The purpose of the study was to assess the relationship between NCAA athletic directors' perceptions' of multiframe leadership, goal orientation, and organizational effectiveness as measured by graduation rates and NACDA Director's Cup outcomes. The sample population consisted of athletic directors (n = 278) in the NCAA across all divisions who responded to an electronic email. Bolman and Deal's Leadership Orientations Scale II (LOS II) and Trail and Chelladurai's Scale of Athletic Department Goals (SADG) were used in an online format. A filial section surveyed the participants' demographic information in regards to respondents' gender, years in position, ethnicity, region of the country and division Level. Data from the institution's official athlete graduation rates along with the institutional score in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Director's Cup standings were also gathered for the purposes of measuring organizational effectiveness.

Athletic directors (AD) leadership frames and goal orientations were examined according to their status as an NCAA Division I, II, and III institution. Overall, ADs gave a higher rating to a human resource frame across all division levels. A structural frame was given a slightly lower rating while a symbolic frame was given a slightly higher rating by Division III ADs. A political frame was rated the lowest across all divisions. From the perspective of goal orientation, performance goal orientation was deemed less important by Division III ADs. Two ANCOVA analyses were conducted to ascertain a relationship, first between leadership frame and orientation, and secondly, between leadership frame and organizational effectiveness. There were no statistically significant relationships in the results to support the hypotheses. However, some relationships were found in the effects of gender, division, and the interaction between gender and division. For the final research question, leadership frame and goal orientation, as independent variables, were investigated in terms of their relationship with organizational effectiveness. Once again, ANCOVAs applied in this data set showed no single leadership frame or goal orientation having a relationship to organizational effectiveness. However, in the analysis of graduation rates, a relationship was found with regard to division level. Further research focusing on issues of leadership, goal orientation in sport, the impact of division and gender, and development of other assessment scales comes highly recommended.