The effect of coaching succession in Australian Rules Football

Every organization must deal with managerial succession, yet its effect on organizational performance remains ambiguous. It is commonly presumed that the manager is critical in influencing organizational performance; hence, an organization can reverse its fortunes by changing the manager. Sporting teams were used as the context to test this paradigm, by examining succession of head coaches in the Australian Football League. It also investigated the events surrounding succession and factors that influence both team performance and sports consumption. To date, few studies have examined these relationships. Using secondary data, statistics on win/loss records, personnel changes, and supporter/membership numbers were collected for all 16 teams in 22 seasons. Partial Least Squares path modeling was used to assess both the measurement and structural models. Results showed that coaching succession had no impact on team performance, thus supporting the theory of ritual scapegoating. Past performance was shown to be a key predictor of current team performance, while player turnover had a significant influence on sporting consumption. Managerial implications were also discussed