Abstract
In this study, we investigated whether athletes’ perceptions of coaches’ leadership differ according to their perceptions of individual and team goal achievement and their sport performance. We collected data at the beginning and end of the sport season from 180 soccer players (aged 16–18 years). We evaluated three leadership areas (transformational, transactional, and decision-making) and the participants’ perceptions of individual and team performance during the sport season. Our results showed that (a) athletes with perceptions of higher individual goal achievement evaluated their coaches more positively, (b) athletes with perceptions of higher team goal achievement started the sport season with a less positive evaluation of their coaches but ended the season with a more positive coach evaluation, and (c) athletes with higher sport performance evaluated their coaches less positively in two domains of transformational leadership but ended the season by attributing less negative feedback and passive management to their coaches. In conclusion, these athletes’ evaluations of coaches’ leadership behaviors differed according to their perceptions of goal achievement and their own sport performance.
Highlights
The topic of leadership has captured the interests of talented scholars and practitioners around the world and has led to expanded visions and explanations of leadership phenomena (Gardner, Lowe, Moss, Mahoney, & Cogliser, 2010)
The Transformational Teaching Questionnaire (TTQ) showed an acceptable fit for a four-factor model ( 2(96) = 203.783, p < .001; RMSEA = .079, 90% C.I. [0.064; 0.094]; CFI = .945; NFI = .901; TLI = .931)
Our main conclusion is that athletes evaluate coaches differently in accordance with their perceptions of higher and lower goal achievement at individual and team levels and according to better and worse actual team performance
Summary
The topic of leadership has captured the interests of talented scholars and practitioners around the world and has led to expanded visions and explanations of leadership phenomena (Gardner, Lowe, Moss, Mahoney, & Cogliser, 2010). If coaches assume congruence between actual behaviors that are consistent with athletes’ preferences and represent required/desirable behavior in that particular sport context, maximum athlete performance and satisfaction with the coach can be achieved. The mediational model of leadership (Smoll & Smith, 1980) proposed that athlete perceptions mediate the relationship between overt coaching behaviors and athletes’ reactions to their athletic experiences. This model is recursive in proposing that behaviors assumed by coaches influence athletes’ perceptions and memories, that, in turn influence athletes’ reactions toward the coaches’ actions. The athletes’ own reactions to coaches recursively affect their perceptions and recall of coaching behaviors
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