0.387, p<.05), sports for all programs funded by governmental agencies (95% CI=[-0.305,-0.122], ES=-0.215, p<.05), and taekwondo centers (95% CI=[-0.176,0.095], ES=-0.041, p<.05).

The present meta-analytic review has systematically analyzed the correlation coefficient scores relating to employee-level attributes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention) presented in the KCI-indexed Korean literature. In sports organizations, employee roles were critical, constituting the most important factor in achieving organizational efficiency and success. This study offers insights into the influence of moderating variables on the study variables. Our initial literature search resulted in 32 studies published within the domain of sports science and industry (in sports association/agency journals), with a combined sample size of 25,336. This study’s findings on the influence of moderating variables are interesting and new to scholars and practitioners in the Korean sports industry. As expected, the overall effect size of the relationship between satisfaction and organizational commitment was positive, achieving a “medium” level rating. A survey of gender ratios in the selected studies and the effect-size estimate of the relationship revealed that the female-high group had a higher effect-size score than the male-high group. This finding is in line with previous studies (Choi, 2012; Chung, 2006; Han & Choi, 2007; Ham, 2012; Hong, 2012; Park & Bae, 2013). In other words, much research supports the argument that female employees tend to show higher levels of satisfaction and a stronger commitment to work-related outcomes (Curry, McCarragher, & Dellmann-​Jenkins, 2005; Giffords, 2009; Wiener, Squillace, Anderson, & Khatutsky, 2009). By contrast, only a slight difference was observed in the effect-​size estimate score for the relationship between satisfaction and job turnover intention, based on gender (the male-high group had a higher negative effect-size score). Men are the largest group in most sports organizations and hold more tenured employment positions than women. Moreover, men tend to remain in their jobs for longer periods of time (Barak, Lizano, Kim, Duan, Rhee, Hsiao, & Brimhall, 2016).

The effect-size estimates of the relationship between satisfaction and organizational commitment, based on regional characteristics, indicate that employees working in places other than Seoul and metropolitan areas tend to show more positive outcomes. Differences in the estimation scores were noticeable. According to Birdseye and Hill (1995), the factor that plays the most significant role in employee satisfaction and rates of turnover intention is the “cost of living” in the area in which an employee carries out work-related tasks. As cost of living increases, turnover intention becomes a viable option in most cases. In other words, although most studies describe the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention as negative, the reasons they give are heterogeneous. This inferential statistic-​based study has not attempted to verify the range of reasons, which are beyond its scope. However, this finding suggests that efforts to maintain an inclusive workplace environment for both genders and to diagnose potential causes of turnover intention are important in achieving positive organizational outcomes. Employees working in the sports for all programs appeared to be more satisfied and committed than employees of other sports organizations. The difference in the effect-size estimate score was relatively high between the sports for all programs and taekwondo centers. One possible explanation for this finding is that the competition among taekwondo centers has intensified heavily, due to the difficult market situation facing this sport. Salaries and other compensation and incentive programs for employees at taekwondo centers have been falling steadily (Lim, Lee, & Park, 2011). To improve organizational effectiveness, it should be noted that employees who feel more committed and satisfied are likely to remain longer in their positions; they also tend to be more productive (Barak et al., 2016; Hwang & Hopkins, 2012). To cultivate more inclusive organizational practices that can help sports organizations minimize turnover intention, decision-​makers in sports organizations should foster visions, policies, and practices that aim to comprehend the individual characteristics of their employees and members and to encourage and appreciate their contributions (Barak et al., 2016; Leonardelli & Toh, 2011).

This meta-analysis was undertaken to examine the influence of moderating variables (i.e., gender ratio, regional data characteristics, and types of sports organizations) on employee-level organizational outcome attributes (i.e., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention) within Korean sports settings. Collectively, the findings of this study provide a foundation for understanding the moderating effects of gender ratios, regional characteristics, and organizational types on variables that affect organizational performance and outcome. This meta-analytic review of selected studies provides a comprehensive summary and description of mainstream studies within a certain theoretical concept. This study provides insights into the potential differences in relationships among variables. It can thus help scholars and practitioners become better informed about ways to achieve higher levels of employee satisfaction and commitment within sports organizations. Although this study is unique and offers benefits to various audiences, it also has the following limitations, given the nature of meta-​analytic methodology: (1) only Korean articles published in KCI-indexed sports-oriented journals have been included; (2) researchers have relied on their subjective judgments to categorize the selected studies; (3) theoretically relevant studies may have been excluded because they lacked relevant statistical information. Despite the author’s every effort to synthesize more precise estimates of population effect sizes for an underlying theoretical background, this study may not reflect a broad spectrum of studies. Future research could explore additional moderating factors more broadly to further develop our knowledge of employee-level attributes and their mechanisms.