Leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches

Kobus Du Plooy,Jan Visagie,Pieter Kruger

doi:10.4102/sajip.v46i0.1811

Kobus Du Plooy, Jan Visagie + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v46i0.1811

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Abstract

Orientation: As the leaders of teams that compete at the highest level, elite South African rugby coaches face constant pressures to consistently lead their teams to successful on-field performances. An understanding of the leadership challenges they face may highlight actions that could equip them to achieve this more effectively.Research purpose: To investigate the leadership challenges experienced by the head coaches of elite South African rugby teams that compete on an international level.Motivation for the study: The leadership challenges faced by elite South African coaches could become clearly known only through investigation, and subsequently they could be properly addressed.Research approach/design and method: A qualitative approach with a phenomenological design was utilised, which collected data by means of in-depth interviews with the head coaches of elite South African rugby teams. Eleven teams were considered to be elite South African rugby teams for this study given that they competed on an international level. Ultimately, six participants were included, representing 54.5% of the total population. The general systems theory was also used as a theoretical basis to present findings.Main findings: The data revealed three main themes, namely environmental, relationships and personal leadership challenges. The data revealed that these coaches experience significant leadership challenges, some of which are unique to the South African context.Practical/managerial implications: It is believed that the implementation of suggested recommendations will assist in ensuring both the economic survival and overall leadership improvement of coaches and the teams they lead.Contribution/value add: Theoretically the study added to the limited literature on leadership in elite South African sport and practically it provided recommendations to address the findings as well as for further research.

Highlights

OrientationThe sport of rugby union has experienced significant growth since becoming a professional sport in 1995 as between 400 000 and 500 000 players of all racial groups and both sexes were playing rugby in South Africa by 2011 (Brown et al, 2012)
Given the critical importance of leadership in elite sport (Fletcher & Arnold, 2011), the single objective of the present study was to obtain an understanding of what leadership challenges elite South African rugby coaches were experiencing
This supra-system included environmental challenges that fell outside of the immediate sphere of influence of the coaches, but which presented challenges to their leadership. This included the first theme that emerged from the data, namely environmental leadership challenges

Summary

Introduction

OrientationThe sport of rugby union (referred to as ‘rugby’) has experienced significant growth since becoming a professional sport in 1995 as between 400 000 and 500 000 players of all racial groups and both sexes were playing rugby in South Africa by 2011 (Brown et al, 2012). The link between performance and business in elite sports has been well researched and documented in recent years (Cruickshank & Collins, 2012) This held true for rugby as it was indicated in the 2016 annual report by World Rugby, the sport’s international governing body, that the 2015 Rugby World Cup generated a surplus of €163 million in revenues for World Rugby alone (World Rugby Year in Review, 2016). This amounted to a 78% increase when compared to the previous rugby world cup in 2011 This had led to an increasing focus on the performances of professional teams as the revenues generated by teams (e.g. from television broadcasting rights, ticket and merchandise sales) are often positively correlated to their on-field performances (Carmichael, McHale, & Thomas, 2010; Morgan, 2002). As leaders of these teams, it has highlighted the critical importance and pressures on their head coaches to facilitate successful on-field performances (Roberts, 2013)

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